Yoga for Emotional Stability

By Faye Martins

You have probably been in a situation where you had feelings of anxiety, stress and were unable to calm down. Maybe you took a few deep breaths to help calm yourself. Since breathing is a large part of yoga practice, this is a perfect example of how yogic techniques can work in everyday life to shift your emotions from negative and anxious to positive and calm. As you make the practice of yoga a regular part of your life, you will notice that you are motivated in all areas of your life. You will begin to have a positive outlook on life and will be able to deal with stress and anxiety in a calm and controlled manner.

Generally, any form of exercise can reduce stress and give you more energy. Yoga has been known to help with depression and bipolar disorder and the symptoms associated with these conditions such as mood swings, anxiety, fear, tension, anger and fatigue to name a few.

Yoga helps by releasing energy blockages within the chakras at the navel region, the heart and the throat. This allows energy to flow freely, giving you a feeling of vitality and renewed health. This will help you to connect with others and the world around you. Yoga has an effect on the endocrine system and organs of the body leading to a positive effect on hormonal changes in the body. Such hormonal changes can lead to a positive shift in emotions. A study that was conducted showed that yoga reduced stress hormones produced in the heart and cardiovascular system which had a sedating effect.

The practice of yoga will open your mind allowing you to balance your mood. With daily yoga practice, anxiety will be replaced with calmness, sadness with happiness and fatigue with energy. The different postures will allow you to regain control over your body and mind, which will help you control your emotions.

Yoga is especially important if you have had an unusually stressful day. Use the breathing techniques (pranayama) and meditation to help you settle down after a long day. Yoga for emotional flow is an easy path to navigate. This will not only calm you down at the time, but will also ensure that you will be able to rest more soundly which will help you face the next day with a renewed spirit. You should incorporate the practice of yoga into everyday life in order to reap the full range of holistic benefits it provides.

© Copyright 2011 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

To see our selection of Online Yoga teacher training courses, please visit the following link.

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FREE CONTENT: If you are a Yoga Teacher, Yoga studio, blogger, e-zine, or website publisher, and are in need of quality content, please feel free to use my blog entries (articles). Please be sure to reprint each article, as is, including the resource box above. Namaste!

Yoga for Fear – Can Yoga Help Treat Panic Attack Syndrome?

By Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500

Panic attacks can be crippling, with waves of fear, racing heartbeat, shortness of breath, and other symptoms that make victims feel like they are about to die. These disabling attacks are common, as well; at least 20% of adult Americans will suffer from a panic attack at some time in their lives. That is around 60 million people facing intense distress; and following one attack, the risk of having another is increased. Clearly, panic attacks have a major impact on sufferers’ lives, and treatment is very important. One area, where positive results, regarding the reduction of attacks have been noted, is in Yoga practice.

The emphasis in Yoga on mind, body, and breath is a classic relaxation technique. A 2007 article, in Yoga Journal, by Dr. Timothy McCall, suggests some specific practices for anxiety and panic attacks: “[the best method is] a good asana practice, which burns off the nervous energy that can contribute to anxiety… A number of breathing practices, including abdominal breathing and lengthening the exhalation relative to the inhalation, help reduce symptoms of anxiety. Scientific studies suggest that left-nostril breathing can effectively reduce symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder.”

The effects of paying attention to one’s body, and breathing in a Yoga practice can make individuals more self-aware and allow them to detect early signs of a panic attack. Since anxiety often builds on itself, early detection is the key to heading off major attacks; calming techniques work best, if practiced early in the cycle of anxiety, breaking the negative feedback loop.

So how can you help your Yoga students, who may be suffering from anxiety or panic attacks? Encourage awareness, throughout practice, of sensations in their bodies. Breathing through postures will help give them control over their breathing in situations where they experience shortness of breath; and controlled breathing, in turn, controls the nervous system.

As anxious people tend to be self-critical, the teacher should adopt a warm, reassuring style, letting students know that it is all right not to understand all the sensations they may be feeling. Have students practice flowing through the Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskara), at their own pace, concentration on their breathing, and not trying to keep pace with a teacher or another student.

This feeling of continuous movement and controlled breathing, at their own pace, will help them “break the spell” of feeling paralyzed when anxious. Finally, teaching some hand mudras for relaxation will give Yoga students a focal point, in situations where they cannot perform a full series of poses.

© Copyright 2011 – Paul Jerard / Aura Wellness Center - Publications Division

To see our complete selection of Yoga teacher training courses, please feel free to visit the following link.

http://www.aurawellnesscenter.com/store/Teacher-Courses/

FREE Yoga Report. FREE Yoga Newsletter. FREE Yoga Videos. Free Podcasts. Bonus: Free Yoga e-Book, “Yoga in Practice.”

