Yoga and Stress Reduction - Yoga Journey

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Yoga and Stress Reduction Top 10 Reasons to Try Yoga Stress

The feeling of stress is a combination of our perception of events or situations and our body’s 1.physiological STRESS RELIEF: Yoga reduces the physical effects of stressobstacles, on the body. By encouraging reaction. Work issues, difficulties, challenges, deadlines, papers, tests, relaxation, yoga helps to lower the levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Related athletic events, performances, family problems, and tragic events are only a few benefits of the situainclude lowering blood stress. pressure and heart rate,like improving the to tions that can instigate Even joyous events holidays,digestion weddingsand andboosting new additions immune system as well as easing symptoms of conditions such as anxiety, depression, a family can also exacerbate stress. Natural disasters, world conflicts, tragedies, and stories of fatigue, and insomnia. sufferingasthma and heartbreak, even those occurring on the other side of the world, can have wideimpacts, affecting people’s mental health. 2.ranging PAIN RELIEF: Yoga can ease pain. Studies have demonstrated that practicing yoga asanas (postures), meditation or a combination of the two, reduced pain for people with One of thesuch ways which we respond to stress is through our fight-or-flight response. This conditions asincancer, multiple sclerosis, auto-immune diseases and hypertension as is a combination of the activation of our sympathetic nervous system and specific hormonal pathwell as arthritis, back and neck pain, and other chronic conditions. Some practitioners ways which result in the release cortisol from the adrenal is one of our primary report that even emotional pain of can be eased through the glands. practiceCortisol of yoga. stress hormones, and is often used to measure the stress response. 3. BETTER BREATHING: Yoga teaches people to take slower, deeper breaths. This helps to Stress in itself not necessarily a bad thing.relaxation Immediate, or acute stress, can often be as motivatimprove lung isfunction, trigger the body’s response and increase the amount of ing, as it can be activating. We hear stories of people being able to accomplish physical feats oxygen available to the body. in emergency circumstances because cortisol increases blood pressure, heart rate, and blood 4.sugar, FLEXIBILITY: helps to mental improvefocus. flexibility and mobility, range of movement as wellYoga as increasing Because the stressincreasing response increases mental focus, it and aches anda pains. Many people can’t touch their toes during their first stress yoga with canreducing often help us meet deadline or finish a project. But too much stress, or constant class. Gradually they begin use can the correct Over time, the ligaments, tendons no respite for the body andto mind, interferemuscles. with numerous physical and mental abilities. and muscles lengthen, increasing elasticity, making more poses possible. Yoga also helps to improve body alignment resultingstress in better and helping to relieve back, neck, joint On a long-term basis, chronic canposture be damaging. Stress hormones including cortisol and musclethe problems. decrease responsiveness of our immune system. They also increase blood sugar levels as well as blood pressure and heart rate, helpful in a crisis, but not for long-term health and wellbe5.ing. INCREASED STRENGTH: asanas (postures) use a every muscleimpact. in the body, helping to This is where how weYoga respond to stress can have significant increase strength literally from head to toe. And, while these postures strengthen the body, they also provide Yoga and Stressan additional benefit of helping to relieve muscular tension. practice of Yoga is well-demonstrated to reduce the physical effects control of stressefforts on theby body, 6.The WEIGHT MANAGEMENT: Yoga (even less vigorous styles) can aid weight and has even been found to lower cortisol levels. This effect is noticeable, and it is one of reducing the cortisol levels as well as by burning excess calories and reducing stress. Yoga the primary reasons why people often take up provides Yoga. People find that sense they feel more relaxed also encourages healthy eating habits and a heightened of well being andafter practicing Yoga. The asana, or physical postures of Yoga, are helpful for reducing muscular self esteem. tension, which reduces stress. We have a tendency to store stress not only in our nervous system, distributed throughout the musculature and other tissues of and, the body; digestive system, 7.but IMPROVED CIRCULATION: Yoga helps to improve circulation as a our result of various for example, respondsmoves very quickly to stress. Yoga canbody’s be a cells. valuable and effective tool for poses, more efficiently oxygenated blood to the releasing this stored stress. This can be true even for post-traumatic stress and recovering from 8.the CARDIOVASCULAR CONDITIONING: after-effects of traumatic events. Even gentle yoga practice can provide cardiovascular benefits by lowering resting heart rate, increasing endurance and improving oxygen uptake during exercise. Yoga includes not only the asana or physical postures, but most Yoga classes end with savasana, or a pose of relaxation. Some classes include a guided relaxation where the teacher 9.leads FOCUS ON THE PRESENT: Yoga helps relaxation us to focusofon the present, to further become more aware students through a progressive the body, which reduces the experiand to help create mind body health. It opens the way to improved concentration, coordience of stress. nation, reaction time and memory. Yoga also includes meditation and breathing practices (pranayama) as well as a set of ethical 10. INNER PEACE: The meditative aspects of yoga help many to reach a deeper, more precepts and observances (yamas and niyamas). Meditation, the ethical precepts and obserspiritual and more satisfying place in their lives. Many who begin to practice for other vances, focused relaxation techniques, and working with the breath all have beneficial stressreasons have reported this to be a key reason that yoga has become an essential part of reducing qualities, through improving our relationships with the various aspects of our inner their daily lives. nature as well as affecting our psychology and physical body. For more information please www.yogaalliance.org and www.yogadayusa.com Continued -->

