"Just Relax!" - How to Unwind your Mind

“Just Relax!” – How to Unwind your Mind

Modern life is stressful. Despite the fact that we have Darwin-ed ourselves out of the food chain and despite the fact that we are technically living in the safest time in history ever in gross terms, stress is rampant.  Fortunately, you have a built-in, automatic stress response system to handle stress.  Unfortunately, that system hasn’t evolved much since the Darwin Days. 

Your sympathetic nervous system is designed to automatically pump you up with hormones to increase energy and strength in a fight/flight/freeze survival response.  You’ve probably heard of it; you’ve definitely experienced it.  Something clicks in your brain and suddenly, it’s on!  It feels like life or death.  You start sweating profusely to cool off during your death-defying battle.  Your heart rate increases as blood flow increases to your vital organs and decreases to your limbs so that if you get injured in your fight, you bleed less and can keep fighting – or run for your life!  This is an amazing survival technique that would work fabulously if you were running away from the proverbial tiger.  All of that energy and adrenaline surging through your veins would save the day – and by that, I mean your life.  Then once the tiger is gone, your body returns to “normal” via the relaxation response.  It’s the balance of nature.  It’s perfect. 

Except! it goes awry in modern stress when the perceived danger is something simple like sitting in traffic, facing a deadline or having a difficult conversation.  Your mind tricks your body into thinking you are in a life-or-death situation and the nervous system reacts as if you have a tiger chasing you, when really, it is just your thoughts – or maybe that third cup of coffee? -- making you think you will just die if you are late for an appointment, miss a deadline or get rejected.   Fortunately, this doesn’t result in a fight to the death.  Unfortunately, you become filled with stress hormones with no socially acceptable outlet to expend them.  So you can stay in this heightened sense of alert, all pumped up with energy and strength without any real danger -- which doesn’t sound all bad, right?   In the short term, you can feel like a super hero.   You can be super productive.  No wonder you can get addicted to the adrenalin.  

The problem is it gives you tunnel vision (think road rage) focusing on the perceived threat (that idiot in the Prius) and reducing your higher, more rational thinking (calm) mind so that you tend to make bad decisions (ejecting your middle finger, blaring horn or shouting your favorite expletive here).  And just maybe, you feel just a little bit out of control (as you fantasize about -- if not actually -- running the Prius driver off the road. Or worse.). Now you might actually be in danger because you just replaced Big Oil as the number 1 enemy of said Prius driver. 

Chances are you don’t end up doing 25 to life for running over the Prius driver.  Chances are you do end up replaying the injustice and/or fantasy in your head, feeding your stress response.  Now you don’t so much feel like a super hero.  You may feel like the victim of your uncontrollable mind.  The long-term danger is adrenal fatigue and chronic stress. Since stress is the root cause of many diseases, you need to get off the roller coaster and relax.

Why can’t you just relax?! Nothing like someone saying, “just relax!” to send you over the edge.  Invoking the relaxation response doesn’t come so naturally.  In the short term, being relaxed isn’t life or death, so your body doesn’t automatically turn the panic switch off so well as it switches it on.  But when it becomes chronic, stress is a major cause of heart and other disease and actually IS life or death. 

No wonder yoga has become so popular!  The relaxation response is invoked by slowing down the breath, repeating the same rhythmic movements – think sun salute – repeating a simple phrase, bringing attention to the present moment (which attention to the breath and body spontaneously does), meditation techniques, and systematically relaxing your muscles.  Basically, yoga offers all the major tools that invoke the relaxation response. 

And when you can’t get to yoga, say, because you are in traffic, a meeting, a deadline… you can still slow down your breath, count your breath, repeat a soothing phrase (probably not one with 4-letter words and/or our boss’s name), choose to relax something – anything! You may not feel like you can pause your thoughts, but you absolutely can change the channel.  Re-mind yourself of the bigger picture. And observe that, in fact, the world is not ending, there is no tiger chasing you, and you are probably pretty safe. 