FREE CONTENT: If you are a Yoga Teacher, Yoga studio, blogger, e-zine, or website publisher, and are in need of quality content, please feel free to use my blog entries (articles). Please be sure to reprint each article, as is, including the resource box above. Namaste, Paul

Stress Relief Can Be Easily Found If You Know Where to Look

Written By Brett Thomas


Many people who suffer from stress do not know where to find stress relief and thus are plagued by various problems such as insomnia because they are constantly fretting about the events of tomorrow. If you are one of these people, then it is high time you started searching for methods of achieving stress relief.

You must also shed any reservations that you may harbor over confiding in other people about your stress and its causes, as this is one of the main obstacles to finding true relief for your stress.

Problems, Problems Everywhere

Stress can be caused by any number of factors that include problems related to work, school, and relationships gone wrong or some kind of financial difficulty. Whatever the source of your stress, it is imperative that you find some form of stress relief as soon as possible, before your stress causes you to develop stress-related disorders and illnesses.

It is, in fact, fairly easy to find stress relief, provided you know the right stress management techniques. You must also not ignore the fact that you have problems with stress, and this means actively searching for the best options available to help prevent and deal with stress.

Meditation For Stress Relief

One of the simplest and yet most effective methods of stress management is meditation. This simple activity can be carried out in several different ways, and you will need to determine which method is best suited to your needs. You will also need to find a peaceful and quiet spot in which to practice your meditation, as this will better enable you to drive all the negative thoughts that you may be harboring in your mind, clearing your mind of everything that causes you to become stressed.

Music For Stress Relief

Another possible method of stress relief is listening to soothing music. The best time to immerse yourself in such music is just before you go to sleep, or when you are in dire need of relaxation after enduring a particularly stressful situation. While listening to such music, you should focus only on enjoying the moment. This method of relaxation can greatly reduce your stress levels, allowing you to rid yourself of tension and to achieve a state of calm.

Deep Breathing For Stress Relief

Deep breathing is also a great method for relieving stress. After extremely stressful experiences, you should pause for a moment and take deep, slow breaths, thinking about nothing but your own breathing. Your heart rate will begin to slow as you do so, and you will feel calm and more collected, both physically and mentally. This method of stress relief can be of great help in relieving the stress you may be experiencing.

Reduce stress. Live and feel better.

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4 Easy Steps - How To Reduce Your Stress?

Written By Ganda Putra

Sometimes there is a period when we feel saturated, boring and dizzy that cause to the stress. Of course we all do that experience either stress due work, boyfriend or girlfriend, family etc. I can understand if those stresses can lead to suicide, because mentally they can't face and accept the reality.

Why is that? It is because our mind is limited, if there is a situation which is outside of our mind range, of course it will cause shock with our mind and generating "Mind stress" and if is not get solution immediately cause fatal to our life.

Then how we can reduce our stress? Those 4 easy tips that I give to you how to reduce your stress:

What is your hobby that most simple, most favorite that you love, and which you can reach anytime and everywhere you are? If you have one do your hobby without postponed anything if you under stress. You know that actually if you get stress, you always want to immediately forget that thing right? So don't be delaying do your hobby. Of course this action must be in positive which is not disservice you or other people like "Drunk in public place or angry overreact with kids, etc". So what kind hobbies is that?

It could be walking around get some fresh air around your neighbor and find those green stuff like trees or you can listen the calm music in your room, or you can play and make a jokes with your children, or you can play with your dog and so on. Mostly must to be remember is don't do hobby which disservice you or others, okay!

Prepare your self free spare times for 1-3 hours come if you under stress of which your problem and make promise to yourself that you will be solve that problem once your spare times is finish or done. Because with that promise you will not focus to your problem on your free spare times and you get easier to relax your mind which frees time is running. If your spare time is running out maybe less than 15 minutes, soon prepare everything with mentally or physical or material. Try not to postpone or lengthening your spare time so that your problems come quickly solved. Therefore prepared your spare time maturely which you will take most effective as possible, the point is you have enough time to solve your problem.

If your problem causes stress is caused at enragement, like made angry by your boss, you can do self satisfy by hitting something soft in your warehouse or you can scream in the middle of large lonely field until you get satisfied.

Make practice everyday to think positive, get the true principle into your life, get the beautiful purpose or destination to your life and feel be blessed what you've got anywhere and anytime.

