Guest Post from Cindy Cullen

Yoga to Cure Depression and Chase Away the Blues

There’s no doubting the fact that exercise helps boost both mental and physical health, and if there’s one form of exercise that doesn’t take too much time and doesn’t tax your body and drain you physically even as it gives you all the benefits of working out, it’s yoga. For long, yoga had been associated with the mystic East and spirituality more than signifying a way of exercise. Today however, many people have taken to yoga as one of the best ways to improve body and soul; when practiced just a few days a week, for as little as 20 minutes a day, yoga provides a host of benefits that improve the quality of your life and your overall wellbeing.

If you’re prone to moods that are blue and feel sad or depressed most of the time, you could turn to yoga as an effective form of therapy. It helps elevate your mood by:

• Altering your brain chemistry to enable it to produce more serotonin and dopamine (feel-good hormones)
• Stimulating your pituitary gland to release endorphins (the feel-good hormone that is released when you exercise) and reduce the level of cortisol (the stress hormone that causes immense damage to mental and physical health)
• Regulating your thyroid and reducing mood swings and preventing your weight from see-sawing
• Making you look better and younger by directing more blood to your face so your skin glows and wrinkles are slow to form

The yoga positions (or asanas) that help cope with depression are the head stand (sirshasana), the plow (halaasana), the shoulder stand (sarvangasana), and the fish (matsyasana). While the head and shoulder stands are for advanced practitioners of yoga, the plow and the fish positions can be learned in a few weeks with regular practice. All these positions direct more blood to your head and brain and help stimulate your neurons to generate feel-good hormones that boost your mood. In fact, the shoulder stand is so effective an exercise that doing just this everyday for a few days a week is enough to boost your physical and mental health.

Besides these asanas, practicing how to breathe correctly and meditating for a while in a silent and calm environment can bring about a host of mental and physical health benefits, including boosting your mood and reducing depressive thoughts and feelings.

A significant advantage of yoga is that it is convenient for people of all ages – even if you have health conditions that prevent you from exercising or playing a sport, you could still stay fit and slim by practicing simple yoga exercises and breathing techniques. However, before you begin any yoga routine, discuss it with your doctor and seek out a professional yoga instructor to help you out initially.

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Cindy Cullen, she writes on the topic of culinary arts colleges . She welcomes your comments at her email id: cindycullen84 <@>gmail<.>com.

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Be Present Now!

I'm quoting liberally from this New York Times article tomorrow in class... Readmore »»

Sequence// Shoulder Openers

Yes, it's been awhile. My apologies. But here we go. A very, very good shoulder opener from a class I took on Monday night. You should make a 180 turn by the end of this sequence

1. Start off with a bunch of Sun As and Bs to warm up (or your choice)
2. Low lunge
3. High Lunge (Crescent Lunge)
4. Virabhadrasana II (Warrior II)
5. Trikonasana (Triangle Pose)
6. Revolved Triangle (Hand to back leg, heart opener, not the twist-y variety)
7. Five Pointed Star
8. Take your arms into Gomukhasana (Face of Light or Cow Face Pose) arms
9. Exhale, keeping arms like that, come into wide-legged forward fold
10. Inhaling to come up, keeping arms like that, turn to back of room
11. Exhale, lower into Parsvottanasana (Pyramid Pose) with Face of Light Arms
12. Inhale, come up half-way and release arms
13. Parivrtta Trikonasana (Revolved Triangle, the twist-y variety)
14. Inhale, come up halfway
15. Virabhadrasana III
16. Back to Crescent Lunge
17. Vinyasa
18. Repeat from 1, making your way back to  the front of the room
19. Complete with any cool-down 
20. Savasana!

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Tapas

I've seen several "definitions" of tapas - my favorites being heat, perseverance and austerity. We have to put effort into the world for our visions, goals, and dreams to come to fruition while simultaneously balancing with samtosha - discovering effort with contentment. It is important to recognize the difference between fantasizing about our future and truly setting ourselves on the path to creating our ideal reality. Kimberly Wilson discusses tapas in Hip Tranquil Chick as the heat that can bring change and allow for room to grow; she suggests it's connecting with tapas that allows us to stay mindful of our choices (and sacrifices) that help to move us along the spiritual path. Self observation and awareness is key as we define tapas in our own life. Dedicating our practice of asana, meditation, and study helps to keep consistency on the path to who we desire to be. I feel as if I reset myself on the path of who I want to be every single day. As crazy as it sounds, life sometimes gets in the way and I have to bring mindfulness to the choices I make and get back on the mat, sit for 10 minutes or journal first thing in the morning to reconnect and get back on my path. Instead of feeling out stagnant in any situation make the choices to put effort behind moving forward and discovering change.