You can choose to look on the bright side.  It’s easy to get help with this. In this stressful day and age, you can listen to guided meditations that will find the bright side for you. There are lots of apps for that! And there is another yoga class starting any time you like online.  Check out www.yogisanonymous.com for thousands of options, including lots of gentle and restorative classes by me that will help you unwind your body and mind for less stress and more joy!

Namaste,

Leslie Kazadi, Certifiied Yoga Therapist

What's up(side down) on Ladies Holiday?

What’s up(side down) on Ladies Holiday?

Our menstrual cycle has many nicknames:  Time of the Month, Aunt Flo, The Monthly Visitor, Moon Cycle, on The Rag, or Crimson Tide.  We seem so reluctant to call it what it is, it’s no wonder there is confusion about how to address it in a yoga class. My favorite nickname, Ladies Holiday, comes from Ashtanga yoga.  In this system, women take a three-day holiday from asana practice during their menstrual cycle.  It was the first time I personally felt I had permission to slow down and honor my cycle. 

It seems every style of yoga has its own recommendations.  In the Iyengar tradition in Pune, India, an all–restoratives class is prescribed.   Typically in flow classes, ladies are advised not to go upside down.  This is somewhat confusing when options are given halfway through a yoga class that has been full of downward dogs.   So what’s the deal? 

First, all inversions are not created equally.  Anatomically, an inversion means the heart is higher than the head so that their natural positions are inverted.  In addition to the relative position of the head and heart, the position of the torso and legs in relation to the heart also matters.  For example, in downward facing dog, the heart is higher than the head (inverted), but the legs are below the heart; whereas, in extended bridge pose, the torso and legs are in the same plane as the heart.  This makes downward facing dog less intense than an extended bridge pose on the circulatory system.  Likewise, when the legs are higher than the heart, as in legs up the wall pose, the work of the circulatory system is reversed, where blood easily flows  with gravity down the legs and into the heart. 

Fully inverted, active poses like headstand, shoulder stand, forearm balance, etc, require more work by the circulatory system.  Any time a muscle is working, it needs more blood supply.  It is unclear whether this inhibits or promotes menstrual blood from being released.  In addition, these active inversions tend to have long holds that build heat and require lots of energy, which can be depleting.  If you are already feeling overheated or fatigued on your cycle, it’s probably best to skip these poses.

Does inverting stop the blood flow?  There is no hard evidence to suggest that going upside down will physiologically stop the menstrual flow, per se.  Though, from a yogic subtle body perspective, it does inhibit the apana vayu, or downward flow of energy. You could argue that that’s reason enough.  It’s a time of intuition for a woman, a time to honor subtle shifts.

Many back bends are also inversions.  And they definitely build heat.  They also may have the benefit of alleviating tension in the belly and/or the back that many women experience.  If you are addicted to urdhva danurasana -- in which case it probably feels great if you have the juice for it –  go for it!  Otherwise, “baby back bends” may feel better.   Even though it IS an inversion, supported bridge with a block underneath the sacrum felt amazing for me because it softened my lower belly. 

Supta baddha konasana, aka goddess pose, is the quintessential restorative pose for Ladies Holiday.  It is a (gentle) back bend without being an inversion and a hip opener. It supports the apana, downward-flowing energy, relieves fatigue and promotes relaxation on many levels.  This is one pose that will get everybody’s vote. It’s a nice substitute for active, full inversions and/or backbends if you are feeling fatigued.

As you can see, it depends.  If you were to ask 10 teachers, you may get as many answers of what you are supposed to do while on your cycle.  Where they all agree – at least I hope this is true! – is that you should listen to your body and trust its wisdom.  And it IS a time of women’s wisdom. It reminds us quite literally of the ebb and flow of life.  And just as each month is different, each decade is very different! 

Acknowledging our cycles by altering asana practice honors our femininity.  It is a ritual of letting go and opening to what is.  Embracing all of the changes of our lives is essential to the practice of yoga.  And embracing change is essential to feeling empowered as women at every stage of life. Let your choice depend on how you feel as you honor yourself and the awareness that is the great gift of practicing yoga!

Namaste,

Leslie Kazadi

What's the Skinny on Restorative Yoga?

