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Health & Fitness

Yoga Saved my Life

Baring my soul. Yoga for anxiety

Ok so i may be a little over dramatic here (and for those who know me this is no surprise) but the statement "Yoga saved my life" holds a lot of truth. I think it's important to know why a teacher teaches sometimes so....I'm just going to go ahead and bare my soul here.  Shortly after the birth of my daughter i was plunged into the hormonal whirlwind that a lot of mothers deal with.  I loved my little girl but i became preoccupied with mortality to the point of not seeing the point in doing almost anything.  It's a very scary place to be and a lot of times your partner doesn't know what to do with you.  

Sometimes i could get caught up in the day to day controlled chaos that is life with a newborn.  I could spend hours just "not thinking".  I would seek out any activity that would mean i wouldn't think about life, death, and anything that had to do with the future.  I sincerely believed that the rest of my life would be like this. Therapy probably would have been a healthy option but i didn't feel that this was right for me. 

Now i had been a runner for years and after the birth of a baby you can't do that sort of high impact activity.  Even when most women are cleared to work out again at 6 weeks, something like running just isn't possible.  Internal organs are just coming back into place, jumping around just doesn't seem like the best idea.  I needed to do something though. My anxiety was reaching an uncontrollable level. I would wake in the middle of the night shaking, randomly cry in the middle of the day thinking about not being here some day.  Thinking back to all of this it still disturbs me that i was so focused on death.

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This is when the universe brought me to Yoga.  I didn't know what to expect from yoga.  I kind of just expected to be bored.  I was (and still am) a runner.  There's a lot of activity and energy spent with a running work out.  Yoga always just looked like stretching to me but i figured i would give it a try.  So i entered my first yoga practice looking for a new way to work out and tone my muscles and take my mind off of life, as so many do, and found something much more significant.

Even today, outside of my yoga practice, i am balance challenged (as i like to refer to my klutziness).  So my first dozen or so practices were less than graceful.  Years of running had made my hips tight and ridden with tendinitis.  But slowly (very slowly) my body became more flexible, and stronger, and as a side bonus my tendinitis in my hip and foot all but disappeared.  The more immediate effect was on my mind.

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I will never say that Yoga cured me completely but the meditation, the yogic breathing and the calming asana practice centered my soul and brought a sort of balance back to my wonky hormones.  I'm not saying i never stress out, but i know what to do know when i am stressed out.  I haven't had a panic attack like the ones that i suffered after my daughter's birth in a very long time.  

There's a lot of research that shows how yoga helps those with anxiety issues.  But i don't need to read articles or research to know that it helped me.  I owe so much to my yoga practice and this is why i am such a believer in the power of yoga.  You don't need to be looking to be a human pretzel.....you are good at yoga and have achieved a good practice if your soul has gotten something out of Yoga.

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Yoga pose to try

Cat/Cow Pose (great to combat stress and anxiety)

Step # 1: 

Start on your hands and knees in a "tabletop" position. Make sure your knees are set directly below your hips and your wrists, elbows and shoulders are in line and perpendicular to the floor. Center your head in a neutral position, eyes looking at the floor.

Step #2 :

As you inhale, lift your sitting bones and chest toward the ceiling, allowing your belly to sink toward the floor. Lift your head to look straight forward. (cow)

Step #3 : 

As you exhale drop your tail bone and arch your back (in a pose similiar to that of a scared cat).  Push through the hands and pull the navel close to the spine. (cat)

Repeat steps 2 and 3 several times following the flow of your breath

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