Dr. Rick Levy
Fear is rampant in today’s society. You have the power to banish fear from your life, and you should resolve to do so because of its highly destructive nature. If it is allowed to go unchecked it will paralyze your efforts to succeed and eventually cause illness in your mind and body. Moreover, chronic fear generates negative energy that broadcasts out from your mind into the world around you, where it infects society and serves only to attract more fear. For all these reasons, fear must be dealt with effectively.
At the psychological level, fear is our built-in warning system. Just like you have pain in your body to alert you to illness or injury , you have fear in your mind to alert you to a threat to your safety. When fear arises it triggers the release of stress hormones that divert blood flow away from the vital organs to the large muscles. The body does this because it is preparing to fight or run away from something - the classic “fight or flight” response.
A single brief episode of fear serves an important function that might save your life if the threat were a street thug or a tiger. But there are so many threats that prey on the public mind these days that the stress response never abates. The result is that people succumb to a chronic fear-based stress syndrome with dangerous long-term health effects. These include poor digestion, autoimmune problems, glandular disease, retarded healing, poor functioning of vital organs like the heart and lungs, anger, rage, fear, terror, distorted thinking, impatience, erratic emotional states, memory loss, anxiety, and depression.
At the spiritual level, chronic fear is a destructive energetic force ( avidya ) that leads us away from one another and from God. People who suffer from chronic fear tend to pull back from the collective and become increasingly more distrustful, alienated and frightened. Where there is chronic fear among many, avidya energy intensifies and becomes a contagion that will captivate the entire society. This is the purpose of avidya , which always functions to alienate people from each other and increase suffering.
To deal with fear effectively, first recognize it as a warning when it arises - your mind is telling you to pay attention. Do not try to dismiss it or “tough it out.” Instead, slow down long enough to examine why you are fearful and honestly face the threat. Then directly address it by coming up with an effective action plan to deal with it. Do what you need to do to increase your safety (even the threat of terrorism can be minimized by changes in policy and behavior). Once you’ve done this, recognize that you’re in need of healing.
The best antidote for fear is vidya - the virtuous forces that work to lead us into God by promoting the nobility of every person and the oneness of humankind. So to heal yourself from fear, start by doing things that make you feel secure and bring you love and happiness. Reconnect with family and friends. Make a determined effort to reach out to others in heartfelt compassion, and even consider doing a little public service. You’ll feel much better, and at the same time you’ll help shift the societal energies away from avidya disunity and into vidya unity and compassion.
The most effective way to banish fear is to meditate. Even a little daily meditation (15 minutes) will heal you from fear. Meditation has been scientifically proven to produce the opposite of the human stress response: blood pressure goes down, circulation is equalized throughout the vital organs, immune functioning is elevated, breathing and heart rate are slowed, and brain waves relax to produce a peaceful mental euphoria. Meditation has these effects because it brings you into conscious awareness of your soul ( Atman ), which is eternal, blissful, all powerful and impervious to threats of any kind. The fountain of ensuing joy that follows soul contact in meditation is more than sufficient to banish the energy of fear from body and mind.
Meditate in the morning, then use this simple technique to banish fear if it arises during the day in response to a new stimulus. To use it, you must remain aware of your emotions so you can intervene as soon as you feel fear rising. When it does, place your attention on the third eye (the point between the eyebrows). Then draw in a deep breath while you silently affirm “I am soul - eternal, all knowing, ever-new joy.” As you breathe out, silently chant Om . Do this (breathe in with affirmation; chant Om while breathing out) for three slow consecutive breaths. You will feel better immediately. Use the technique as often as fear rises. As you do, you will train your mind to focus constantly on the highest of vidya virtues - your unity with God - at which point, fear will cease to exist.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Miracles of Yoga in Improving Memory Power
When you fail to remember something, which you have read, heard or seen and cannot remember despite several efforts then it is called loss of memory power or forgetful-ness. People of all age groups are suffering due to this problem. There are a number of reasons for this problem. For example, mental tension, excessive mental work or not using it at all, busy schedule throughout the day, physical and mental weakness or serious head injury.
Take balanced diet and chew it nicely it improves memory. Remember all the things done throughout the day in the chronological order. This exercise improves the memory power.
Yogic exercises are also helpful in improving memory power and reduce forgetfulness. Practice the yogic exercises with the feeling that the memory power is improving and forgetfulness is reducing.
YOGA ASANA
Yoga asana have excellent strength. Regular practice of these exercises develops the physical and mental capabilities, which improves the memory power, grasping power and intelligence. Sarvangasana and Bhujangasana are the two main asana. Regular practice of these asana cures all the physical and mental related problems and thereby improve the memory power.
SARVANGASAN
Regular practice of this asana supplies pure blood to the brain. It makes the pituitary and pineal glands healthy, activates the brain. It increases the memory power, grasping power and intelligence among the children. It activates the thyroid and pituitary glands, which result in height increase.
This is beneficial for increasing height as it activates the thyroid and pituitary glands. It cures tiredness, weakness and obesity in the children. It makes the eyes, ears, nose and other organs healthy. It improves the digestive system, activates the intestines, liver and increases the digestive fire. It cures enlarged liver, swelling, hysteria, hydrosil, hernia and constipation.
Method:
1. Lie down straight on your back. The legs should be together, join the hands to the sides and rest the palms on the ground.
2. Inhale and raise the legs at 30 degrees upwards, then 60 degrees and then 90 degrees. You can support the back while lifting the legs. If the legs cannot be kept straight at 90 degrees take them back at 120 degrees and rest the hands at the back. The elbows should rest on the ground. The paws should be straight the eyes should be closed otherwise glance at the toes. In the beginning it can be done for 2 minutes and then slowly increase the time up to half an hour.
3. While coming back keep the legs straight and bend backwards slightly. Remove both the hands from the back and rest them straight on the ground. Now, press the floor with the palms and get up in the same position as you had lied down, first back and then the legs should be laid straight on the floor. The duration for Sarvangasan and Shavasan should be the same.
Caution:
Avoid this asana in case of neck and back pain.
BHUJANGASANA
Rejuvenating asana is also beneficial for improving memory power. It cures backache, sciatica pain, slip disc, cervical spondalitis and other spinal problems.
It strengthens the thyroid, para thyroid glands. It is useful in case of asthma.
It strengthens the liver and useful in case of loss of appetite, acidity, diabetes and other stomach related problems. It makes the backbone flexible and healthy. Method: Lie down on your stomach; keep the palms on the ground on both sides of the chest. The elbows should be lifted upwards and the shoulders should be close to the chest.
The legs should be straight and joined together. The paws should be stretched facing the spine and resting on the ground. Inhale and raise the chest and head upwards. The area below the navel should rest on the ground. Raise the head and move the neck backwards as much as you can. Remain in this position for 30 seconds. Repeat as many times as you can.
Caution:
Do not practice this asana in case of hernia.
PRANAYAM
Regular practice of pranayam along with asana is helpful for all round development and improving the memory power.
Bhastrika, kapalbhati and Brahmari Pranayam are the best. They improve the memory power and cures forgetfulness.
KAPALBHATI PRANAYAM
This pranayam supplies pure life energy to the brain. It increases the blood circulation in the brain and removes blood clots thereby improving the memory power. Other than this the toxic and foreign substances from the body are evacuated. It cures cold catarrh, sinusitis, allergy, tension and other diseases. It is very useful in case of phlegm, skin disease, asthma, heart disease, high and low blood pressure, depression, tiredness, laziness, sleeplessness, migraine, joint pain etc. Obesity, diabetes, constipation, indigestion, gastric problem, disinterest and other disease are cured and give vitality. As a result the whole body becomes healthy and disease free.
Method:
Sit in Padmasana and make the pranayam mudra with the hands, close the right nostril with the thumb, and exhale with full strength from the left nostril and inhale from left nostril. Then close the left nostril and exhale from the right nostril and inhale from the right nostril.
In this way inhale and exhale from both the nostrils one by one. In the beginning practice it 20 to 25 times and gradually increase it up to 60 times or more. However practice it depending on the physical capacity.
BHASTRIKA PRANAYAM
Health improves when the brain gets pure life energy. The prana and mind become stable, nervous weakness is cured and memory power improves. It cures the tridosha (vata, pitta, kapha) and problems arising from brain. This cures forgetfulness. It improves appetite. It is beneficial in case of low blood pressure, depression, sleeplessness, knee pain, cold catarrh, headache, diabetes, obesity, loss of appetite and asthma.
It cures thyroid and tonsils and other throat related diseases.
It strengthens the heart and lungs. It is helpful in case of arousal of kundalini and prana Method: Sit in Padmasana. Inhale with full strength and exhale from both the nostrils as strongly as you can. Repeat inhaling and exhaling. Rest when you are tired or exhale completely after practicing this for 30-40 times.
Now place the hand near the nose and close the left nostril. Breathe from right nostril. Breathe in as much as you can, put Jalandhar Bandh followed by Moolbandh. Stop the breathe for some time. Remove the bandh and exhale from left nostril. This is one cycle of Bhastrika Pranayam. Repeat two to three times. Caution: Do not shake the body while inhaling and exhaling. Do not practice it in case of high blood pressure, piles, acidity of perspiration due to heat.
BRAHMARI PRANAYAM
It cures brain generated problems, tension, worries, anger, sleeplessness, depression and other problems and improves the memory power. It cures anxiety and is useful in case of restlessness, high blood pressure, heart disease etc.
It cures diabetes, obesity, asthma, nervous weakness, and improve the memory power.
