Get fit with us!

Greetings Lifit Yogis and Friends!

There is a lot to report here – life is FULL!  Hope you are all off to a great summer!  I must start with saying that several classes came to an end in May – they will resume in September and in the July and August newsletters, I will be asking for confirmation of attendance from former members of each class before I give away spots to new interested students. I will be adding two new classes in Sept – a Pilates mat class and a Men’s Yoga class, so stay tuned for those developments!

The classes at Christ United Methodist church have all put in two months learning the Mother Sequence and the Prasarita Sequence and I must say, we had two months of “firsts” – first headstands, handstands, shoulderstands,…this crew is strong!  They been very patient with changes while we have a grand new youth building in progress.  The “word” is that it will be ready by the fall for the start of school and classes and many groups, including our classes will get to use this fabulous new space.  After hearing us out on flooring issues, the building committee has been looking into meeting such requests.  Since the requests put the plans overbudget, Lifefit was asked to have classes pledge the amount over the next few years and I think we can easily do it!  Every Christmas the classes there try to do a service project together, or give money for a cause.  Last year, we collected money to help with this new building and I see us doing the same again this year toward the floor of the space we will use and I can only imagine you all would be supportive.  As we get closer to that time we will “have fun with it” as we did last year and as “time flies while we are having fun”, in no time, we will be looking to the next item to help support! 

Next, the summer schedule for my home studio will operate as it did last summer.  On the website, each month, there will be a list of my available dates/hours.  You will be able to see what is available.  Interested students (can be a private session or up to 5 for a small group) can sign up and indicate wether they want the hour as a private or that they want their time to be open to others joining them so as to split the cost of the hour.  The possibilities for “work” include” yoga wall, Pilates Reformer, Pilates Arc, and the Migun bed. 

I will be offering a few workshops as well.  Please see the attachment and please share with interested friends.  The workshops are designed to accommodate both newcomers to yoga – folks who want a “crash course” on the theme of the workshop and may then feel better about joining an ongoing class as well as “seasoned yogis” who want more indepth ideas of how to practice so as to build their own practice.  All are welcome!

Many of you often ask me about my personal nutrition habits and I thought to share some new developments.  I am as usual sticking to the Sunrider products that I have used on a daily/weekly basis:  NuPlus to help build/feed the body’s systems, Fortune Delight which is a very light cleanse to rid the body of toxins in processed foods (you never know what is in all the foods you eat from a restaurant), Sunney Dew which is their stevia product (no awful aftertaste – best stevia product I have noticed yet) and that #1 selling item Sunbreeze Oil with its myriad of uses from helping sore throats, motion sickness, sore muscles, …Let me know if any of you are in need of any of these items or if you want some more detailed information.  I am now supplementing with Juice Plus products and I am taking the Garden and Orchard blend of chewables (give all the nutrition of your daily fruit and vegetable requirements) and our son Walker is in addition using the “Complete” shake on a daily basis and loves it.  I was wowed by the medical studies that were done with these products and that are still going on.  As much as I love to eat fresh foods especially, I can not seem to get enough everyday and though we grow a vegetable garden and try to buy organic and local produce, still a good bit of our daily intake is probably lacking enough nutritional qualities. If any of you are interested in these products, I am happy to discuss and next month I will put more info on my website about the many great Juice Plus products.  And, as many of you have had discussions with me on the following topics, I do take extra calcium, Vitamin D, and Omega 3s.  Hope you do too! 

Sunday June 6^th I will help lead  yoga for a program at the Wesley Long Cancer Center called Cancer Survivor Day – Finding Your New Normal.  If any of my students are planning to be at that program, come by and I will put you to doing some poses as my “great examples.”

Here are some articles I thought you might find interesting:

By Cyndi Lee

Often, we think of stress as a bad thing. But feeling stressed can be useful when we're dealing with threatening situations, such as the approach of a driver with road rage. In those moments, it's important that we react quickly, so the fight-or-flight response kicks in, causing a chain reaction—our adrenaline pumps, our blood pressure rises, our heart rate speeds up, and our muscular tension increases. The problem is, when these threats—real or perceived—come too fast and furious, the body doesn't have time to recover. The effects can be serious and far-reaching. Certain functions, like cardiovascular activity, get overused; others, like digestion, become sluggish. It's thought that these imbalances can lead to toxic buildup and ultimately disease.  

During some stressful times, we get wound up so tight that no amount of rest can release the tension in our muscles. We simply need to move. But we often feel too exhausted for intense, heart-pumping physical exertion. Fortunately, yoga can rescue us! And we can often feel the effects immediately. As we focus on movement and the breath, yoga stills our ceaseless thinking, worrying, and projecting into the future.

Tips from Mona:  Try a gentle yoga routine.  Try a few poses that require energy/concentration, so as to refocus the mind away from the original stressor(s).  Include a restorative pose.   If you really need only a restorative practice, include positions that vary your body’s alignment to gravity – ex.  on prone, supine, side-lying,  passive twists, all with sufficient props for support.   Practice intuitively without any preconceptions as to how long and what your practice should “look like.”   Let your breath guide you.  Opening the front body needs a great inhale.  Folding the front body needs an exhale. In restorative poses, try to stay 5 to 20 minutes and focus on slow, deep, full breaths.  See the attachment on workshops and come learn some restorative poses!

This Is Your Body on Stress

Stress is just your body's natural response to perceived danger. But what happens when your stress reaction never shuts off?