Trust me whenever you get hardly stress if you get those 4 things, it will be help a lot to reducing your stress when it comes.I don't know you, are you have a complicated problem caused you stress, maybe by work or girlfriend or boyfriend or something else.

But believe of one principle that "There is no problem that can't be solved". I personally hope that you have a beautiful destination which is useful to your life or others people life and feel be blessed what you got now. I hope this article more or less can help you, thank you for keep reading.

"Did you find those tips on stress reduction useful? You can learn a lot more about how to reduce your stress at the following Yoga information web site.

http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/yoga-community/blog/

Breathe, Once, In & Out

Written By Marty Murphy






You may not have thought about breathing even once today. You have, however been breathing. Well, duh!

The act of breathing has unique life sustaining power. When we become aware of breathing, we experience the foundation of most meditative exercises.

This is not just the physical process of moving air into and out of our lungs. That physical breath is truly the vehicle that the life-force (spirit) employs to manifest in the physical world.

When we took life, the first thing that we accomplished was inspiration, we literally breathed air into our lungs. That was followed soon thereafter by expiration...we breathed out. Thereafter, we respire. Note that these words are rooted in the Latin word spiritus (spirit). To inspire is to breathe in the spirit. To expire is to breathe the spirit out. When we leave this life, the last thing that we do is to breathe out, hence, to expire (spirit leaves).

The Hindus call this force Prana, the Chinese Taoists, Chi, Hebrews, the Breath of Life, Christians, Holy Spirit.

In order to avoid the requirement that we believe something, we are referring to spirit here as un-manifested (spiritual) energy. It could be called Pure Awareness, the essential nature of who we are.

Because our breath is intimately connected to the spiritual life-force, it controls all aspects of the mental, physical and spiritual processes in our human life. Our breath controls experiences of pain and fear. It contains powerful healing energies.

When you close your eyes and notice that you are breathing, consider that this has been going on all day, perhaps without your having to assist it or to even be aware of it. Now that you are aware, notice one breath. By the way, that's all you are able to notice...this one breath. Notice the tempo of your breathing.

Notice, if you can that while you are aware of this breathing, the pace of your "thinking" has significantly decreased. When you notice this, your thinking will then probably "jump back" into your consciousness. Just relax and focus again on your breathing. Notice, if you will that you achieve even more relaxation and relief from random mind chatter.

If this seems to be some sort of meditative practice, that's because it is. For a few moments here, we have been meditating. Just close your eyes again. Breathe.

Be aware, each day of at least one breath. That way, you meditate every day.

For more than 30 years, Marty Murphy has studied the effects and healing of unresolved emotional pain. In 2005, Marty founded The Freedom Step
(http://www.thefreedomstep.com/).

TFS guides us to an experience of the joy of Pure Awareness. Each of us is Spirit; each a healer, here to wake up and heal ourselves and each other.



Marty wrote The Mind Whisperer: The Freedom Step Out of Slavery to take readers deeper into the philosophy and workings of The Freedom Step program. Marty and Monita, his wife of 45 years, live in La Mesa, CA. Visit The Freedom Step site to learn more about energy healing of emotional pain.

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Meditation - A Key To Stress Management

Written By Della Franklin

We often see people break down in depression, or incapable of thinking properly in times of great need or problems. These are people who let stress rule their lives, and it's never a pretty sight to begin with. The only way for you to be free from stress is to make sure that you don't let it rule you. Here are some stress management tips on how to relax and push the problems out of your system.

It's all in the mind

Our mind is the first to be affected in stressful situations. The harmony of your thoughts can be disrupted if you let your worries and problems seep into your conscious mind and control how you think. Financial burdens, quarrels or petty fights can leave devastating effects on your mind - if this does happen then the first thing you should do is try to relax.

Relaxing your mind is a great way to control stress but not so easily done. It needs a lot of concentration and willpower to achieve. There are ways to induce your mind into a relaxed state; aromatherapy is a great way to induce a sense of relaxation and can help you think straight. The scent of lavender or jasmine can put you in a meditative state and help you relax almost immediately. You can choose scented candles, incense or oils that will suit your preference. You can find a large selection of these scented candles at Dogwood Square.

Meditation is the key to a stress free life

It's almost impossible to find a solution to your problems when you are deep in stress, no matter how petty it is. Learning to focus all your energy in telling your mind to relax can be done through the ancient art of meditation.

Meditation allows you to focus your mind on a single idea and letting everything else melt away to nothing. Meditation classes will guide you through steps on how to intiate your mind into meditation and keeping it there during times of need. This will allow you to focus on a single thought, like finding a solution to your problem, while letting the worries and anxiety float away to nothing.

