Top Ten Reasons to Practice Yoga

Yoga Releases Negative Emotions

Posted on May 2, 2017 Updated on May 8, 2017

Yoga asanas release the negative emotions that have burrowed down into your muscles. These feelings are tied to our physical movements, emerging as we feel our sensations and muscle memories during twists and stretches. Yoga has the power to heal by allowing us a safe place to feel and observe our bodies and emotions. In addition, a regular yoga practice helps to soothe and regulate the sympathetic nervous system, which is especially critical for soldiers returning from war and other people who suffer from PTSD.

trikonasana — Photo credit: Lynn Donovan

This phenomenon has been affirmed by the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. A recent study followed two groups of women who had been diagnosed with PTSD: one group attended a weekly yoga class, specially designed for them, and the other group attended a weekly education and support group. The researchers found that over half of the women who had attended the yoga class were free of PTSD, compared to a fifth of the women who attended the support group.

Exhale to Inhale

This special yoga class, called trauma-informed yoga, is taught by trained yogis with experience working with domestic violence and sexual assault survivors. Exhale to Inhale is an organization founded by Zöe LePage. Her vision to heal and empower women through yoga has grown into a network of organizations and yoga studios who have collectively served more than 900 women.

Trauma-informed yoga taps into what yogis have known for centuries: Yoga can help release emotions that burrow in the muscles of your body, which contributes to greater calmness, fluidity, balance, and emotional well being. And this is a good thing for every body!

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Yoga Involves the Entire Being

Posted on September 10, 2016 Updated on September 12, 2016

If you’ve been following our Top Ten Reasons to Practice Yoga series, then you’ve read about all of the ways yoga improves your muscle tone, endurance, and overall physical well-being. But yoga is so much more than exercise for your body. It is exercise for your vagus nerve, a hot topic in medical research right now.

In Latin, “vagus” means wandering, and that is exactly what the vagus nerve does: It wanders throughout your torso and connects to all of your major organs. The vagus nerve helps control your parasympathetic nervous system, which slows your heart rate, keeps your intestines and glands active, and relaxes your sphincter muscles. All things that keep you feeling healthy and well.

What are we learning about the vagus nerve? And how does it relate to yoga?

The vagus nerve is how your brain communicates with your organs. Research is showing that we can improve this communication a few different ways. One way is through electrical pulses. Kevin Tracey, a neurosurgeon, discovered a way to intervene and steer the conversation, and he has been successful in reducing inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Another way is through building up our vagal tone. People with high vagal tone are said to be in constant communication with their bodies.

This is where yoga comes in. Controlled breathing sends your nervous system a signal to slow down and calm. When we engage in Ujjayi Pranayama, sometimes called victorious breath, we cue our vagus nerve to step in and relax our body. Chanting is another practice that provokes a relaxation response.

Over time, these repeated cues strengthen our vagal tone, and our bodies become well-versed in producing a relaxation response. Without vagal tone, our bodies experience a variety of conditions, such as chronic pain and depression. Yet another reason to keep returning to the mat!

Our physical bodies become active on the mat, our mind focuses, and our overall being calms. When Jo tells us, “All you need to do to be a success in this class is breathe,” she means it. Breathing does us plenty of good.

This entry was posted in Top Ten Reasons to Practice Yoga.

Yoga Boosts Endurance and Sports Performance

Posted on July 25, 2016 Updated on July 21, 2016

Tune into the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and you’ll see a myriad of strong, healthy bodies. No surprise there, but what you may be surprised to learn is that some of those ultra-fit athletes you see running, diving, cycling also practice yoga.

Many people imagine that yoga classes are just for [women, thin people, fit people, fill in the blank here], but the truth is that yoga classes are for anyone who wants to breathe, stretch, and spend time with their body on the mat.

Athletes need this too. Yoga can help athletes improve their performance by targeting particular muscle groups.

For example, Stephen Curry will be on the Olympic basketball team in Rio, and he has used yoga to improve his game and become successful.

[Photo credit: Keith Allison] Curry experienced multiple ankle sprains and surgery to repair his ligaments before turning to yoga. His trainer discovered that he was working his ankles much more than necessary, so he developed a routine for Curry that would shift his energy up to his core and hips.

The pose that helped the most? Airplane. He used this pose and others to strengthen his core, hips, and glutes, thus reducing his reliance on his ankles. And the added bonus of a regular yoga practice is an increased awareness of his body in space. So when you are watching Curry on the basketball court in Rio, pay attention to his amazing moves, all thanks to yoga.

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Yoga as a Superior Form of Weight-Bearing Exercise

Posted on July 13, 2016 Updated on July 22, 2016

Yoga is a superior form of weight-bearing exercise that can help prevent osteoporosis and improve posture in both men and women. Weight-bearing exercise is any exercise in which your body is working against gravity, and yoga certainly meets that description!

But yoga offers so much more than physical movement.

The ancient Indian philosophy of yoga offers us a holistic approach to bone health having nothing to do with clinical trials or changing scientific opinions. This approach has everything to do with alignment, balance, harmony, and a life lived in accordance to natural laws.

According to Dr. Susan E. Brown with the Better Bones Foundation, our bone health depends on our understanding of the interconnectedness of our bodies within nature. Dr. Brown has been researching bone health for over 20 years.