It is beneficial in case of gynecological diseases. It cures vata, pitta, kapha and other problems. It is also beneficial in case of headache, cold catarrh,
Method:
Sit in Padmasana and exhale from the nostrils slowly. Then inhale slowly. Inhale as much as you can and while exhaling produce a nasal sound. As if you are trying to produce the ma sound while chanting Om or like the honeybee whirling around the flowers. Produce this sound and exhale. Try to make this sound as sweet as possible. Close the ears with the thumbs in order to block the external noises and keep the fingers on the forehead. Inhale and exhale and produce the sound. Repeat this exercise for five minutes.
Caution: Do not shake the body while inhaling and exhaling. Do not practice it in case of high blood pressure, piles, acidity or perspiration due to heat.
OMKAR CHANTING
Omkar chanting improves the memory power. It increases the mental strengths. It arouses the Kundalini. It establishes contacts with the extraterrestrial powers.
Method:
Omkar is very significant in our lives. The letters A, O and Ma collectively make this word. The joint powers of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh are included in this word. Om is powerful and spread in the entire universe but cannot we cannot experience it. Om should be chanted for introspection, produce energy in the body and circulate the strength.
Inhale and chant A, then close the mouth and say O and then close and say Ma.
Stressing on the letter A, O and Ma cures the diseases of stomach, chest and brain respectively.
It is useful for improving the memory power.
Caution:
Do not practice this asana in case of hernia problem.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Yogic Remedy for Obesity
Obesity is the biggest problem of the modern age. It is the main cause for the serious, incurable and fatal diseases. Blood pressure, heart problem, diabetes and other dangerous diseases are caused due to obesity. The body weight gradually increases when attention is not paid during childhood. This takes the form of obesity. It can be cured permanently with the intake of balanced food, proper life style and regular practice of yoga asana. This will also cure the above-mentioned diseases.
The modern science age has also accepted the miraculous benefits of yog asana. Regular practice of yog asana cures all types of diseases.
A few asana useful to fight out obesity are being given below :
Dwichakrikasan
Method : Lie down straight towards your back and keep the hands below the hips, stop the breath, raise one leg fold up to the knee, bring the ankle near the hip and rotate in a cyclic motion. Repeat this from 10 to 30 times as per the capacity.
2. Similarly repeat the exercise with the second leg.Rotate the legs without touching the ground. Make a circular shape with the legs. Repeat this 10 to 30 times as per the capacity.
3.When tired lie down in Shavasan and rest for some time and repeat the exercise in the opposite direction and rest when tired.
4.Repeat the exercise by rotating both the legs continuously in a circular motion. Inhale, told one leg up to the knee and bring towards the chest, stretch the other leg straight up to the ground. Inhale and rotate the legs as if riding a bicycle. Then repeat this in the opposite direction continuously like a cycle.
5.Those who do not have backache, heart disease or hernia can do the exercise with both the legs and then rest in Shavasan. Repeat this 5 to 10 times according to the capacity.
Benefits:
1. This is the best exercise to reduce weight. Regular practice of this asana for 5 to 10 minutes sheds out unnecessary weight and obesity can be reduced in very less time.
2. It gives proper shape to the stomach. It activates the intestines. It cures constipation, dysentery, acidity etc.
3. In case of backache do the exercise with single leg, it is helpful for backache as well.
Padvritasan
Method : Lie down straight. Raise the right leg and make a circle by rotating the leg clockwise. In this way make 5 to 20 circles without touching the ground.
2.After rotating in one direction, rotate the leg in opposite direction (Anti-clockwise). Rest in Shavasan when tired.
3.After doing this exercise with single leg do it with both the legs simultaneously. Rotate the legs up down, right-left as much as you can. Rotate the legs clockwise and anti-clockwise directions.
Benefits:
1. This asana is also for reducing extra weight.
2. It definitely reduces the fat accumulated at hips, thighs and waist and gives proper shape to the stomach.
Ardhahlasan
Method : This asana is like Uttanapadasan - the only difference is that in Uttanapadasan the legs are raised up to 30 degrees whereas in Ardhahalasan the legs are raised up to 90 degrees.
1. Lie down on your back. Keep the palms towards the floor; legs straight and both the paws should be together.
2.Inhale and slowly raise the legs up to 90 degrees and remain in this position for some time.
3.While bringing down the legs rest the legs on the floor without jerk. Rest for a while and repeat it again at least six times.
4.Those who have back ache, should raise one leg at a time.
1. This asana is also for reducing extra weight.
2. It definitely reduces the fat accumulated at hips, thighs and waist and gives proper shape to the stomach.
Ardhahlasan
Method : This asana is like Uttanapadasan - the only difference is that in Uttanapadasan the legs are raised up to 30 degrees whereas in Ardhahalasan the legs are raised up to 90 degrees.
1. Lie down on your back. Keep the palms towards the floor; legs straight and both the paws should be together.
2.Inhale and slowly raise the legs up to 90 degrees and remain in this position for some time.
3.While bringing down the legs rest the legs on the floor without jerk. Rest for a while and repeat it again at least six times.
4.Those who have back ache, should raise one leg at a time.
Benefits:
1.This asana is especially useful to reduce weight.
2. It makes the intestines flexible and healthy, increases the fire of the stomach and cures constipation, gas and obesity.
3.It is also beneficial in shifting of the navel, heart disease, stomachache and respiratory problems.
4.Raising one leg at a time is specially benificial for backache problem.
1.This asana is especially useful to reduce weight.
2. It makes the intestines flexible and healthy, increases the fire of the stomach and cures constipation, gas and obesity.
3.It is also beneficial in shifting of the navel, heart disease, stomachache and respiratory problems.
4.Raising one leg at a time is specially benificial for backache problem.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Yoga for Hair Loss
If you are suffering from hair loss and you don’t want to go under the knife, then yoga could be the answer. According to some yoga gurus, there is little solution for hair loss problems in western medicine. Hair loss in men & women is a universal phenomena caused by hereditary problems, poor diets, stress etc. Only one western prescription product minoxidil has some acceptance as a cure of hair loss. However minoxidil has little or no effect when there is actual baldness rather than thinning.
Yoga postures can help you overcome stress, anxiety, and indigestion, poor blood circulation in head, which are considered as main causes of hair loss. Headstand yoga pose can be very helpful as it contributes blood circulation in head as well as relieves tension.
Following are some of the of yogas which can help you to remove stress and improve blood circulation in head.
Downward facing dog
Standing forward bend
Camel pose
Shoulder stand
Vajrasana
The Knee to Chest (Pawanmuktasana)
http://www.healthandyoga.com/html/yoga/asanas/pawanmuktasana1.asp
http://www.healthandyoga.com/html/yoga/asanas/pawanmuktasana2.asp
Apart from practicing these yogas, one can try message therapy for hair loss problems. You can take 3-5 minutes of gentle head message by using your fingertips, which will improve blood flow to hair follicles and help hair growth.
Divya Kesh Tail (Hair Oil for Hair Loss, Dandruff and Headache), which is produced by Swami Ramdev’s Divya pharmacy, can be a great cure for hair loss problems. This oil has ingredients like Bhringa-raja, Brahmi, Amalakl (Amala), Shweta Chandana & other constituents.
You can also try Reflexology by buffing of your fingernails of one hand against the other on a regular basis preferably daily twice or thrice for 5 minutes.
Meditation is another way to overcome hair loss problem as it can control stress. Sit in proper pose and observe your breathing.
Yoga postures can help you overcome stress, anxiety, and indigestion, poor blood circulation in head, which are considered as main causes of hair loss. Headstand yoga pose can be very helpful as it contributes blood circulation in head as well as relieves tension.
Following are some of the of yogas which can help you to remove stress and improve blood circulation in head.
Downward facing dog
Standing forward bend
Camel pose
Shoulder stand
Vajrasana
The Knee to Chest (Pawanmuktasana)
http://www.healthandyoga.com/html/yoga/asanas/pawanmuktasana1.asp
http://www.healthandyoga.com/html/yoga/asanas/pawanmuktasana2.asp
Apart from practicing these yogas, one can try message therapy for hair loss problems. You can take 3-5 minutes of gentle head message by using your fingertips, which will improve blood flow to hair follicles and help hair growth.
Divya Kesh Tail (Hair Oil for Hair Loss, Dandruff and Headache), which is produced by Swami Ramdev’s Divya pharmacy, can be a great cure for hair loss problems. This oil has ingredients like Bhringa-raja, Brahmi, Amalakl (Amala), Shweta Chandana & other constituents.
You can also try Reflexology by buffing of your fingernails of one hand against the other on a regular basis preferably daily twice or thrice for 5 minutes.
Meditation is another way to overcome hair loss problem as it can control stress. Sit in proper pose and observe your breathing.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Yoga for ADD/ADHD
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Attention Deficit Disorder aren’t just for kids. There may be some of you who are reading this who know you’ve got it and some who are wondering if maybe you would have been diagnosed as a child. People are researching the effects of a regular yoga practice on the symptoms of ADD. (ADHD and ADD will heretofore be referred to as ADD. The hyperactivity part is just one of the symptoms of this problem with maintaining focused, sustained attention and it is usually but not exclusively common to young boys. Girls tend to be dubbed “spacey.”) The symptoms of ADD (ADHD) are described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Psychiatric Disorders as meeting six or more of either 1) Inattention or 2)Hyperactivity/Impulsivity Symptoms and must have persisted for at least 6 months to a degree that is maladaptive and inconsistent with an individual’s developmental level.
