The Benefits of Yoga: Good for Mind and Body!

You’ve certainly heard time and again that yoga is good for you. All that stretching and breathing calms you down and makes you feel better. But other than “making you feel good,” what are the health benefits associated with practicing yoga?

More often than not, we tend to perceive yoga as a meditation practice that helps us physically - to balance, to stretch, etc. But yoga is also a practice that improves the well-being of our mental state. In fact, “yoga” is derived from the same root as the word “yoke,” referring to the process of yoking the mind and body together.  It is in combining both of these that the most benefit is derived from the practice of yoga. 

Physical Benefits

* Breathing: most of us breathe very differently than we should. As infants, we breathe in by expanding our bellies, and breathe out by retracting our bellies. As we age, we actually reverse this process, and we tend to breathe in a very shallow manner.  In fact, we very rarely truly give any thought at all to how we breathe. Pranayama, a yoga breathing exercise, actually helps to give thought to “how” we breathe and teaches us how to do it properly.

* Muscle tone and strength: many yoga poses require you to support yourself and balance on your limbs. This in turn increases your strength. Thus, more strength equals stronger, leaner muscles.

* Pain prevention: whether or not you have pain to begin with, yoga can help treat both current chronic pain and prevent future pain that can occur as we age. Back pain, for instance, is a very common as most of our everyday lives are spent sitting in a car or at a computer desk. This is turn can lead to tightness and spinal compression which yoga is excellent in helping to relieve.

* Flexibility: stretching out your wound-up and tight body will undoubtedly increase your flexibility. Areas of the body that are given an increase in range-of-motion through yoga are commonly the hips, shoulders, back and hips.

* Health matters: scientific research confirms that yoga has a great impact on the health of participants; more specifically the physical and emotional factors contributing to heart disease. These studies found that weight loss, belly fat, blood cholesterol, hypertension, and insulin resistance (among others) were all greatly improved through the practice of yoga.

Mental Benefits

* A sense of mental calmness: the practice of breathing, and the subtle and serene movements of yoga allow the mind to “think” calm. Focusing so intently on what your body is doing, and ONLY that, allows a sense of peace to flow through your body and mind.

* Stress reduction: one of the best benefits of all - yoga is an ideal stress buster. Because yoga requires you to be “in the moment,” focusing your mind and body on simply just “mind and body,” makes all of the everyday details melt away.  Yoga helps to put your troubles aside as well as put things into perspective.

* Body awareness: yoga requires you to move in ways you may not have imagined you could. As a result, you become much more aware of what you body can do, what it’s limitations are, and what can be improved upon.  And being more in touch with your body means paying attention to loving and care for it too.

* Self awareness: many individuals who practice the art of yoga find that they learn a lot about themselves; who they are and how they feel, or rather who they want to be and how they want to feel. Since it is a focused art, it is truly about focusing on “you,” which in our daily lives, more often than not, gets overlooked.

So what are you waiting for? Yoga is the perfect activity to help you become curious about who you are, focus your attention, and in turn improve your sense of well-being in ways you can’t even imagine.  Click the banner below to get started with your yoga practice today.

Setting New Year’s Resolutions That Work

It’s January 1st.  Karen wakes up past noon, feeling groggy and bloated from too much drinking and eating at last night’s party.  As she slowly gets up, she stares at her pudge, feeling that it has ballooned exponentially over the holidays.  Disgusted with herself, she vows that THIS will be the year that she finally loses weight, gets back into her skinny jeans (which have long since gone out of fashion) and becomes a fitness buff.

Full of resolve, she vows to eat nothing but celery sticks and carrots when she gets the munchies, to prepare the elaborate meals from that diet book she bought for New Year’s Resolution 2001, and to get to the gym 5 days a week.

That very night, she slips up and finishes the box of Christmas cookies from her mother.  A week later, she finally gets up the courage to go to the gym, which is crowded with other Resolvers.  After waiting 15 minutes for a machine, she feels exhausted after her 10 minute workout (with the machine set to Level 1!).  Defeated, discouraged, and without energy, she goes home to a bucket of ice cream; things were fine just the way they were.

Sound familiar?

What went wrong?