What’s the Skinny on Restorative Yoga

Can yoga make you skinny? Even better – can restorative yoga make you skinny? Yoga Journal has a new restorative yoga book.  The very top line of the front cover touts, “includes restorative yoga poses for PAIN RELIEF, WEIGHT LOSS, and more!” WEIGHT LOSS.  All caps.  Really.

Clearly, you won’t lose weight with a restorative yoga practice via calorie burning.  So what’s up with this claim?  You may have read the same claim with other more active yoga practices.  And, yes, those classes burn more calories, although calorie for calorie, you’d be better off doing another form of exercise if that’s your game plan.

When I first started teaching yoga, people would ask me if yoga would help them lose weight.  My first thought was that skinny people do yoga more than yoga makes people skinny.  And I’m definitely not an expert in the weight-loss department.  I don’t seem like the right person to ask. Yet & still, since people were asking, it did make me wonder how yoga might help you lose weight.

Maybe you lose weight because you become more mindful of your food choices.  For example, I’d make pasta when I needed to sleep even though I know it mucks up my digestion. The carb coma does reduce the stress response.  But I decided the digestive interference isn’t worth it. That’s in my past now that I’ve discovered more mindful, gluten-free options for getting rest.

Maybe you become more aware of how and when you eat for comfort.  And who doesn’t at least sometimes eat for comfort? as a distraction from stress. My personal favorite is chocolate. It turns out that high-sugar content also reduces the stress response.  But again, not the ideal solution. A healthier choice would be to distract myself with a yoga class instead… after the chocolate.  Sugar free, of course.

Maybe the peer pressure that comes with joining the yoga community is a factor.  Yogis don’t frequent Fat Burger – and admit to it?! That will get you shunned.  And you are definitely gonna have to cut back on Cheetos, even if they’re gluten-free. Instead, you are probably drinking cold-pressed juices, even if you are questioning why.  (I’m guilty of both.) These kinds of changes are likely to tip the scales favorably in your yoga community and in your weight. A different kind of double double.

Maybe it’s a cumulative effect of all of these things.

Definitely – finally! – there IS a cortisol connection.  When you are stressed, your body produces more cortisol.  This creates a cascade of events, increasing glucose production, which increases fat storage in the body.  Decrease your stress level and you decrease your cortisol levels, glucose production and fat storage.  This is clearly explained in the Yoga Journal Restorative Yoga Book on page 20 under the heading “Helps reduce obesity.”  Restorative yoga has been proven to invoke the Relaxation Response and reduce stress levels even more than active asana classes.  It is unclear whether that means you will get skinnier with restorative versus with ashtanga yoga. 

And the Relaxation Response of the parasympathetic nervous system is also known as rest and digest.  Increasing digestion has obvious implications in weight reduction.

And then there’s insomnia – both a cause and result of stress.  Insomnia is another culprit in increased cortisol. Restorative yoga alleviates insomnia, which is another way of saying it can reduce cortisol levels, and thus weight levels.

On the other hand, some people get skinny with stress.  Can’t-eat, can’t-sleep, rail-thin skinny.  This is also part of the stress response.  CRH, a fast-acting neurotransmitter, is released to suppress appetite. It makes sense that when you are in danger and highly stressed, your appetite shuts down.  Hunger is an inconvenient distraction from danger.  And then another, slower-acting hormone, glucocorticoid, kicks in to make you hungry later.  Hungry for carbs, which are easily stored as energy (read: fat) to replenish your reserves after you have escaped the danger and presumably consumed a lot of energy.

Some people naturally produce more hunger-inducing glucocorticoids than others.  This falls under the blame-your-parents category. Some people are more easily stressed than others.  This falls under the stay-tuned-for-more-posts category.  All people everywhere can reduce stress levels by invoking the Relaxation Response in restorative yoga.  It may or may not make you skinny, but it will give you a greater sense of ease and acceptance, allowing you to embrace who you are now… anyway.

Namaste,

Leslie Kazadi, C-IAYT, E-RYT500
www.lesliekazad.com