1. Inattention
often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in homework, work, or other activities - often has difficulties sustaining attention in tasks or play activities - often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly - often does not follow through instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace (not due to oppositional behavior or failure to understand instructions)-often has difficulties organizing tasks and activities -often avoids, dislikes or is reluctant to engage in tasks that require sustained mental efforts -often loses things necessary for tasks or activities (toys, school assignments, work materials, planners) - is often easily distracted by extraneous stimuli - is often forgetful in daily activities
2. Hyperactivity/Impulsivity
Hyperactivity
often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat - often leaves seat in classroom or in other situations in which remaining seated is expected - often runs about or climbs excessively in situations in which it is inappropriate for children (in adolescents or adults, may be limited to subjective feelings of restlessness) often has difficulty playing or engaging in leisure activities quietly -is often “on the go” or often acts as if “driven by a motor” -often talks excessively
Impulsivity
often blurts out answers before questions have been completed - often has difficulty awaiting turn - often interrupts or intrudes on others (butts into conversations or games)
There is a particular area of the brain that controls the above symptoms and it is the prefrontal cortex. A PET scan reveals decreased activity in this area. The prefrontal lobes do not light up as much as a normal brain on this scan. Interestingly, as intuitive human beings, we decided that we are “adults” at age 21. That just happens to be when the prefrontal lobes have finally matured. Actually it is closer to 24 in males. That is why when you look back on the years before 21, you wonder how you could have make some of those stupid decisions and assumptions. Some of you may wonder how you actually survived intact. Well, you just weren’t working with a full deck yet. That’s why children need parents through those years when they think they know everything, sometimes to literally keep them alive. Having birthed three children in four years, there were a lot of teens around the house for a decade. There was a sign on the refrigerator that said, “Quick! Leave home now while you still know everything!” It was a great diffuser. Children and teens with ADD act on their half baked ideas and may actually seek out dangerous activities.
Things are interesting to us when we can give them our undivided attention. Even watching ants take food twice their size across a sidewalk can be fascinating to someone who can stay with the ant’s feat. People with ADD don’t find much in life interesting because they just can’t stay with it. However, if what they are doing is thrill-seekingly dangerous, the ability to focus is forced by the instinct to stay alive. Sensation seeking becomes a way of life for many boys who have ADD because finally they can focus on something. What we focus on, to the exclusion of everything else, we enjoy.
Pharmacological interventions, when they are right for an individual, can work like flippin’ magic. Being in a position where I can discuss the effects of medication with children, I do every chance I get. Comments like, “It is like the teacher is talking just to ME!” and “I am a new Jeremy!” attest to the increase in self esteem that some children have. The effects of medication range from instantaneous to the time it takes to get the right dose and type of medication. Sometimes meds don’t work because ADD isn’t the root problem. Most adults who have a psychiatric diagnosis also had problems focusing attention when young. We are pretty complicated beings. Medication can be extremely helpful for ADD. However, it is most helpful when it is part of a comprehensive behavioral plan that can foster life-long skills.
Yoga is an extremely valuable life-long practice that fosters the development of the entire physical body, the higher mental functions (to include the prefrontal cortex), as well as the spiritual body. The effects of a regular yoga practice on ADD/ADHD are not immediate like pharmacological interventions. However, they are profound and can stay with an individual forever, unlike a dose of medication that wears off. Dr. Cantwell, past director of the UCLA Child Psychiatry department described the life of an ADHD youngster as a “headlong rush into life.” Accidents and poordecisions sometimes cause serious consequences. Some such children don’t have a sense of where their bodies are in space and they suffer bodily injury far more often than the average child.
The phenomenon of knowing where your body is in space is called proprioception. It is a feedback mechanism that keeps us safe and functioning efficiently. Yoga is an awesome way to learn proprioception because the asanas are performed with awareness and there is ample time for feedback from both the teacher and the student. For example, when teaching a child to stand like a mountain, a teacher would say, “Now look down at your feet. Are they standing just the same? Now look up at your arms. Are they reaching up just the same?” Amazingly, some children have no idea where they are in space and surprise themselves at how much adjustment they need to make. When the whole body is involved in learning, brain function is enhanced by the integration that is coming in from the senses. Bilateral stimulation of the two sides of the brain with a prescribed flow of activity, such as a Sun Salutation, helps brain integration and makes the brain more efficient for learning. The yoga class itself is constituted by a prescribed ritual that is comforting for scattered minds. A class for these children perhaps begins with arranging your mat space, sitting on the mat, and preparing for the opening breathing practice, a Peace Breath. Peace Breath is a series of a full breath in, coordinated with the raising arms, and a slow out breath as the arms come down, palm to palm to the center of the body. The teacher suggests to the children that they bring all their attention and energy into the body as the hands come together. Next they might “pick grapes.” From their seated position, the hands reach up but this time cross the midline of the body as they reach up and over. Crossing the midline of the body enhances brain integration also and helps with balance.
Balancing postures are many. The children learn to balance on one foot, on their hands, and on their heads in a variety of ways. All balance postures require a focused mind. The children learn to first attend to alignment and a visual focus before moving into the balance posture. They learn the effect that talking, laughter and looking at someone else has on balance because they quickly loose it. They get instant feedback from their bodies. They know the mind affects the body. And because their minds are distractible, they seem to entertain multiple thoughts at once, or at least very few to a conclusion. Video games and television programs are enjoyable to these distractible minds because the field changes so very quickly. The next time you watch TV, count the number of seconds before the picture changes. Dr.Cantwell cautioned parents to severely limit video game and TV time because it reinforces the ADD symptoms. In yoga class, the children learn to be aware of the thoughts of the mind field and learn that they can choose to give their attention to the ones that are useful at the time. They learn that they do not have to continue to think a thought that is not useful or that can get them in trouble. This fosters the development of the executive center of the brain.
Written by Carolyn Reynolds
Psychiatric Disorders as meeting six or more of either 1) Inattention or 2)Hyperactivity/Impulsivity Symptoms and must have persisted for at least 6 months to a degree that is maladaptive and inconsistent with an individual’s developmental level.
1. Inattention
often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in homework, work, or other activities - often has difficulties sustaining attention in tasks or play activities - often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly - often does not follow through instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace (not due to oppositional behavior or failure to understand instructions)-often has difficulties organizing tasks and activities -often avoids, dislikes or is reluctant to engage in tasks that require sustained mental efforts -often loses things necessary for tasks or activities (toys, school assignments, work materials, planners) - is often easily distracted by extraneous stimuli - is often forgetful in daily activities
2. Hyperactivity/Impulsivity
Hyperactivity
often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat - often leaves seat in classroom or in other situations in which remaining seated is expected - often runs about or climbs excessively in situations in which it is inappropriate for children (in adolescents or adults, may be limited to subjective feelings of restlessness) often has difficulty playing or engaging in leisure activities quietly -is often “on the go” or often acts as if “driven by a motor” -often talks excessively
Impulsivity
often blurts out answers before questions have been completed - often has difficulty awaiting turn - often interrupts or intrudes on others (butts into conversations or games)
There is a particular area of the brain that controls the above symptoms and it is the prefrontal cortex. A PET scan reveals decreased activity in this area. The prefrontal lobes do not light up as much as a normal brain on this scan. Interestingly, as intuitive human beings, we decided that we are “adults” at age 21. That just happens to be when the prefrontal lobes have finally matured. Actually it is closer to 24 in males. That is why when you look back on the years before 21, you wonder how you could have make some of those stupid decisions and assumptions. Some of you may wonder how you actually survived intact. Well, you just weren’t working with a full deck yet. That’s why children need parents through those years when they think they know everything, sometimes to literally keep them alive. Having birthed three children in four years, there were a lot of teens around the house for a decade. There was a sign on the refrigerator that said, “Quick! Leave home now while you still know everything!” It was a great diffuser. Children and teens with ADD act on their half baked ideas and may actually seek out dangerous activities.
Things are interesting to us when we can give them our undivided attention. Even watching ants take food twice their size across a sidewalk can be fascinating to someone who can stay with the ant’s feat. People with ADD don’t find much in life interesting because they just can’t stay with it. However, if what they are doing is thrill-seekingly dangerous, the ability to focus is forced by the instinct to stay alive. Sensation seeking becomes a way of life for many boys who have ADD because finally they can focus on something. What we focus on, to the exclusion of everything else, we enjoy.
Pharmacological interventions, when they are right for an individual, can work like flippin’ magic. Being in a position where I can discuss the effects of medication with children, I do every chance I get. Comments like, “It is like the teacher is talking just to ME!” and “I am a new Jeremy!” attest to the increase in self esteem that some children have. The effects of medication range from instantaneous to the time it takes to get the right dose and type of medication. Sometimes meds don’t work because ADD isn’t the root problem. Most adults who have a psychiatric diagnosis also had problems focusing attention when young. We are pretty complicated beings. Medication can be extremely helpful for ADD. However, it is most helpful when it is part of a comprehensive behavioral plan that can foster life-long skills.
Yoga is an extremely valuable life-long practice that fosters the development of the entire physical body, the higher mental functions (to include the prefrontal cortex), as well as the spiritual body. The effects of a regular yoga practice on ADD/ADHD are not immediate like pharmacological interventions. However, they are profound and can stay with an individual forever, unlike a dose of medication that wears off. Dr. Cantwell, past director of the UCLA Child Psychiatry department described the life of an ADHD youngster as a “headlong rush into life.” Accidents and poordecisions sometimes cause serious consequences. Some such children don’t have a sense of where their bodies are in space and they suffer bodily injury far more often than the average child.
The phenomenon of knowing where your body is in space is called proprioception. It is a feedback mechanism that keeps us safe and functioning efficiently. Yoga is an awesome way to learn proprioception because the asanas are performed with awareness and there is ample time for feedback from both the teacher and the student. For example, when teaching a child to stand like a mountain, a teacher would say, “Now look down at your feet. Are they standing just the same? Now look up at your arms. Are they reaching up just the same?” Amazingly, some children have no idea where they are in space and surprise themselves at how much adjustment they need to make. When the whole body is involved in learning, brain function is enhanced by the integration that is coming in from the senses. Bilateral stimulation of the two sides of the brain with a prescribed flow of activity, such as a Sun Salutation, helps brain integration and makes the brain more efficient for learning. The yoga class itself is constituted by a prescribed ritual that is comforting for scattered minds. A class for these children perhaps begins with arranging your mat space, sitting on the mat, and preparing for the opening breathing practice, a Peace Breath. Peace Breath is a series of a full breath in, coordinated with the raising arms, and a slow out breath as the arms come down, palm to palm to the center of the body. The teacher suggests to the children that they bring all their attention and energy into the body as the hands come together. Next they might “pick grapes.” From their seated position, the hands reach up but this time cross the midline of the body as they reach up and over. Crossing the midline of the body enhances brain integration also and helps with balance.