* Her motivation to lose weight was motivated by disgust and fear, not a desire to take care of herself.  This always leads to guilty failure, a sense of disappointing yourself or someone else.
* She didn’t have a specific plan; rather, she went about willy-nilly doing things she thought you’re supposed to do when you’re on a “diet” (my most loathed four-letter word).
* Whatever meagre goals she did have were completely unrealistic; one cannot subsist on carrots and celery, nor can one realistically expect to cut out all desserts and sweets.
* She didn’t have the tools and support to make her goals work.

With a lack of adequate planning, realistic goals, and support from the outside, it is difficult to make any sort of change.  And this scenario doesn’t just apply to weight management; almost any resolution that is poorly planned will result in frustration and failure.  Read on to find out the 10 steps to setting New Year’s resolutions that work.

Prepare for Succcess

First, prepare the groundwork.

1. Create a list of areas you think might need improvement. Be creative, and be ambitious.  As with any other brainstorming activity, any idea, no matter how wild, counts.  Ask yourself, “What do I really want your life to look like?” Be sure to include areas other than the physical (work, relationships, spiritual, etc.).

2. Whittle your list down to 1 or 2 major life areas. Decide what you will prioritize for now.  There is always time for more later.  Is this the year you go back to school, change careers, focus on your health?  By trying to do too much, you’ll set yourself up for overwhelm.

3. Think about why you want to make changes in those areas. What will the benefits be?  Are you motivated by a vision that excites you (being full of energy and vitality), or one that terrifies you (if you keep this up, you’ll eventually weigh 300 pounds)?  Ask yourself who you’re really changing for; yourself, or someone else?

4. Create a list of obstacles that might come up, and find specific ways to handle each one. If you know you eat well all day but can’t stop snacking after dinner, then have a backup plan.  If you never seem to have time to devote to a hobby, then create a time that you hold sacred and stick to it.

5. Ask for support. Let friends and family know about your resolution.  Be clear that nagging and pushing won’t help; instead, ask for specific ways in which they can help.  For example, ask your husband to cook dinner twice a week so you can fit in that workout after work rather than rush home to prepare dinner.

Be Smart About Goal-Setting

Next, use the S.M.A.R.T. principle to create goals that you can stick to. Goals should be:

6. Specific. The more specific the goal, the more concrete your behaviour can be.  Rather than say, “I want to have the same body I did 10 years ago,” say, “I want to lose 10 pounds.” Note that a single vision (focus on my health this year) may generate many, many specific goals (lose 10 pounds, take my vitamins, exercise 3 times a week).  Make a list of as many as you can think of.

7. Measureable. Goals that are measurable are trackable.  And if they’re trackable you can always be on top of your progress.  And when you’re always on top of your progress, you’ll be able to figure out what’s keeping you stuck, and congratulate yourself when you’ve reached a milestone.

8. Attainable. Please, be realistic!  You are never going to wear those skin-tight, acid-wash jeans that you wore when you were 16.  Just admit it to yourself and move on.  Instead, pick a goal that is a bit of a stretch but not something that will overwhelm you.  If your idea of exercise is cleaning the bathroom, then resolving to become a gym buff isn’t going to work.  A more realistic goal would be to try a yoga class and walk for a total of 30 minutes a week (until you become fitter and the goals can increase).

9. Relevant. This brings us back to the previous section.  The goals you set need to fit within the vision you have for your life; they need to be for no one’s benefit but your own.  They have to be something you can feel excited about.  Has it ever occurred to you that maybe those 5 extra pounds don’t actually matter to you?  Maybe what you really want to accomplish this year is developing a new skill or hobby, or improve your marriage.

10. Timely. This doesn’t just refer to setting deadlines for your goals (e.g., “Lose 10 pounds in 3 months").  It also means focusing on developing new habits.  Resolutions aren’t just quick fixes, things that you’ll do temporarily until “something changes.” True change requires a lifetime commitment.  When you were a toddler, your parents diligently taught you to brush your teeth.  Now, you have to do the same for yourself.  As they say, a new habit takes 21 days to form.  One way to make changes that stick is to develop a new habit every week (or every 21 days).  Take those goals that you listed in Step 6 and set a timeline for when you’ll incorporate each one into your lifestyle.  For example, the first week you might resolve to drink at least six glasses of water each day; the second week, you’ll get 30 minutes of physical activity per week; the third, you’ll try to stop eating when you’re full; and so on.  Slow and steady wins the race!

