bringing wellness to your life
Physical practice is only part of your overall well-being. We've gathered insights shared by our staff to give you some food for thought as you take your practice to another level. There are no ready-made answers, no one-size-fits-all solutions here, just thoughts and information that may resonate with you in a way that inspires you to look a little further into the place that wellness holds in your life.
taking yoga off the mat:
You’ll often hear people talk about “taking their yoga
practice off the mat.” Beyond just the physical side of yoga, your practice
can become a great source of guidance for how to live your life. Through the physical practice, you can begin to cultivate a healthier state of mind.
Observe, for example, the openness you feel within your body as you do yoga. Continue that openness in your interactions with people. Feel the free flow of energy through your limbs and know that you can apply that flow to difficult situations in life. Grow in your acceptance of what your body can do at a given moment. Then tap into that same sense of grace the next time you’re caught in traffic or stuck in a check-out line at the supermarket.
The lessons you learn through yoga teach you how to deal with
other aspects of your life. They extend far beyond the yoga mat. Your practice can become a metaphor for living that you explore every time you come to
your mat. (back to top)
finding your own center:
We’ve all sensed at some time or another that we are bigger, deeper, more powerful than the problems that confront us. And just as true, we’ve all experienced times when we've felt overwhelmed by the challenges that life can throw at us. In both cases, it’s really a matter of perspective.
There’s a great deal of emphasis in yoga on finding a place within you from which to view your actions. Finding that new perspective helps you distinguish your deeper self from surface-level actions and events. From this state of mindful awareness, you can act without judgment or hesitation, making decisions more clearly and more intuitively.
In yoga and other personal disciplines, the state of mind, not the pose, is the main focus of the practice. Observe any highly accomplished athlete, artist, performer or even a child at play. In all cases, whether through training or through a natural state of focused attention, each of them glides through the activity, as if without effort.
From focus comes a union of intent and action that brings you into your
natural flow. Just think of the potential when you begin to live your whole life from your own center! (back to top)
learning to observe:
A big part of yoga and mindfulness meditation is to remain intently aware of your thoughts yet not become attached to them. It's the same process an artist goes through when creating.
When we practice yoga and meditation, our minds are constantly relaying messages about our physical situation back to us: “My back hurts.” “This chair is uncomfortable.” “I’m too stiff to stretch.” Our natural reaction is to follow those prompts, to label them as good or bad, and to accept the story they tell. Pretty soon, we’ve lost touch with where the thought came from in the first place, as our minds wander ever further from our own center. We end up believing the story and we give up on our focus.
In the creative process, the mind presents similar prompts to the artist: “I’m drawing a tree.” “This is a hand.” “Oranges are round.” But are they? Really? Does an open hand look the same as a clenched hand? What do the branches of a tree really look like? If you ever really saw a perfectly round orange, you wouldn’t dream of eating it because it would look so unnatural. We start to believe our own story about the objects we’re drawing, and lose the object as it really is.
In both cases, if we consciously observe the reality inside us and around us, we can get beyond our pre-conceived notions and observe reality straight on.
Just like the arts, yoga and meditation are ways to practice looking at ourselves and our world for what they are. No names. No
judgments. No categories. No groups or generalizations. When we work on our way of
seeing, we realize that the process of observation is really a process of
self-discovery. (back to top)
the breath of life:
Conscious breathing is central to yoga and almost every other practice that involves a heightened state of mind. Beyond all the physical benefits of a smooth, life-giving breathing pattern is a reminder of our connection to all things.
The air we breathe has been shared by every creature alive today and all those that have come before us. We are literally connected to them inside and out.
When we breathe in, oxygen and its vital energy (prana) enters our lungs and is transferred through cell membranes into our blood stream. It travels through our entire body and is either expelled through the lungs or migrates outward through our skin. So even though we most often think of our bodies as separate from the world around us, the very process of breathing reminds us that, quite to the contrary, we are one and the same.