Balancing postures are many. The children learn to balance on one foot, on their hands, and on their heads in a variety of ways. All balance postures require a focused mind. The children learn to first attend to alignment and a visual focus before moving into the balance posture. They learn the effect that talking, laughter and looking at someone else has on balance because they quickly loose it. They get instant feedback from their bodies. They know the mind affects the body. And because their minds are distractible, they seem to entertain multiple thoughts at once, or at least very few to a conclusion. Video games and television programs are enjoyable to these distractible minds because the field changes so very quickly. The next time you watch TV, count the number of seconds before the picture changes. Dr.Cantwell cautioned parents to severely limit video game and TV time because it reinforces the ADD symptoms. In yoga class, the children learn to be aware of the thoughts of the mind field and learn that they can choose to give their attention to the ones that are useful at the time. They learn that they do not have to continue to think a thought that is not useful or that can get them in trouble. This fosters the development of the executive center of the brain.
Written by Carolyn Reynolds
Monday, January 26, 2009
Get a grip on Panic Attacks
Jeff was sure he was having a heart attack. His heart was pounding faster than it ever had before. His chest ached and the pain radiated toward his left arm. He felt shaky. As he tried to focus on what was happening to him, the world grew distant and unreal. Anxiety welled up. Jeff managed to call his physician, who arranged for quick transport to the emergency room. There, however, a battery of tests failed to reveal the cause of his symptoms. A second attack occurred a few days later, and still no physiological cause could be found. Before long, panic attacks had become part of Jeff’s life.
Recognizing Panic Disorder
Everyone sometimes feels anxious for no identifiable reason. At these times we think, “Something is happening—I must stay alert.” Panic victims share these feelings, but for them the stakes are higher. Their distress is so overwhelming that the fearful possibilities take on mammoth proportions. “I’m having a heart attack,” they think, or “I’m losing my mind.” We all experience periods of vague anxiety, which often pass without our ever discovering or having to acknowledge the causes. Panic anxiety, however, is the cue for a determined (and often desperate) search for a source.
Panic attacks are characterized by rapidly escalating and overwhelming anxiety. In the beginning, panickers are rarely able to identify what has made them anxious, describing the episodes as occurring “out of the blue.” The attacks are triggered by frightening physical sensations that occur suddenly, much like an unconscious reflex. Among the most common are shortness of breath, a rapid heart rate, heart palpitations, sweating, trembling, a feeling of choking, chest pain, nausea, and dizziness. Frightened sufferers develop painfully sharp sensitivity to these sensations, often making several trips to the emergency room before they finally realize that their symptoms are panic-related.
Physical sensations alone are not the core of the illness. Fearful thoughts, unpleasant emotions, avoidant behaviors, disturbing sensations, and deteriorating relationships all collude with one another to maintain panic. Thoughts such as the fear of dying or of having a mental breakdown are common. Even mild anxiety can trigger an attack, and any disturbing emotion can be interpreted as a precursor to full-fledged panic.
Gradually, the fear of having an attack in public leads the panicker to avoid those places—a disorder known as agoraphobia. Problems in relationships, which may have been the original source of anxiety, become worse as panic episodes develop. Difficulty with self-assertiveness and with the resolution of conflicts increases. Friends and partners are often frustrated because they cannot understand what is happening.
The Road to Recovery
Fortunately, panic disorder can be treated successfully, frequently with a combination of psychotherapy and medication. Panic sufferers are now turning to yoga for help as well, for yoga offers a wide range of stress-reducing tools. An ancient model of recovery can be found in the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, one which is also embodied in the Four Noble Truths of the Buddha. In its briefest form, this model is an outline of the stages in the healing process, presented here as four questions:
1. What is the nature of the pain that all humans experience?
2. What is the cause of that pain?
3. What will be experienced when the pain is removed?
4. How can the pain be removed?
Yoga tells us that before searching for a cure it is important to look deeply into the nature and causes of illness. It is also important to get an idea of how things will be when symptoms have been removed, because otherwise we may have illusions about what recovery will be like. For example, eliminating anxiety is not the outcome of treatment for panic—the outcome is the ability to manage anxious feelings.
If we rewrite the four questions of the ancient model, focusing on panic attacks, they might read:
1. What is panic disorder?
2. What causes it?
3. What will life be like for the person who has overcome panic attacks?
4. How is recovery accomplished?
Looking for a Cause
Biologically oriented physicians have tended to attribute panic symptoms to problems of the nervous system. Jacob DaCosta, a Civil War physician, set the tone when he wrote, “It seems to me most likely that the heart has become irritable from its overreaction and frequent excitement, and that disordered innervation keeps it so.” This focus on biochemistry and physiology led to the development of tranquilizers.
Not long afterwards, Freud identified a form of anxiety that appeared in discrete, time-limited episodes. “An anxiety attack of this sort,” he wrote, “may have linked to it a disturbance of one or more of the bodily functions—such as respiration, heart action, vasomotor innervation, or glandular activity.” Nearly one hundred years later, this focus on the emotional component of panic has resulted in the psychiatric diagnosis called Panic Disorder.
More recently, clinicians have been exploring the role of disturbed breathing in panic attacks. As early as 1950, the physician R. L. Rice maintained that anxiety attacks were often the result, not the cause, of disturbed breathing; now psychotherapies for panic that include breath training are state-of-the-art. (Even so, very little training in this area is available to clinicians.)
Those who are familiar with yoga will recognize the classic body-breath-mind triad in these three points of view. But if a single cause for panic disorder exists, it has yet to be discovered. Instead, these three areas seem to interact with one another, forming feedback loops that grow larger if not addressed in some way.
For example, if someone is afraid of going to public places, then self-esteem plummets, fears increase, opportunities for relationships are limited, and panic-prone factors such as the fear of being labeled “incompetent” grow. Conversely, if the fear has been overcome, then self-esteem improves, fearful thinking is reduced, opportunities for relationships expand, and panic-prone factors are undermined.
The First Steps to Recovery
We have already seen what panic disorder is and we have a general idea of what causes it. Our next step is to discover how yoga, coupled with clinical experience, can help panickers take the steps necessary to recover. The first priority is to manage the frightening physical sensations accompanying panic attacks, because they will make any other work impossible. Panickers walk on pins and needles attempting to avoid the sudden, uncontrollable symptoms of their disorder, and because these involve rapid arousal of the nervous system, it is imperative to find ways to strengthen the nerves and calm anxiety.
Arousal is subtle and is triggered in a number of ways, but the key to calming it is to learn how to “talk” to the nerves, how to communicate across the great divide between voluntary and involuntary functioning. Once the panicker has learned to manage involuntary reactions, the sense of being out of control is enormously reduced.
Yoga training can be particularly useful here, for yoga teaches us how to interact with the nervous system. If we want to soothe and strengthen it, we need to learn deep, relaxed yogic breathing. Regardless of the pathways of arousal, breathing is the language of nervous system balance and control.
To illustrate this relationship, imagine how you would react if you were walking along a dark street, and a pointed object were thrust suddenly into your back. You might gasp, then tense your whole body. Gasping is the natural reaction to sudden fear. If you discovered that the attacker was only a friend playing a joke, you might sigh with relief. Then your breath might become agitated as your fear turned to irritation. The way you breathe reflects how you feel.
This relationship between breath and nerves is a two-way street. Just as emotions create changes in breathing, so changing our style of breathing can alter the way we feel. Breathing is the only involuntary function that can be easily and voluntarily controlled. During times of panic, relaxed, controlled breathing will give us immediate access to the nervous system. This means that by changing our breathing, we can change the condition of our nerves when tension disturbs and frightens us. Then, when breathing is relaxed and the panic response has been calmed, the underlying anxiety can be gradually brought to conscious awareness for processing.
Learning Relaxed Breathing
Practicing yoga is a good way to learn breathing skills, for it is a gradual process, often needing considerable support over a period of time. Yoga teachers quickly recognize when a student is having trouble (as is often the case with panickers), and they know a wide variety of alternate practices that will help the student master breathing skills.
The ultimate goal of breath training is to make smooth, diaphragmatic breathing a twenty-four hour habit. The corpse pose (lying on the back) and the crocodile pose (lying on the stomach with arms folded under the forehead) are both helpful training postures. Breathing with a ten-pound sandbag on the upper abdomen while lying in the corpse pose will help to strengthen the diaphragm and serve as a reminder to focus on the abdomen as well. In addition, it is helpful if the panicker learns to pay attention to breathing as often as possible during the day. Notice when the breath stops, notice when it jerks, for once an irregularity is obvious, it can be corrected. This practice not only fosters awareness, it makes the relationship between stress and breathing abundantly clear.
Panickers will find that diaphragmatic breathing not only calms the effect of arousal at the time of panic, it also provides an alternative focus for attention, allowing them to focus on their breathing instead of on the panic symptoms. As diaphragmatic breathing becomes a habit, the nervous system is less susceptible to panic in the first place. It usually takes about two weeks to become accustomed to the feeling of diaphragmatic breathing, and about six months of regular practice to make it a habit.
Special Problems in Breath Training
There are a few potential problems that panickers may experience during breath training, and it is well for both student and teacher to understand them at the outset. The most common is that panickers have often developed a highly self-vigilant style that can lead to performance anxiety. (“Is it supposed to feel this way?”) Micro-managing has become a way of life to panickers. The teacher needs to be warm—reassuring but firm, letting the practice do the teaching, without becoming over-analytical. Breathing does not need to be perfect to be good enough.