By Roger Cole

People have struggled with bumps on the path of life since before the dawn of history, but it was not until the middle of the 20th century that physiologist Hans Selye labeled our reaction to life's challenges with a simple word: stress. Now, 50 years later, there's a conversation you hear so often, it's almost a chorus: You ask a friend, "How are you?" and she replies, "I'm OK, but I'm feeling a little stressed."

You know just what she means; you've felt the same way all too often yourself. For you, the stress shows up as insomnia, while your friend sleeps well but has a lingering stomachache and painful knots in her shoulders. Individual stress symptoms can differ, but all have their roots in the physiological changes that our bodies undergo when we feel we're in danger.  All stress, great or small, arises from our struggle to survive and reproduce. We experience it when we sense a threat to ourselves or our children.  

A situation doesn't have to threaten imminent death to cause stress. As social creatures, we all instinctively know that we, and our children, depend on others for our long-term well-being. One key thing to remember about stress is that a threat doesn't have to be real to cause it; we just have to believe it's real.  

Scientists differentiate between short-term (acute) stress and long-term (chronic) stress. Acute stress evokes physical and emotional responses that activate the body and mind to deal with an immediate threat. When the threat passes, the reactions subside. Long-term stress evokes similar responses, usually at a lower intensity, but keeps repeating them day after day without respite. When they repeat too often for too long, the life-saving responses that are so helpful in the short run can actually become life-threatening.

The short-term stress reaction is often called the fight-or-flight response.   To do either of these well, our bodies need maximum alertness, powerful muscle action, and the ability to keep going even if injured.  The reasoning part of the brain (the cerebral cortex) perceived a problem that required quick action but was not a life-or-death emergency. Then the emotional part of the brain (the limbic system, especially an almond-shaped structure called the amygdala) increased the sense of urgency by responding with fear and anger.  The cortex and the limbic system triggered some responses more or less directly, including increased heart rate and muscle tension, but they delegated most of the responsibility for activating the rest of the responses to a sort of 911 control center located in the rear part of the hypothalamus (a brain area that coordinates basic drives like hunger, sleep, and self-defense).  

Effects from a fight-or-flight response take a long time to wear off. Muscles that have tensed are left shortened and do not automatically go back to their former length. On the contrary, spinal reflexes make them contract if they begin to lengthen: After the danger has passed and the brain lets the muscles relax a little, the spinal cord immediately tells them to tense up again. At first, they go through a very rapid cycle of relaxing a little and then contracting, again and again. That's   Eventually, the stretch reflex abates enough for the trembling to subside, but the muscles still don't settle back to their former resting length. They remain relatively short and tense until the reflex is reset by a relaxing experience, like the gentle, conscious stretching that occurs during a massage or a yoga session.

Muscles aren't the only part of the body slow to recover from a fight-or-flight reaction. Stress hormones remain in the bloodstream for quite a long time, and more may be released in response to memories of the danger.  This is what can happen when we face acute, major stress. But what happens when we experience moderate stress repeatedly, day after day? Our bodies activate the same emergency systems, although to a lesser degree. Unfortunately, when invoked chronically, physiological responses that help us cope with danger can become dangerous themselves. Suppression of digestion can contribute to gastrointestinal problems, and promotion of high glucose levels in the blood may contribute to diabetes. Constricted blood vessels, a pounding heart, and rapid clotting can eventually lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, or stroke. Suppression of inflammation can also suppress the immune system, making us more susceptible to infection and possibly even cancer. Chronic stress can also lead to infertility, poor healing capability, and exhaustion.

Stress Busters

Luckily, there are lots of ways to reduce stress or even to head it off in the first place. They fall into three main categories: changing your situation, changing your attitude, and taking good care of yourself. Changing your situation—getting a new job, moving to a new neighborhood, or leaving an unhealthy relationship—can be very effective, but it's often not practical or even desirable. Changing your attitude—deciding you don't have to knock yourself out working overtime to prove your self-worth, for example, or deciding it's not your responsibility to make your partner change—can be very powerful, even life-transforming, because it puts you in control. When you realize you can choose how you react, many events you formerly found stressful may lose their power to push your buttons. Taking care of yourself—eating right, avoiding harmful drugs, exercising, making rest a priority, and scheduling time in pleasant environments with nice people—helps you recover from stress and keeps it from building up again.

One of the best stress busters around is yoga. It directly counteracts both the physiological and psychological components of stress, simultaneously helping you take better care of yourself and change your attitude. The stretching you do in yoga relieves muscle tension. Upside-down poses and reclining poses slow the heart, relax the blood vessels, inhibit production of norepinephrine, and calm the brain. Pranayama (yoga's classic breathwork) slows respiration. As you practice being more aware and mindful, you gain a sense of self-control, equanimity, and peace. Perhaps most important of all, meditation and the teachings of yoga philosophy can help you realize that most of the things that upset you just aren't worth getting stressed about.

A research scientist and Iyengar-certified yoga teacher, Roger Cole, Ph.D., specializes in human anatomy and physiology, relaxation, sleep, and biological rhythms. For more information, see www.yogadelmar.com.

Return to http://www.yogajournal.com/health/1514

 Lastly, I want to say that I am proud of all of my students – you all are impressive, outstanding human beings who work at improving our world.  I am thankful and blessed to be your teacher.  Let’s keep on keepin’ on, and let’s do it together!

Peace,

Mona