Whether your practice becomes a prayerful communion with all of existence or simply a reminder that we really are in this together, breathing is the beginning of your union with the world around you. (back to top)
the six pillars of wellness:
Whatever your current lifestyle — student, full-time mother, career climber, or active senior — a sense of balance in your life will help you not only to keep up, but to thrive. By applying the following principles to any lifestyle, it becomes possible to discover for oneself the right balance that will keep you going.
appropriate diet:
The type and quantity of food you eat should reflect your body make-up, your physical activity, the time of year, the time of day, as well as the amount of time you have each day to focus on meals. Listen closely and honestly to your body and let it guide your decisions.
adequate sleep:
It's most often recommended that adults sleep 7 or 8 hours each night. Of course this will vary with the demands of your days and how active you naturally are, but respecting your body's needs will go a long way in keeping your energy and emotions on an even track.
effective stress management:
Separating your own sense of self-worth from the sources of stress, and learning to openly re-think your priorities allows you to flow through life’s challenges without taking them personally. We all have too many things to do and not enough time to do them. Making time for the fun things in life lets you go back to your to-do list with renewed energy.
balanced exercise:
Soft or strong, fast or slow — alternating the pace and intensity of your practice brings balance and variety to your wellness routine. As Lao Tsu said over 2,000 years ago, “Strong winds do not last all day.” Overdoing it, even with the best intentions, doesn't make for a sustainable practice. Listen to the subtle messages of your body to find the right pace for you.
sense of community:
Whether
or not you consider yourself a social person,
knowing that you don’t have to do everything yourself or have all the
answers can have a profoundly liberating effect on a you. Friends,
family and neighbors are
a vital balance in our busy lives. Be generous and let others be
generous towards you.
positive outlook or a spiritual focus:
Having positive sources of hope creates a sense of moving toward the good rather than away from the bad. The strength that can be found in firm belief in yourself and the world around you is a strong ally in times of need.
The choices we make and how we combine them are as individual and diverse as we are, so let your search for the right balance be a fascinating discovery of who you are. That’s where the real understanding comes from: knowing yourself.
Through the process of observing your own lifestyle choices, you lay the building blocks for an approach to wellness that will benefit you for a lifetime. Work to find a balance that suits you. (back to top)
a playful practice:
Children are pre-programmed to learn. Just watch their eyes
as they discover their world, and you’ll see that for them, everything is new,
everything is fresh, and everything is interesting. The Japanese even have an expression to describe the look on a child's face when absorbed in play: Kodomo no kao.
Remind yourself to see the world as a child does the next time you go through your practice. Allow yourself to play and discover and explore. As adults, we filter our experiences through the lens of what has been and what we know. Children, through their play, keep that lens wide open. Nothing is taken for granted.
Religion speaks of children having a special place in paradise. Perhaps the true message here is that only when you see life with wide open eyes do you begin to truly understand its subtleties.
Give yourself permission to play. It may just change your life! (back to top)
yoga to ease inflammation: Andrew Weil
Practicing yoga may not only relax you, it may also lower levels of compounds in the blood that promote inflammation.
New research from Ohio State University shows that women who routinely practiced yoga had lower amounts of interleukin-6 (IL-6), a component of the body's inflammatory response that may play a role in heart disease, stroke, type-2 diabetes¸ arthritis and other chronic diseases.
What's more, these "expert" women with at least two years' experience practicing yoga were also able to maintain lower levels of IL-6 when they were deliberately stressed. Study participants included 50 women, average age 41, who were classified as experts or novices depending on their yoga experience. After being stressed (by being asked to solve difficult mathematical problems without pen and paper after having a foot immersed in icy water) the novices' IL-6 levels were 41 percent higher than the yoga experts'.
So take note: yoga can not only keep you flexible and mellow, it may actually protect you from disease.
The study was published online in Psychosomatic Medicine on January 11, 2010.