Steps to meditation

The first step of meditation is to look for a place of peace. Stress management always starts with serenity and solitude, so you better pick a location that will help you start with meditation. You can pick a room in your house with the least amount of noise or go camp out with nature.

Next, you need to relax by focusing your mind on specific parts of your body. Start with your toes, legs, torso, stomach, hands, and chest. It's best if you close your eyes and let your mind zero in on these areas. Tell each one to relax. Be extra careful not to fall asleep since this will immediately cease all meditative attempts.

Once you have relaxed each and every part of your body, you will feel a slight heaviness. This usually happens during your first try at meditation. After a while, you will no longer feel your body - as if it's a non-existent part of yourself.

Focus on a question, like a solution to your problem, with your mind. You might notice that some thoughts or scenes appear and disappear like a fleeting memory - keep note of these in passing and don't focus on them too much since this will defeat the practice of meditation. Imagine these thoughts like you are watching a movie.

When you encounter problems that will eventually lead to stress, you can invoke meditation almost instantly. If you practice enough, your mind will instantaneously clear itself of all cluttered nonsense and allow you to focus on how to deal with your stress.

http://www.stressmgmtsite.com/ brings you all the latest information you need to assist you with stress management. Be sure to check it out. © 2008 copyright by DSquare Marketing and Della Franklin. Also check out Dogwood Square.

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Stress-Busters For Busy Boomers

By Joyce M Dillon

Stress is a big deal in midlife. It is everywhere. It plagues us at home. It travels with us on the road. It sleeps with us at night.

Compared to today's multitasking, time-challenged, cyber-stressed baby boomers, cave people led relatively stress-free lifestyles. Between family and financial demands, working overtime, rapidly changing technologies, time compression, corporate downsizing, and caregiving for older relatives, people in midlife are struggling with more stressors than previous generations have ever experienced.

Life is stressful. Eliminating stress entirely is not an option.

Stress can and does happen even when you have your life in order. Stress can recede in one area and increase in another. Just as you get your finances in order, your relationship goes sour. Get your relationship together and a family member becomes ill.

This is life.

Andrew Weil, MD, in Healthy Aging says, "the goal of managing stress is to change your reaction to stress." Stress is simply your body's way of reacting to your mind's messages. What messages do you tell yourself all day long? Most of us spend our day thinking of negative, stressful events that are in the past or events that may happen in the future.

Echart Tolley, author of The New Earth says, "Most stress comes from the resistance of not accepting what is and not taking action to make a change in the situation."

The first step is to get clear about the issue and thentake action on the problem or situation that creates your stress. In addition, it is critical to learn new ways to manage your perception of stress. How we react to crisis or disturbing events is mainly a matter of old habits and beliefs.

We need to become aware of how we respond to stress and the thoughts we are thinking, and then consciously move out of those negative thoughts by bringing our mind back into the present moment. If you practice this "being in the moment" technique along with other relaxation techniques, you can reduce your stress significantly.

Do you ever really get relaxed?

Whatever stress you have to deal with, you can learn to activate the relaxation response. You can do this in many ways, some of which are: by working with your breath, practicing yoga, meditating, floating in water, walking in nature, and playing with animals. When I develop a client's wellness assessment, I always ask: What is the major source of stress in your life? What do you do to relax? Have you ever had any relaxation training?

The answer to the last question is usually "no." Many people tell me they have a drink, watch television, go on vacation and/or exercise. Some of these activities may or may not be relaxing, and most of them do not elicit the relaxation response.

To experience the healing benefits of deep relaxation or the relaxation response, the mind needs to be focused through meditation or on other repetitive mental activities that help the body respond with a dramatic decrease in heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure and metabolic rate. Our body responds in the opposite way of the flight or fight response. We do have the amazing ability built into our cells to heal and rejuvenate our bodies if we just slow down and relax.

Take an inventory of your life in order to identify the ways that you can activate and cultivate deep relaxation. Remember, to benefit from relaxation this needs to be done regularly and consciously. The next time your have a stressful event notice if you have been able to change your perception of the stressful situation. This life change practice takes awareness and practice.

Keep at it!

Joyce Dillon, RN, MN, is a midlife expert, coach, author and CEO of Healthy Living and Balance. She is a pioneer in the field of healthy aging, empowerment and midlife transition. Teacher of transformative education for women, spa and Costa Rica retreat leader, and author of Embracing Your Soul's Calling in Midlife.

Learn more at http://www.healthylivingandbalance.com/ or blog http://www.healthyboomerlifestyles.typepad.com/ or contact Joyce at 404-881-1322.

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