Sometimes panickers carry a great deal of physical tension in their bodies, and in these cases the natural unblocking effect of yoga stretches and postures can be helpful. Releasing abdominal tension while resting between postures promotes deep breathing. Covering the body with a blanket during relaxation and breath training can ease the feeling of being exposed or vulnerable.
A knot may sometimes form in the abdomen during panic attacks, making breathing difficult. As the attack continues hunger for air increases, but despite the need for air the panicker may feel that holding the breath is the way to “catch” it. Relaxed, continuous breathing, on the other hand, releases the unconscious tension created by holding the breath, and with practice it is possible to actually breathe through the knot that forms in the stomach during periods of anxiety. As increased awareness makes it possible to recognize tension early, it becomes easier to remain relaxed. To establish a smooth, unbroken flow of breath, the teacher might say, “When you come to the end of the inhalation and your abdomen has fully expanded, simply relax and let the exhalation begin. When you come to the end of the exhalation and your abdomen has contracted, simply relax and let the inhalation begin. Let each breath flow into the next breath by relaxing.”
Beyond Diaphragmatic Breathing
Many therapists have begun to use breath training in their work with clients, but few have been trained to teach more than the basics of diaphragmatic breathing. Yoga, on the other hand, offers many additional breathing and relaxation skills that can help recovering panickers. Perhaps the most effective of these is nadi shodhanam (channel purification). As its name suggests, nadi shodhanam works to unblock tensions and resistance in the energy-conveying channels of the physical and subtle bodies, thus calming and strengthening sensitive nerves.
Normal breathing carries away wastes and brings in fresh energy with each breath. As energy is brought in, it must be assimilated and distributed efficiently in order to fulfill the purpose of breathing. That’s where nadi shodhanam comes in. The process of channel purification slows breathing down and focuses our attention on its flow. At the same time, according to yoga masters, this practice cleanses the subtle vessels through which physical and mental energy is passing. As these vessels become cleaner, energy moves with less effort, and its distribution and assimilation within the mind and body are improved. The result is reduced tension in the nervous system as well as a calmer mind.
Nadi shodhanam is not the only yoga tool for deepening relaxation. Techniques combining postures, breathing, and systematic relaxation kindle a sense of confidence in us no matter how much daily life seems to bend us out of shape. Exercises that relax both muscles and joints, as well as the 61-points relaxation exercise, lead further toward relaxed self-awareness. These techniques can be taught once students are familiar with the beginning practices. (For a detailed description of nadi shodhanam, see the Yoga International reprint “Balancing Active and Receptive Energies: The Practice of Nadi Shodhanam.”
Expanding the Recovery Process
Along with breath training, panickers need to begin the process of resolving their fears. Sometimes they do this work on their own or with the help of friends and family members. Often, however, a period of psychotherapy is needed because the worries and stresses that initially contributed to the onset of panic require objective attention. Before treatment these factors are outside of the panicker’s awareness for some reason. As recovery continues, however, they become the proverbial elephant in the living room—there is no way to avoid noticing and dealing with them.
Often the stresses that are most difficult to recognize have to do with significant relationships. A question that can elicit awareness is, “Am I avoiding conflicts within myself?” As one panicker continued in recovery, for example, he was able to explain that his younger brother, who was in line to become a co-partner in the family business, was performing very poorly. Despite many signs to the contrary, the younger brother continued to imagine that he was doing well at his work. Addressing this problem raised many fears, for it would affect a complex web of family relationships. As a result, the older brother resisted speaking up and began having panic attacks instead.
There are many possible causes of panic attacks—stressful relationships, past traumas, fear of separation from loved ones are among the most common. One panicker’s attacks began when her husband’s promotion resulted in his being away from her and their infant twins at night. Pleased about the promotion, the husband had not been willing to see the effect it was having on his family, and the wife had not been able to express her fears directly. In the course of psychotherapy, this woman learned that finding practical ways to expand the scope of awareness and implement stress-reducing changes (ask for them, create them, or compromise for them in some way), although difficult, was the most satisfying process in the entire recovery.
There will inevitably be leaps forward as well as setbacks while recovery continues. This is natural, for the recovering panicker is learning to work with him- or herself in an entirely new way. Whether or not the panicker is undergoing psychotherapy, the psychological insights acquired through yoga can make a profound contribution to this process. A young student once remarked, “Yoga stands for You Oughta Get Aware,” because it provides such a wide range of tools to help everyone, including recovering panickers, do just that.
The Role of Meditation
In addition to the body and breath, yoga works with emotions, mental images, thoughts, and relationships, seeing them all as part of an integrated whole. During meditation, for example, a normally disturbing image arising in the mind is greeted by a very different reaction than might otherwise be the case. Now the body remains rested and still; the breath sends messages of steadiness and balance to the emotions and nervous system. Though the image might seem upsetting at another time, now the meditator can witness it with equanimity. This neutral reaction allows time and space for the image either to be processed or to pass through the mind without disturbance.
What is more, meditation seems to pace itself; it allows the mind to gradually gather strength before bringing up the images that might prove most frightening or challenging. Trivia can be dismissed, but the thoughts and images that persist are the ones that have important consequences to us. For instance, suppose I begin to recognize a deep-seated unhappiness with my work, but at the same time I see no other way to support my family. This conflict haunts me, affecting my work and frustrating my family relationships. Panickers may force themselves to push such conflicts out of awareness because they cause a discord that seems unresolvable. Meditation will allow them to recognize it with less fear so that they can see their way through the problem.
Conflict Resolution
Yoga psychology also suggests many techniques for resolving conflicts, including acknowledging and accepting the conflict in all its depth; recognizing the need for some kind of change; resisting the inclination to act out feelings or to do nothing; exploring alternatives; communicating with others without blaming them; accepting feedback from others; using discrimination in accepting or rejecting alternatives; surrendering to necessary losses; acting with determination; accepting outcomes with equanimity; working calmly on a problem even if a negative outcome, or no outcome, seems inevitable; and letting intuition suggest new possibilities. These strategies are derived from what in yoga are called the yamas and niyamas—the attitudes toward life that are the basis of all yoga practices.
Finding Refuge in Our True Nature
Ultimately, yoga provides a philosophy that places the relationships between body, mind, and spirit in a new perspective. The Bhagavad Gita, a classic yoga text, tells us that “No one has the power to bring to destruction this unalterable entity [our true inner self]. . . . The body-bearer in everyone’s body is eternally undestroyable.” Anxiety arises from attachment to passing and impermanent things, but the more we are aware of our own true nature, the less anxious we become.
Yoga gives us a practical tool for working at this level of awareness—the mantra. This is a word or phrase that can guide and protect us. It serves as a focus of attention in times of panic, and it is a resting place for awareness leading to our true nature. Through its connection to the deep spiritual resources that lie within us, the mantra pacifies fear and encourages us to persist in the face of disturbing thoughts and upsetting emotions.
We cannot prevent life from changing. Life is inherently unstable. But during periods of change we can have the courage to identify and express our needs. We can look for ways to surrender gracefully to the inevitable. We can trust, through our experience of yoga, that the essential Self within us will guide us through the emotions of change successfully.
Dr. Rolf Sovik is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in Buffalo, NewYork. He has been practicing and teaching yoga for more than twenty year
Recognizing Panic Disorder
Everyone sometimes feels anxious for no identifiable reason. At these times we think, “Something is happening—I must stay alert.” Panic victims share these feelings, but for them the stakes are higher. Their distress is so overwhelming that the fearful possibilities take on mammoth proportions. “I’m having a heart attack,” they think, or “I’m losing my mind.” We all experience periods of vague anxiety, which often pass without our ever discovering or having to acknowledge the causes. Panic anxiety, however, is the cue for a determined (and often desperate) search for a source.
Panic attacks are characterized by rapidly escalating and overwhelming anxiety. In the beginning, panickers are rarely able to identify what has made them anxious, describing the episodes as occurring “out of the blue.” The attacks are triggered by frightening physical sensations that occur suddenly, much like an unconscious reflex. Among the most common are shortness of breath, a rapid heart rate, heart palpitations, sweating, trembling, a feeling of choking, chest pain, nausea, and dizziness. Frightened sufferers develop painfully sharp sensitivity to these sensations, often making several trips to the emergency room before they finally realize that their symptoms are panic-related.
Physical sensations alone are not the core of the illness. Fearful thoughts, unpleasant emotions, avoidant behaviors, disturbing sensations, and deteriorating relationships all collude with one another to maintain panic. Thoughts such as the fear of dying or of having a mental breakdown are common. Even mild anxiety can trigger an attack, and any disturbing emotion can be interpreted as a precursor to full-fledged panic.
Gradually, the fear of having an attack in public leads the panicker to avoid those places—a disorder known as agoraphobia. Problems in relationships, which may have been the original source of anxiety, become worse as panic episodes develop. Difficulty with self-assertiveness and with the resolution of conflicts increases. Friends and partners are often frustrated because they cannot understand what is happening.
The Road to Recovery
Fortunately, panic disorder can be treated successfully, frequently with a combination of psychotherapy and medication. Panic sufferers are now turning to yoga for help as well, for yoga offers a wide range of stress-reducing tools. An ancient model of recovery can be found in the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, one which is also embodied in the Four Noble Truths of the Buddha. In its briefest form, this model is an outline of the stages in the healing process, presented here as four questions:
1. What is the nature of the pain that all humans experience?
2. What is the cause of that pain?
3. What will be experienced when the pain is removed?
4. How can the pain be removed?
Yoga tells us that before searching for a cure it is important to look deeply into the nature and causes of illness. It is also important to get an idea of how things will be when symptoms have been removed, because otherwise we may have illusions about what recovery will be like. For example, eliminating anxiety is not the outcome of treatment for panic—the outcome is the ability to manage anxious feelings.