The balance of contentment and effort is important in asana practice. If we force (in life and in asana) we often do more harm than good. As teachers, it's important to stay mindful of how we move our students into asana. Instead of demonstrating or cueing students to the "ideal" or most advanced level of any given pose and then giving modifications, start gently and give advancements. Rather than overwhelm, I invite you to underwhelm and then progress. Allow your students to want more of each asana and that will generate the heat of change in their body, mind and spirit.

What is your understanding of tapas or ways in which you've brought tapas into your life?

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I'm a Yoga Teacher, but also...

Two recent comments on posts got me a-thinkin'. Natalia's comment in particular (not quoted in entirety, but mostly):

"...especially about walk-outs- I think that walk-outs are very tied to how teaching yoga involves a money exchange, which is interpreted by many students that they are paying for a product, not supporting a community- and that product is the perfect balance of your personality making them feel motivated, enlightened, challenged, supported, satisfied, etc. And if you don't GIVE them those feelings, sometimes they walk out. As the 'meditator' above mentions about being a facilitator, not an enlightenator, I spend a lot of time telling my students that I am not there to GIVE them those things, just facilitate a space during which they can pay more attention to themselves, practice compassion, curiosity, choose their level of challenge or relaxation, etc, with me there as the 'suggester,' emphasis on 'jester.' This is one of the many reasons I call my class "Empowerflow" because I am trying to Empower my students, not glue them to me. In fact, sometimes I feel guilty wanting students to come back, because I really want them to realize that they can give themselves the gifts of yoga without me.



But back to the whole financial system of yoga. It's fascinating how students can have all the 'product' expectations that I mentioned above, but are willing to pay relatively little.

This is my current rant:


Students: You want me to have a sculpted, flab-free body that I wrap in spandex so you can see its every curve. Then I stand in front of you and writhe and spread my legs and smile and tell you how special you are and maybe I rub your head afterward, and you want to pay me less than you pay for a six-pack of microbrew? And you're not sure if it's worthwhile or if you should come back? F- that. Strippers make more money than that, doing almost the same thing, and they get tips. That's why I'm starting a yoga burlesque group and writing yoga raps that let me blow off some steam. Here's one on the topic:

You would tip her

If she were a stripper

(and, damn, she'd be good,

maybe she should)

Or if he were a server

Sure to deliver.

But what about the one

Who makes loving yourself fun?

Yoga is a service industry.

This is real.

Tip your yogistas like your baristas.

Tip your yoga instructors!"

And Rachel's too:

"Nobody teaches you about tax returns and managing a business either.... "

Reading these, I realized... how many different "jobs" are encompassed under the one title of "Yoga Instructor"? Just in one sit down I came up with this list:

1. Doctor
2. Counselor/Therapist
3. Philosopher
4. Religious Scholar
5. Motivational Speaker
6. Organizational Expert
7. Librarian (anyone ever spend hours looking for that perfect quote for class?)
8. Comedian
9. Accountant
10. Exercise instructor

Any more to add to the list? This is just an initial thought burst... I have a feeling I'm missing a lot more. Also... yoga burlesque group? Anyone out there joining?

Peace and love to my hard working and hard appreciating yogis and yoginis! Readmore »»

Thank you for everything

Thank you for everything.

I have no complaints whatsoever.

-Gratitude mantra by Sono (Zen Master)

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I win things! I get packages!

Yesterday evening, the divine Miz Nadine Falwell informed me that I won a Sharon Gannon cd from a giveaway on her website. I've been entering these types off of blogs for over a year now, and this is the second thing I have won (the first? A lulu headband from Nikki... another huge score). I am as giddy as a kiddo. Truth? Not sure if I'm more excited about the cd or about getting a piece of mail from around the world!

Growing up, I had a pen-pal in Australia. In her last letter to me, she asked me what I planned on doing for Christmas that year. I remember being really nervous to tell her that I didn't celebrate Christmas because I wasn't sure if there were Jewish people in Australia. I wrote her back, but never got a response. As young as I was, I decided telling her about Hanukkah probably scared her off. Other options include her being a 7 or 8 year old girl and not the most reliable pen-pal.

This really lovely "win" reminded me of how good it felt to get letters from around the world and inspired me. Sometimes I feel isolated in what is still a new place for me (just moved in April after 5 years living in Wisconsin) and seek folks to share with. In a way, with pen pals there is more honesty than with people you see regularly face to face, with the worst that can happen is that they stop writing (I've been there, it's not so bad). So... I want a pen pal! I want pen pals (plural)!

Do you live far, far away? Are you looking to bring back the dying art of the hand written letter? Are you looking to bring the patience of writing by hand (as opposed to the speediness of typing) and the patience of waiting for the letter to arrive into your life? Would you like to share and be shared with? A peer mentoring of sorts?

I promise I would never ever in a million years share the information in the letters anywhere or with anyone and would expect the same. There are more thoughts here, but I wanted to see if there's any interest out there. If so, my email address is in the top right hand corner of the blog. Send any questions, comments, or interest.

Pen pals! It's retro, but just what the world needs. Readmore »»