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Yoga and Stress Reduction (con’t) Yoga, the Breath and Stress

Working with the breath can be a particularly effective method for treating a negative response to stress. When we are experiencing stress, our breathing tends to become shallow and rapid. Shallow and rapid breath further stimulates the body’s stress response, and we can become caught up in an ineffective breathing pattern that only causes more stress. Many yoga techniques emphasize slowing and deepening the breath, which activates the body’s parasympathetic system, or relaxation response. Just by changing our pattern of breathing, we can significantly affect our body’s experience of and response to stress. This may be one of the most profound lessons from yoga practice.

Selected Research Investigating Yoga and Stress

Studies of Yoga have demonstrated that Yoga practice has the ability to reduce stress. As mentioned earlier, Yoga can reduce cortisol levels, a finding which was documented in the October 2004 issue of the journal, Annals of Behavioral Science. In the June 2004 issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology, researchers found that caregivers for people with dementia (a very challenging condition) improved physical and emotional functioning after practicing Yoga. February and August 2005 studies published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine analyzed the breathing techniques of a specific Yoga practice, Sudardhan Yoga Kriya, which the authors maintain reduce stress, including post-traumatic stress disorder. Another Yoga-based program that has been widely studied in the use of stress reduction is the mindfulnessbased stress reduction program (MBSR), which is taught, studied and popularized by Jon Kabat-Zinn and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The mindfulness-based stress reduction program includes guided instruction in mindfulness meditation practices, yoga and gentle stretching, inquiry exercises to enhance awareness, individual instruction, group dialogue and home assignments. The effectiveness of the MBSR has been studied in a variety of different scientific studies both at the University of Massachusetts as well as other medical centers around the world. Results that they have reported on their website which are still in the process of being written about include improved ability to react effectively under high degrees of stress. Published studies have found that program participants experience lower levels of stress. Kabat-Zinn and colleagues also found that people who practiced a meditation technique while receiving treatments for the skin disorder psoriasis (which is sensitive to stress) had skin that healed faster than people who did not listen to the meditation tapes during treatment.

Selected References

Brown, R.P. and Gerbarg, P.L. Sudarshan Kriya yogic breathing in the treatment of stress, anxiety, and depression: Part I-neurophysiologic model. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2005; 11(1):189-201. Brown, R.P. and Gerbarg, P.L. Sudarshan Kriya yogic breathing in the treatment of stress, anxiety, and depression: Part II: clinical applications and guidelines. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2005; 11(4): 711-7. Kabat-Zinn, J., Wheeler, E., Light, T., Skillings, A., Scharf, M.S., Cropley, T. G., Hosmer, D., and Bernhard, J. (ABSTRACT Psychosomatic Medicine http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/bibliography/ abstracts/abstracts9.cfm) 1998; 60: 625-632. Robert-McComb, J.J., Tacon A; Randolph P; Caldera Y; A pilot study to examine the effects of a mindfulness-based stress-reduction and relaxation program on levels of stress hormones, physical functioning, and submaximal exercise responses. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine; 2004; 10(5), 819-27. Robert-McComb, J.J., Tacon, A., Randolph, P., and Caldera, Y. Mindfulness-based stress reduction in relation to quality of life, mood, symptoms of stress and levels of cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) and melatonin in breast and prostate cancer outpatients. Psychoneuroendrocrinology. 2004; 29(4): 448-74. Waelde, L.C., Thompson, L., and Gallagher-Thompson, D. A pilot study of a yoga and meditation intervention for dementia caregiver stress. Journal of Clinical Psychology. 2004; 60(6): 677-87. West, J., Otte, C., Geher, K., Johnson, J., and Mohr, D.C. Effects of Hatha yoga and African dance on perceived stress, affect, and salivary cortisol. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. 2004; 28(2):114-8. Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School Web site: www.umassmed.edu/cfm. NOTE: The International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT) carries an extensive set of Yoga and Health Bibliographies, including citations for ongoing research, on their website. Eleven of the most requested bibliographies are accessible free of charge. Dozens more are freely accessible by IAYT members, or available to nonmembers for a modest fee. IAYT also maintains an extensive library containing many of the articles cited, which is open to researchers and the general public. For more information, please visit http://www.iayt.org or call IAYT at 928541-0004, M-F, 10-4, MST.

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