If we rewrite the four questions of the ancient model, focusing on panic attacks, they might read:
1. What is panic disorder?
2. What causes it?
3. What will life be like for the person who has overcome panic attacks?
4. How is recovery accomplished?
Looking for a Cause
Biologically oriented physicians have tended to attribute panic symptoms to problems of the nervous system. Jacob DaCosta, a Civil War physician, set the tone when he wrote, “It seems to me most likely that the heart has become irritable from its overreaction and frequent excitement, and that disordered innervation keeps it so.” This focus on biochemistry and physiology led to the development of tranquilizers.
Not long afterwards, Freud identified a form of anxiety that appeared in discrete, time-limited episodes. “An anxiety attack of this sort,” he wrote, “may have linked to it a disturbance of one or more of the bodily functions—such as respiration, heart action, vasomotor innervation, or glandular activity.” Nearly one hundred years later, this focus on the emotional component of panic has resulted in the psychiatric diagnosis called Panic Disorder.
More recently, clinicians have been exploring the role of disturbed breathing in panic attacks. As early as 1950, the physician R. L. Rice maintained that anxiety attacks were often the result, not the cause, of disturbed breathing; now psychotherapies for panic that include breath training are state-of-the-art. (Even so, very little training in this area is available to clinicians.)
Those who are familiar with yoga will recognize the classic body-breath-mind triad in these three points of view. But if a single cause for panic disorder exists, it has yet to be discovered. Instead, these three areas seem to interact with one another, forming feedback loops that grow larger if not addressed in some way.
For example, if someone is afraid of going to public places, then self-esteem plummets, fears increase, opportunities for relationships are limited, and panic-prone factors such as the fear of being labeled “incompetent” grow. Conversely, if the fear has been overcome, then self-esteem improves, fearful thinking is reduced, opportunities for relationships expand, and panic-prone factors are undermined.
The First Steps to Recovery
We have already seen what panic disorder is and we have a general idea of what causes it. Our next step is to discover how yoga, coupled with clinical experience, can help panickers take the steps necessary to recover. The first priority is to manage the frightening physical sensations accompanying panic attacks, because they will make any other work impossible. Panickers walk on pins and needles attempting to avoid the sudden, uncontrollable symptoms of their disorder, and because these involve rapid arousal of the nervous system, it is imperative to find ways to strengthen the nerves and calm anxiety.
Arousal is subtle and is triggered in a number of ways, but the key to calming it is to learn how to “talk” to the nerves, how to communicate across the great divide between voluntary and involuntary functioning. Once the panicker has learned to manage involuntary reactions, the sense of being out of control is enormously reduced.
Yoga training can be particularly useful here, for yoga teaches us how to interact with the nervous system. If we want to soothe and strengthen it, we need to learn deep, relaxed yogic breathing. Regardless of the pathways of arousal, breathing is the language of nervous system balance and control.
To illustrate this relationship, imagine how you would react if you were walking along a dark street, and a pointed object were thrust suddenly into your back. You might gasp, then tense your whole body. Gasping is the natural reaction to sudden fear. If you discovered that the attacker was only a friend playing a joke, you might sigh with relief. Then your breath might become agitated as your fear turned to irritation. The way you breathe reflects how you feel.
This relationship between breath and nerves is a two-way street. Just as emotions create changes in breathing, so changing our style of breathing can alter the way we feel. Breathing is the only involuntary function that can be easily and voluntarily controlled. During times of panic, relaxed, controlled breathing will give us immediate access to the nervous system. This means that by changing our breathing, we can change the condition of our nerves when tension disturbs and frightens us. Then, when breathing is relaxed and the panic response has been calmed, the underlying anxiety can be gradually brought to conscious awareness for processing.
Learning Relaxed Breathing
Practicing yoga is a good way to learn breathing skills, for it is a gradual process, often needing considerable support over a period of time. Yoga teachers quickly recognize when a student is having trouble (as is often the case with panickers), and they know a wide variety of alternate practices that will help the student master breathing skills.
The ultimate goal of breath training is to make smooth, diaphragmatic breathing a twenty-four hour habit. The corpse pose (lying on the back) and the crocodile pose (lying on the stomach with arms folded under the forehead) are both helpful training postures. Breathing with a ten-pound sandbag on the upper abdomen while lying in the corpse pose will help to strengthen the diaphragm and serve as a reminder to focus on the abdomen as well. In addition, it is helpful if the panicker learns to pay attention to breathing as often as possible during the day. Notice when the breath stops, notice when it jerks, for once an irregularity is obvious, it can be corrected. This practice not only fosters awareness, it makes the relationship between stress and breathing abundantly clear.
Panickers will find that diaphragmatic breathing not only calms the effect of arousal at the time of panic, it also provides an alternative focus for attention, allowing them to focus on their breathing instead of on the panic symptoms. As diaphragmatic breathing becomes a habit, the nervous system is less susceptible to panic in the first place. It usually takes about two weeks to become accustomed to the feeling of diaphragmatic breathing, and about six months of regular practice to make it a habit.
Special Problems in Breath Training
There are a few potential problems that panickers may experience during breath training, and it is well for both student and teacher to understand them at the outset. The most common is that panickers have often developed a highly self-vigilant style that can lead to performance anxiety. (“Is it supposed to feel this way?”) Micro-managing has become a way of life to panickers. The teacher needs to be warm—reassuring but firm, letting the practice do the teaching, without becoming over-analytical. Breathing does not need to be perfect to be good enough.
Sometimes panickers carry a great deal of physical tension in their bodies, and in these cases the natural unblocking effect of yoga stretches and postures can be helpful. Releasing abdominal tension while resting between postures promotes deep breathing. Covering the body with a blanket during relaxation and breath training can ease the feeling of being exposed or vulnerable.
A knot may sometimes form in the abdomen during panic attacks, making breathing difficult. As the attack continues hunger for air increases, but despite the need for air the panicker may feel that holding the breath is the way to “catch” it. Relaxed, continuous breathing, on the other hand, releases the unconscious tension created by holding the breath, and with practice it is possible to actually breathe through the knot that forms in the stomach during periods of anxiety. As increased awareness makes it possible to recognize tension early, it becomes easier to remain relaxed. To establish a smooth, unbroken flow of breath, the teacher might say, “When you come to the end of the inhalation and your abdomen has fully expanded, simply relax and let the exhalation begin. When you come to the end of the exhalation and your abdomen has contracted, simply relax and let the inhalation begin. Let each breath flow into the next breath by relaxing.”
Beyond Diaphragmatic Breathing
Many therapists have begun to use breath training in their work with clients, but few have been trained to teach more than the basics of diaphragmatic breathing. Yoga, on the other hand, offers many additional breathing and relaxation skills that can help recovering panickers. Perhaps the most effective of these is nadi shodhanam (channel purification). As its name suggests, nadi shodhanam works to unblock tensions and resistance in the energy-conveying channels of the physical and subtle bodies, thus calming and strengthening sensitive nerves.
Normal breathing carries away wastes and brings in fresh energy with each breath. As energy is brought in, it must be assimilated and distributed efficiently in order to fulfill the purpose of breathing. That’s where nadi shodhanam comes in. The process of channel purification slows breathing down and focuses our attention on its flow. At the same time, according to yoga masters, this practice cleanses the subtle vessels through which physical and mental energy is passing. As these vessels become cleaner, energy moves with less effort, and its distribution and assimilation within the mind and body are improved. The result is reduced tension in the nervous system as well as a calmer mind.
Nadi shodhanam is not the only yoga tool for deepening relaxation. Techniques combining postures, breathing, and systematic relaxation kindle a sense of confidence in us no matter how much daily life seems to bend us out of shape. Exercises that relax both muscles and joints, as well as the 61-points relaxation exercise, lead further toward relaxed self-awareness. These techniques can be taught once students are familiar with the beginning practices. (For a detailed description of nadi shodhanam, see the Yoga International reprint “Balancing Active and Receptive Energies: The Practice of Nadi Shodhanam.”
Expanding the Recovery Process
Along with breath training, panickers need to begin the process of resolving their fears. Sometimes they do this work on their own or with the help of friends and family members. Often, however, a period of psychotherapy is needed because the worries and stresses that initially contributed to the onset of panic require objective attention. Before treatment these factors are outside of the panicker’s awareness for some reason. As recovery continues, however, they become the proverbial elephant in the living room—there is no way to avoid noticing and dealing with them.
Often the stresses that are most difficult to recognize have to do with significant relationships. A question that can elicit awareness is, “Am I avoiding conflicts within myself?” As one panicker continued in recovery, for example, he was able to explain that his younger brother, who was in line to become a co-partner in the family business, was performing very poorly. Despite many signs to the contrary, the younger brother continued to imagine that he was doing well at his work. Addressing this problem raised many fears, for it would affect a complex web of family relationships. As a result, the older brother resisted speaking up and began having panic attacks instead.
There are many possible causes of panic attacks—stressful relationships, past traumas, fear of separation from loved ones are among the most common. One panicker’s attacks began when her husband’s promotion resulted in his being away from her and their infant twins at night. Pleased about the promotion, the husband had not been willing to see the effect it was having on his family, and the wife had not been able to express her fears directly. In the course of psychotherapy, this woman learned that finding practical ways to expand the scope of awareness and implement stress-reducing changes (ask for them, create them, or compromise for them in some way), although difficult, was the most satisfying process in the entire recovery.
There will inevitably be leaps forward as well as setbacks while recovery continues. This is natural, for the recovering panicker is learning to work with him- or herself in an entirely new way. Whether or not the panicker is undergoing psychotherapy, the psychological insights acquired through yoga can make a profound contribution to this process. A young student once remarked, “Yoga stands for You Oughta Get Aware,” because it provides such a wide range of tools to help everyone, including recovering panickers, do just that.
