Is Anybody Home: How Yoga Relaxation Reduces Stress

Is Anybody Home: How Yoga Relaxation Reduces Stress Based on the book 'Natural Body, Natural Shape'

Let us go back in time for a moment to Cavewoman walking in a field: There, in the distance, she spots … a saber tooth tiger. Her body responds to the danger.

Nerves fire all over her body
Her glands secrete adrenaline, noradrenalin, and cortisol into her bloodstream.
Her heart pounds
Her respiration increases
Her pupils dilate
Blood flows away from her digestive tract to her arms and legs, the remains of a rabbit she ate sit in her stomach until the crisis is over
Her muscles tense for action
She surveys her surroundings, sees an escape route in the bushes, and quietly slips away to safety

Let us fast forward to the present and Modern Day woman: There up ahead, in the distance, is a traffic jam (a modern day saber tooth) and she will be late for a meeting. Her body responds to the dilemma.
Nerves fire all over her body.
Her adrenaline flows.
Her heart pounds.
Her pupils dilate.
Her muscles tense for action.
She anxiously scans her surroundings; however, there is no exit. There is no escape. She pulls up behind the truck in front of her and simmers in her seat. The queasiness in her stomach is from a partially digested burger, waiting for the crisis to be over.

Modern day stresses. We all have them. Waking up and thinking of all of the things we have to do. Looking in the mirror and saying "You have to lose 10 pounds." Can you add one or two of your own? You know what I am talking about, the anxieties and worries that add nothing positive to your life.

Sabre Head

Flexing Arm

Instead, they trigger the same instinctual response to danger that helped our species to survive through the ages. This response, called the fight or flight response, now leaves its imprint on our bodies in the form of modern day stress symptoms - tension headaches, backaches, chronic fatigue, insomnia, high blood pressure, stiff and sore muscles - to name a few.

To get a visceral feel for what happens to your body, clench you hand into a tight fist. What would happen if you kept your hand in a fist for the rest of the day? The rest of the week? A couple of years? Think of the discomfort and the drain on your energy. Now, imagine this fist to be a muscle in your body. This is what you do regularly to the muscles of your body when you are under stress.

We may tense our shoulders as we rush to get our kids to their after school activities, we may grip the muscles of our lower backs as we struggle to make a deadline, or tighten the muscles of our abdomen in rush hour traffic. We do this repeatedly, until our muscles forget how to be any other way. They remain tight even when we play, or watch TV or read a book, even when we sleep. They change shape, instead of having the elongated length of youth they become shorter, and denser. In addition, often, habitually stiff and sore.

Release your fist. It was easy to let go, right? There was no emotional pressure involved with the decision to let go. However, imagine that I asked you to let go of your fist and you could not do it. You put in a call to the muscles in your hand and they do not respond. There is nobody home. This is what occurs when the muscles of our bodies react to habitual stress. The stress response bypasses the rational mind. You are thinking relaxation, but your body is responding to your anxiety about the meeting you have to attend.

So how do we reestablish mind/body connection and return our bodies to their natural and relaxed state? How do we stop reacting to everyday challenges and activities as if they were life and death situations? The answer is we reconnect by calming our minds and focusing in the present. We create new habits for our minds and our bodies.

Dr. Neidmark is an MD who has written several books on health. He points out that the antidote to the stress response is the relaxation response. The relaxation response was identified by a Harvard cardiologist. The relaxation response releases neurochemicals from the brain that almost precisely counteract the effects of the stress response.

Yoga practice is one way to cultivate this response. Try the yoga exercise listed to the right.

The short exercise distills some of the essence of yoga. In order to breathe calmly and get in touch with your body, your mind has to slow down and focus in the moment. The more you practice getting in touch with your body and relaxing, the more skillful you become at doing it. The calmer your mind becomes. The more your body listens to you. What I like about yoga is that it specifically helps to change the shape of muscles from short, tight and dense, to elongated, relaxed and natural.

Do you allow time each day to focus on relaxing your body and mind with no distractions? The natural state of your hand is relaxed, not clenched in a fist. The natural state of your body is one of relaxation, all you need do is spend time to help it get there. Try a daily practice of relaxation. For example, one exercise is to set a timer to go off on your computer at a certain time of the day. Take that time to focus in the present and relax. Alternatively, set up some other reminder, your choice. With regular practice, you can create a wave of relaxation that dampens the stress in your life. Additionally, go take a yoga class. Reestablish the connection between your rational mind and your body. Make somebody home with awareness. Learn how to connect mind and body so that you can replace a habit of creating tense, tight muscles with an anxious mind to one of creating relaxed, natural muscles with a calm mind.

Turn your saber tooth tigers into pussycats.

Pussy Cat

Yoga Softer Side

Yoga Exercise

Relax your feet on the floor.
Take a deep breathe and soften the gaze of your eyes.
Imagine that your eyes are located at the back of your head. This helps.
Focus on the feel of your buttocks on the chair.
Breathe in, breathe out and spread your buttocks wide, relax them against the chair.
Let the chair support your weight without collapsing into it.
Lengthen your spine.
Relax your shoulders away from your ears.
Breathe into your whole body, breathe out and release any tension from it.
Can you locate the area of most tension in your body?
If so, breathe into that area and exhale the tension out.
Based on the book 'Natural Body, Natural Shape'