stress-relief

Ah, summer — longer days, a less structured lifestyle … NOT. If you’re stressed out by your kids’ summer activities, friends, meals, constant messes and late night hours (I have three teens; I can relate!), you know it’s easy to feel you can’t fit in workouts on top of everything else. But study after study has shown that regular exercise is one of the best things you can do when you’re stressed.

One of the great things about yoga is that you don’t need to invest in a bunch of equipment to reap its benefits. As long as you have a yoga mat and some stretchy clothes, and you’re good to go. And yet there is one yoga prop I wish I could magically disperse to every household in America. Heck—the whole world! And that’s the humble yoga bolster.

INVERSIONS are coveted among yogis. Yoga is one of the few systems of health that suggest you regularly turn yourself upside down for extended periods of time. The health claims are astonishing: it reverses aging, increases blood flow to the brain, regulates pituitary and pineal glands, relieves constipation, tranquilizes and mellows the nervous system, and the list goes on. Responses vary from person to person, but a regular practice of turning upside down to one degree or another is soothing and balancing, and it can be a necessary step for many to stop their chattering minds prior to meditation.

When I first began practicing yoga in 1983, my teachers didn’t just tell me to breathe; they gave me explicit instructions on how to breathe, how to feel the sensations of breath, and how to become familiar with the muscles of respiration. When I began studying the Ashtanga style of yoga at age 22, I was introduced to ujayii pranayama, or the triumphant breath. It was a complete revelation to me.

Most people are familiar with brain waves, but not as many people are familiar with heart waves. Researchers have found that our heart emits waves much as our brain does. When we are in a state of stress, anxiety, worry, or depletion, these waves form a jagged and rough pattern. When we are a state of gratitude, these waves form a coherent pattern.

I’m 37 years old, but look me in the face, give my body the once over, and like most others, you might peg my age around 27. That’s not vanity talking … it’s the reality of a consistent yoga regimen. I feel like Benjamin Button, getting younger and more vital instead of older with each year.

Seated twist pose how-to segment from The Practical Power of Yoga

I’m writing this post from a coffee shop. On one hand, I love working in a coffee shop: It spurs me to put on clothes that aren’t covered in smashed up pieces of banana (I have a 10-month-old), get some fresh air, and interact with other humans.

Not to be a total bummer, but no matter how many hours we’ve put in on the mat, how many “Om”s we sing or how many times we dent the meditation cushion, anyone can regress in times of stress. We get snarky, we lash out, we turn on the waterworks and display a host of other behaviors better suited to the Terrible Twos than, say, a holiday dinner at the adult table.

When we’re stressed we overeat. We have a hard time sleeping. These reactionary ways of dealing with stress are usually automatic — and they put even more stress on your body in the long run. But you can take a proactive approach to stress management this holiday. Try one or more of these five steps I’ve seen help my clients the most:

Detoxing after the holiday “re-tox” — no matter how much carnage was left on that Thanksgiving dinner table, or how much stress crept into your weekend — is as easy as unrolling your mat. No matter when or on what level you could use a little realigning, this sequence is for you.