The Role of Meditation
In addition to the body and breath, yoga works with emotions, mental images, thoughts, and relationships, seeing them all as part of an integrated whole. During meditation, for example, a normally disturbing image arising in the mind is greeted by a very different reaction than might otherwise be the case. Now the body remains rested and still; the breath sends messages of steadiness and balance to the emotions and nervous system. Though the image might seem upsetting at another time, now the meditator can witness it with equanimity. This neutral reaction allows time and space for the image either to be processed or to pass through the mind without disturbance.
What is more, meditation seems to pace itself; it allows the mind to gradually gather strength before bringing up the images that might prove most frightening or challenging. Trivia can be dismissed, but the thoughts and images that persist are the ones that have important consequences to us. For instance, suppose I begin to recognize a deep-seated unhappiness with my work, but at the same time I see no other way to support my family. This conflict haunts me, affecting my work and frustrating my family relationships. Panickers may force themselves to push such conflicts out of awareness because they cause a discord that seems unresolvable. Meditation will allow them to recognize it with less fear so that they can see their way through the problem.
Conflict Resolution
Yoga psychology also suggests many techniques for resolving conflicts, including acknowledging and accepting the conflict in all its depth; recognizing the need for some kind of change; resisting the inclination to act out feelings or to do nothing; exploring alternatives; communicating with others without blaming them; accepting feedback from others; using discrimination in accepting or rejecting alternatives; surrendering to necessary losses; acting with determination; accepting outcomes with equanimity; working calmly on a problem even if a negative outcome, or no outcome, seems inevitable; and letting intuition suggest new possibilities. These strategies are derived from what in yoga are called the yamas and niyamas—the attitudes toward life that are the basis of all yoga practices.
Finding Refuge in Our True Nature
Ultimately, yoga provides a philosophy that places the relationships between body, mind, and spirit in a new perspective. The Bhagavad Gita, a classic yoga text, tells us that “No one has the power to bring to destruction this unalterable entity [our true inner self]. . . . The body-bearer in everyone’s body is eternally undestroyable.” Anxiety arises from attachment to passing and impermanent things, but the more we are aware of our own true nature, the less anxious we become.
Yoga gives us a practical tool for working at this level of awareness—the mantra. This is a word or phrase that can guide and protect us. It serves as a focus of attention in times of panic, and it is a resting place for awareness leading to our true nature. Through its connection to the deep spiritual resources that lie within us, the mantra pacifies fear and encourages us to persist in the face of disturbing thoughts and upsetting emotions.
We cannot prevent life from changing. Life is inherently unstable. But during periods of change we can have the courage to identify and express our needs. We can look for ways to surrender gracefully to the inevitable. We can trust, through our experience of yoga, that the essential Self within us will guide us through the emotions of change successfully.
Dr. Rolf Sovik is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in Buffalo, NewYork. He has been practicing and teaching yoga for more than twenty year
A Wonderful Collection of Yoga Jokes!
Q. What did the yogi say to the sandwich vendor at the ball game?
A. Make me one with everything!
After the man received his sandwich, he gave the vendor a $20 bill. The vendor just smiled. The
man, infuriated, demanded, "Where is my change."
The vendor replied, "O, one with everything, change comes from within."
Q. What did the yogi tell the door-to-door salesperson who came to his home selling vacuum cleaners?
A. Too many attachments!
Q. How many Iyengar yogis does it take to replace a light bulb?
A. Only one !
BUT, they will need:
a sticky mat
a backless chair
two blocks
five blankets
a bolster
six ropes
two belts
six assorted benches
a bandage
a slant board
two quarter rounds
three weights
one wooden horse
a certificate
Q. What did the sign in the window of the yoga master searching for a new disciple say?
A. Inquire within!
Q. Why did the yogi refuse anesthesia when having his wisdom teeth removed?
A. He wanted to transcend-dental-medication!
The Lone Bat
A group of bats, hanging at the ceiling of a cave discovers a single bat STANDING upright underneath on the floor of the cave. Surprised by this unusual behavior, they ask this fellow: "What's wrong with you? What are you doing down there?" And the fellow shouts back: "Yoga!"
Meditation
Two good old friends were meeting. "How are you and your family?" asks the one. "Oh we're all fine". The other one answers, "We're all healthy and have work to earn our lives. But how 'bout your son?? is he still workless??" "Not at all", the first one answers, "He's doing meditation now." "Meditation? What's this? What is he doing?" "I don't know it exactly," the first one answers again, "But I'm sure it's better than just sitting down and doing nothing!"
Knock knock
Knock knock
Who's there?
Yoga
Yoga who?
Yoga to try this, it feels amazing.
Gifts
On the anniversary of his birth, devotees of a certain yogi asked what gifts they might bring.
The yogi replied "I wish no gifts, only presence"
--previous in Yoga.com and also Sims Central (who gives credit to Roots and Wings).
A young woman who was worried about her habit of biting her fingernails down to the quick was advised by a friend to take up yoga. She did, and soon her fingernails were growing normally. Her friend asked her if yoga had totally cured her nervousness. "No," she replied, "but now I can reach my toe-nails so I bite them instead." --author unknown
Yoga police: "You have the right to remain silent!"
Kundalini Yogi sharpshooter: "Ready, aim, fire!"
Don't just do something -- Sit there!
Time is the best teacher, although it kills the students.
My karma ran over my dogma....
Elbert Hubbard: "We are punished by our sins, not for them."
When asked what gift he wanted for his birthday, the yogi replied "I wish no gifts, only presence"
Some people talk about finding God, as if He or She could get lost.
Q: What do yoga meditation and an apple peeler have in common?
A: They both take you to the core.
Q: How many contemplative monks does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Three. One to change the light bulb. One to not change the light bulb. One to neither change nor not change the light bulb.
In yoga, it's just one thing after another -- breath, breath, breath
Q: How many yogis does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Into what?
"I think it would be a good idea." --Mahatma Gandhi when asked what he thought about Western civilization)
The enlightened ones have no boundaries, but respect those of others.
Change is inevitable, except from vending machines.
Lily Tomlin: "Why is it when we talk to God, we're said to be praying, but when God talks to us, we're schizophrenic?"
Three Yogis are doing meditative in a remote cave. One day a sound is heard from outside the cave. After about six months, one of the yogis says, "Did you hear that goat?" Once again, there was silence. About a year later, one of the other Yogis says, "That wasn't a goat; it was a mule." Again, there was silence. About two years later the third yogi says, "If you two don't stop arguing, I'm leaving."
Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.
--previous from http://swamij.com/jokes.htm.
Bumper Stickers:
Never drive faster than your angel can fly!!"
"I'd rather be in Samadhi"
"Out of body. Will be back in 15 minutes!"
"Warning: Dates in Calendar are closer than they appear."
"As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in public schools"
Meditation - You have the right to remain silent.
Have you heard of the cow who attained liberation (Moksha)?
It was dyslexic and kept on repeating OOOOMMM !
Did you hear about the yogi who was having a filling put in a tooth. When the dentist asked him if he wanted novocaine. The yogi said "No. I can transcend dental medication."
When two psychic friends met, one said:
"You are fine. How am I ?"
Four monks were meditating in a monastery. All of a sudden the prayer flag on the roof started flapping. The younger monk came out of his meditation and said: "Flag is flapping"
A more experienced monk said: "Wind is flapping"
A third monk who had been there for more than 20 years said: "Mind is flapping."
The fourth monk who was the eldest said, visibly annoyed: "Mouths are flapping!"
An aspiring Yogi wanted to find a Guru. He went to an Ashram and his preceptor told him: You can stay here but we have one important rule - all students observe Mouna or vow of silence. You will be allowed to speak in 12 years. After practicing for 12 long years Yoga Asanas, Meditation, a lot of Karma Yoga, etc., the day came when the student could say his one thing or ask his one question.
He said: "The bed is too hard."
He kept going for another 12 years of hard Sadhana and austere discipline and got the opportunity to speak again. He said: "The food is not good."
Twelve more years of hard work and he got to speak again. Here are his words after 36 years of practice: "I quit."
His Guru quickly answered: "Good, all you have been doing anyway is complaining."
How do you make God laugh?
Say: "This is mine".
A. Make me one with everything!
After the man received his sandwich, he gave the vendor a $20 bill. The vendor just smiled. The
man, infuriated, demanded, "Where is my change."
The vendor replied, "O, one with everything, change comes from within."
Q. What did the yogi tell the door-to-door salesperson who came to his home selling vacuum cleaners?
A. Too many attachments!
Q. How many Iyengar yogis does it take to replace a light bulb?
A. Only one !
BUT, they will need:
a sticky mat
a backless chair
two blocks
five blankets
a bolster
six ropes
two belts
six assorted benches
a bandage
a slant board
two quarter rounds
three weights
one wooden horse
a certificate
Q. What did the sign in the window of the yoga master searching for a new disciple say?
A. Inquire within!
Q. Why did the yogi refuse anesthesia when having his wisdom teeth removed?
A. He wanted to transcend-dental-medication!
The Lone Bat
A group of bats, hanging at the ceiling of a cave discovers a single bat STANDING upright underneath on the floor of the cave. Surprised by this unusual behavior, they ask this fellow: "What's wrong with you? What are you doing down there?" And the fellow shouts back: "Yoga!"
Meditation
Two good old friends were meeting. "How are you and your family?" asks the one. "Oh we're all fine". The other one answers, "We're all healthy and have work to earn our lives. But how 'bout your son?? is he still workless??" "Not at all", the first one answers, "He's doing meditation now." "Meditation? What's this? What is he doing?" "I don't know it exactly," the first one answers again, "But I'm sure it's better than just sitting down and doing nothing!"