Everything we do for bone health should be good for the entire body. Given that the body is one single interwoven, intelligent system, every action we take to strengthen our bones should also be good for our entire body and as such will increase our overall health and enjoyment of life. This is the Better Bones, Better Body philosophy.

~ Dr. Susan E. Brown

Jo recommends Linda Sparrowe’s book, Yoga for Healthy Bones: A Woman’s Guide. She says, “This book is 145 easy-to-read pages. Sparrowe packs this resource with lots of sequences and tried and true information. I get a laugh out of the subtitle. In my opinion, this is the perfect resource for anyone who has a body!”

This entry was posted in Resources, Top Ten Reasons to Practice Yoga.

Yoga to Slow Down the Aging Process

Posted on June 25, 2016 Updated on July 13, 2016

According to Jo, after 30+ years of building her own personal practice, she’s learned that yoga addresses every injury—physical and emotional—that you have experienced in your life, and it will positively affect every aspect of your life if you allow it to! And if you’re just beginning to practice yoga, there are plenty of resources to help you build your practice and realize the abundance of benefits. Yoga classes are widely available in studios, YMCAs, churches, and senior resource centers.

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As you continue to practice yoga, you will be doing something wonderful for body, mind, and spirit. A regular practice gives your wellness an ongoing boost:

Your balance will be increased.
Your joints will be stretched and strengthened.
You learn to breathe more deeply and mindfully.
You’ll learn how to pay attention to your body.
You’ll discover how to focus your thoughts on the present moment.

For bodies who come to the mat with stiffness and aches and pains, gentle guidance is available. Here’s your go-to resource for yogis in their 40s, 50s, and beyond: Lilias Folan’s book, Lilias! Yoga Gets Better with Age.

The book highlights what she calls “yin” yoga, a special technique to adapt traditional asanas to maturing bodies. She says, “Yoga emphasizes the doing and the practice. It can be adapted to fit every body, no matter what size, shape, age or physical condition. ALL ARE WELCOME.”

Attending classes will help you learn the basic poses, and books—especially books with plenty of large photos like Folan’s book—can show you some new poses. Your practice will build over time as you learn different ways to move and stretch, and your body will teach you that each session is unique. The important thing is to get on the mat regularly.

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This entry was posted in Resources, Top Ten Reasons to Practice Yoga.

Yoga to Tone from Head to Toe

Posted on June 9, 2016 Updated on June 22, 2016

To the casual observer, yoga is a gentle movement, a series of stretches. But to the practicing yogi, yoga postures, or asanas, are so much more than a simple stretch.

Yoga soothes and strengthens the back and firms, tones, and sculpts the entire body from head to toe. As you move through the poses being cued, you’ll use your big muscles for full body bends and stretches as well as many smaller muscles you may not think about day to day. With regular practice, whether you attend classes or build a home yoga practice, you will work every muscle in your body.

A full sequence of yoga asanas strives to work all sides of the body equally, with the goal of bringing balance from front to back and left to right. Yoga allows us to build strength by engaging particular muscle groups while keeping the mind relaxed and the breath flowing. We tone and sculpt the muscles by adding intelligent mindful movement. And we challenge ourselves to the point of fatigue but never pain.

A well-rounded asana practice consists of an equal number of forward, backward, and side-to-side stretches and at least one each of the following:

A warm-up pose
A balance pose
A spinal twist
An inversion
A back-bending pose
Deep breathing
A cooldown pose
Relaxation and meditation

Most poses work a range of muscles, engaging more than one muscle group and opening up a range of motion. Learn how to work at your own pace, modifying the poses to meet the needs of your body that day. You’ll always have the opportunity to spice up the pose with modifications.

Over time you’ll be able to challenge yourself in new and surprising ways and increase your endurance, strength, and flexibility. And you’ll experience the myriad other mental and emotional benefits of a yoga practice.

This entry was posted in Top Ten Reasons to Practice Yoga.

Yoga for Calm Control in a Non-Calm World

Posted on May 24, 2016 Updated on June 22, 2016

Yoga provides you with survival techniques to handle many aspects of our fast-paced world. You learn how to maintain calm control in the face of a dizzying array of demands.

Research shows that people who feel in control of their life are the happiest. In fact, as we get older and accumulate more strategies for coping with the problems in our life, we have higher levels of happiness and satisfaction. Yoga is one of those strategies.

How Can Yoga Help You Stay Calm?

In yoga class, the focus is on your breath. Breathing in and breathing out. Maintaining a slow, steady rhythm. So simple!
You move with your breath. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Your mind stays focused on one thing and one thing only: breathing. When your mind is completely focused on your breath, all of your other thoughts fall away. Ideally, you will experience a clear mind for the time you are in yoga class, and you’ll learn to do this in other times too.
Yoga teaches you that if a stray thought comes along and interrupts you while you are stretching and flowing, you simply acknowledge that thought then gently send it on its way.

With practice, these three elements of yoga become ingrained. Like all habits, it takes time to really embed these practices. And you’ll have setbacks along the way, like everything in life. Yoga practice ebbs and flows, but it’s important to keep jumping back into it. With a regular yoga practice, you will discover how often you can return to your breath to maintain calm. Use your breath to clear your head, focus your thoughts, and redirect your energy.

So when you find yourself frazzled, rushed, or weary, take a few moments to breathe. Slow. And if you’ve ever taken a class with Jo, maybe you can hear her voice, “Make this the deepest breath you’ve taken so far.”

This entry was posted in Top Ten Reasons to Practice Yoga.