With these 10 steps in hand, you have a recipe to start 2009 off on the right foot! 

The next time you feel like skipping a workout, read this…

On my way to the gym today (and for most of the day beforehand), I tried very hard to convince myself that I didn’t really need to go. Because of course, I can always go tomorrow. Because I have approximately 1 million items on my to-do list that are awaiting check marks. Because I’m a little tired. Because Tuesdays are always a long day. Because Oprah’s on. Because I’m hungry. I think you get the picture.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate exercising. I can’t say that it’s the highlight of my day, but nor do I avoid it like the plague. Once I’m there, I’m fine, and I kind of like it too. It’s more that I would rather be doing something else.

I eventually forced myself to go, telling myself I’d feel better if I went. While I was pedalling away on the elliptical, the wheels in my mind were spinning equally quickly. I started thinking about why it is that I can always come up with a million and one reasons for why I can put off my workouts. Why is it that they always feel so optional? As if I’ll only work out if the inspiration hits me, or I force myself, and the second something vaguely more interesting or important comes up, the workout is the first thing to get crossed off my list.

This got me thinking about what kinds of things in my life I consider optional, and which I don’t. Eating is not optional. Neither is going to the bathroom, showering, checking my email, and going to work. But most other things are optional, including watching Oprah. I soon realized that the common thread running through the “non-optional” activities in my life is that they are all necessary in some way or another for survival (except checking my email). If I don’t eat, I’ll die within a few days. I may not die if I don’t work, but if I can’t make ends meet, I won’t be able to buy the food that keeps me alive.

This made me realize that exercise is not really all that optional. The only difference between eating and exercising is that if I don’t exercise for a few days I won’t die. At least not right away. But if I never exercise, I will die a lot younger than if I do. I’m just making up numbers here, but what if working out 3 times a week added 10 healthy years to my life? Wouldn’t I be cursing myself at 60 or 70 when I’m decrepit beyond my years? Wouldn’t it be nice to live longer, and enjoy it too?

The next time I tell myself that I can skip my workout just this once, I’ll remind myself that I’m not really wasting time, I’m buying time. I don’t know if it’ll work, but it’s worth a shot.

What does it really mean to be fit?

I’ve recently started getting into yoga, for the first time in many years. I took a class once when I was an undergrad and although I diligently attended classes, I never really enjoyed it (the fact that the class was downtown at the ungodly hour of 7:30 AM might have had something to do with it). Now maybe that I’m older, I find myself patient enough to enjoy its slow, meditative pace, although I definitely have a lot to learn. However, it’s gotten me thinking a lot about what it means to be fit.

I remember reading somewhere once that most people think that to be physically fit is to possess either good strength or endurance. In other words, being able to lift a lot of weight or have shapely muscles (strength), or else be able to run for a long time or have good cardiovascular fitness (endurance), is enough to be considered a fit person. However, true fitness also includes balance and flexibility. What good is it to be able to run or lift weights if you aren’t flexible? Although most people do incorporate some stretching into their routines, balance is by far the most neglected part of fitness. This is why elderly people are so prone to falling. Just like developing good musculature, good balance can also be developed. One of the best ways to develop balance and flexibility is through yoga.

Yoga also increases your sense of self-awareness, which makes yoga an ideal mind-body exercise. It takes a lot of practice and discipline, but that’s the beauty of it. It’s hard, and it can be frustrating, but I find that it’s helping me to develop more tolerance with myself. It teaches you to be patient, and also increases your awareness of your body. Because I’m becoming more aware of my body, I’m also becoming more aware of what I put into it and why. For anyone who struggles with emotional eating (including myself!), having fuller self-awareness can help you make better, more conscious choices about why and how much you eat. And because I’m more in tune with my body, I also find myself wanting to exercise more, whereas going to the gym is usually something of a struggle. This is why yoga is so good for anyone who struggles with food or body image issues - it targets both the body and the mind, which is exactly what I do in my therapy practice. You can never really separate the two, because they’re so intimately intertwined.

Try it. Be patient, give it a fair try, and see what it can do for you. You might be surprised.