Knock knock
Knock knock
Who's there?
Yoga
Yoga who?
Yoga to try this, it feels amazing.
Gifts
On the anniversary of his birth, devotees of a certain yogi asked what gifts they might bring.
The yogi replied "I wish no gifts, only presence"
--previous in Yoga.com and also Sims Central (who gives credit to Roots and Wings).
A young woman who was worried about her habit of biting her fingernails down to the quick was advised by a friend to take up yoga. She did, and soon her fingernails were growing normally. Her friend asked her if yoga had totally cured her nervousness. "No," she replied, "but now I can reach my toe-nails so I bite them instead." --author unknown
Yoga police: "You have the right to remain silent!"
Kundalini Yogi sharpshooter: "Ready, aim, fire!"
Don't just do something -- Sit there!
Time is the best teacher, although it kills the students.
My karma ran over my dogma....
Elbert Hubbard: "We are punished by our sins, not for them."
When asked what gift he wanted for his birthday, the yogi replied "I wish no gifts, only presence"
Some people talk about finding God, as if He or She could get lost.
Q: What do yoga meditation and an apple peeler have in common?
A: They both take you to the core.
Q: How many contemplative monks does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Three. One to change the light bulb. One to not change the light bulb. One to neither change nor not change the light bulb.
In yoga, it's just one thing after another -- breath, breath, breath
Q: How many yogis does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Into what?
"I think it would be a good idea." --Mahatma Gandhi when asked what he thought about Western civilization)
The enlightened ones have no boundaries, but respect those of others.
Change is inevitable, except from vending machines.
Lily Tomlin: "Why is it when we talk to God, we're said to be praying, but when God talks to us, we're schizophrenic?"
Three Yogis are doing meditative in a remote cave. One day a sound is heard from outside the cave. After about six months, one of the yogis says, "Did you hear that goat?" Once again, there was silence. About a year later, one of the other Yogis says, "That wasn't a goat; it was a mule." Again, there was silence. About two years later the third yogi says, "If you two don't stop arguing, I'm leaving."
Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.
--previous from http://swamij.com/jokes.htm.
Bumper Stickers:
Never drive faster than your angel can fly!!"
"I'd rather be in Samadhi"
"Out of body. Will be back in 15 minutes!"
"Warning: Dates in Calendar are closer than they appear."
"As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in public schools"
Meditation - You have the right to remain silent.
Have you heard of the cow who attained liberation (Moksha)?
It was dyslexic and kept on repeating OOOOMMM !
Did you hear about the yogi who was having a filling put in a tooth. When the dentist asked him if he wanted novocaine. The yogi said "No. I can transcend dental medication."
When two psychic friends met, one said:
"You are fine. How am I ?"
Four monks were meditating in a monastery. All of a sudden the prayer flag on the roof started flapping. The younger monk came out of his meditation and said: "Flag is flapping"
A more experienced monk said: "Wind is flapping"
A third monk who had been there for more than 20 years said: "Mind is flapping."
The fourth monk who was the eldest said, visibly annoyed: "Mouths are flapping!"
An aspiring Yogi wanted to find a Guru. He went to an Ashram and his preceptor told him: You can stay here but we have one important rule - all students observe Mouna or vow of silence. You will be allowed to speak in 12 years. After practicing for 12 long years Yoga Asanas, Meditation, a lot of Karma Yoga, etc., the day came when the student could say his one thing or ask his one question.
He said: "The bed is too hard."
He kept going for another 12 years of hard Sadhana and austere discipline and got the opportunity to speak again. He said: "The food is not good."
Twelve more years of hard work and he got to speak again. Here are his words after 36 years of practice: "I quit."
His Guru quickly answered: "Good, all you have been doing anyway is complaining."
How do you make God laugh?
Say: "This is mine".
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Bed time blues : When you can't sleep !
It's 3 a.m. You're scheduled to give a big presentation at eleven, only eight hours away. You desperately need to sleep so you will be rested and alert when your big moment comes, but here you are staring wide eyed at the bedroom ceiling. Your mind is agitated and your body won't relax. The harder you work at getting to sleep, the wider awake you are. You've already tried counting sheep, watching the late show, and making yourself a snack-all to no avail. In desperation you reach for a sleeping pill.
This is a common scenario in the United States, where approximately one third of all adults suffer from some type of sleep disorder. Insomnia, the most common type by far, is clinically defined as the inability to fall asleep after lying in bed for thirty minutes or the inability to sustain sleep for more than a few hours without waking. Practically speaking, however, insomnia can be defined as unrestful sleep.
We've all experienced some form of insomnia at particularly stressful times in our lives. It's normal to have trouble sleeping at these times, and it usually passes after a night or two. Insomnia is a problem only when it becomes chronic. Although it is associated with certain physical illnesses-arthritis, heart failure, and chronic lung disease, for example-most experts agree that insomnia is a symptom, not an illness in itself. So what is it a symptom of? There are two answers-the ancient and the modern. At first glance they seem completely different, but a closer look reveals some remarkable similarities.
An Ancient Angle on a Modern Malady
Ayurveda, the healing science associated with yoga, tells us that all disease is caused by indigestion. That is, at some level-either physical, mental, or emotional-we haven't completed extracting what is helpful and eliminating what is indigestible. This is one of the keys to understanding insomnia.
On the physical level, indigestion is caused either by bad food or by weak digestion and leads to conditions like heartburn (a contributor to insomnia), flatulence, and diarrhea. Mental indigestion is the inability to let go of a certain incident or thought-usually an unpleasant experience. This can be a distant tragedy like the earthquake in Kobe, Japan, criticism from someone whose opinion we value, or a work-related problem we're trying to solve. Emotional indigestion is the recurrence of a feeling, often sadness or anger, long after the precipitating event. The emotion has not been sufficiently digested and remains just under the surface, springing up for no apparent reason. Mental and emotional indigestion are the most common causes of insomnia. Some of us even grind our teeth while we sleep in an attempt to chew and digest recurring thoughts and emotions.
The Contemporary Angle
Modern explanations for insomnia range from overstimulation and stress to mucking up our waking-sleeping cycle. Stimulants include caffeine (coffee, tea, chocolate, and some sodas), and sugar, as well as activities such as aerobic exercise, arguing, and watching violent TV shows (or the evening news, for that matter). All these taken (or experienced) too close to bedtime can rev us up so much that it is difficult to fall asleep. This is only another way of saying we are still attempting to digest these substances or events at the same time we are courting sleep.
Stress is another form of indigestion. Most of my patients who suffer from insomnia tell me, "My worries keep me awake," or "My mind won't stop. I don't know how to turn it off." Anxiety, worry, depression, unpleasant memories, and fears are the most common cause of sleeplessness. They seem to take on a life of their own and are determined to stay awake, even though it's way past bedtime.
The third common cause of insomnia, one which has become prevalent only in modern times, is tampering with the normal cycle of sleeping and waking. This is a mechanical problem of sorts. Human beings have a normal sleep rhythm; in general, we are designed to be awake in daylight and asleep at night. People who work the night shift, or travelers who have recently crossed several time zones, may experience insomnia simply because they are trying to sleep when their internal clock is telling their body to be awake.
Our bodies are designed for sleep to come effortlessly. When it doesn't, when we're holding on to the day's stresses and reaching out for tomorrow's too, there are a number of ways of inducing the body and mind to let go and slip gently into a restful sleep.
Create an Environment that Will Help You Sleep
Your bedroom should be tranquil and inviting. Make it comfortable and conducive to sleep. Eliminate ambient light and any noise that could disturb your sleep. If possible, reserve the bedroom for sleep and sex. Conduct other activities-reading work-related material, watching TV, paying bills, and disciplining your children-in another room. In time, this will create the expectation in your body that the bedroom is where it goes to relax and rest.
End the Day with a Calming Routine
Go to bed about the same time every night. Create a routine that prepares you for sleep. You may already have some kind of program you follow before you go to bed-locking the house, brushing your teeth, maybe reading a little. A pre-bed routine is a way of telling your unconscious that it's time to sleep.
Make sure that this routine is relaxing, not stimulating-winding down before bedtime increases the likelihood that your mind will let you rest. If you find the news disturbing, skip the late broadcast. If you live in a safe neighborhood, take a leisurely stroll. Read something pleasant and soothing-save the suspense novel for earlier in the day. Take a hot bath. Sit for a period of meditation. The trick is to calm your mind and quiet your nerves before you get into bed.
And speaking of routines, getting up at the same time every morning will make it easier to fall asleep at night. Attempting to compensate for a night of disturbed sleep by staying in bed longer in the morning will simply further disrupt your sleep cycle. Get up on time, even if you don't feel like you've had enough rest-you'll have a much better chance of falling asleep easily when bedtime rolls around again.
Do a Relaxation Exercise
Taking a few minutes to do a short relaxation exercise just before getting into bed is an excellent way of letting go. This doesn't have to be elaborate. Great benefits can be gained by simply lying on your back in the corpse pose (hands at your sides, palms upward, feet slightly apart). Close your eyes, and systematically address every part of your body. Start at your scalp and move toward your toes. Begin by softening your forehead, eyes, face, and jaw. Tensing and then releasing each muscle group help tight muscles loosen, especially those in the neck and shoulders. Continue giving attention to each area of your body-the arms, the trunk, and the legs-until you reach your toes. Surrender to gravity.
Stay in this relaxed state for a few minutes, letting the floor support you. Focus on your breathing, releasing all other concerns. Let your breath come from deep in your abdomen, and let it flow smoothly, slowly, and evenly. This simple exercise is a way of telling your mind and body that it is OK to stop thinking, working, and struggling.
Pay Attention to What You Ingest
It's best to eat a light meal in the evening, especially if you are dining late. You will sleep more deeply if you have finished digesting your food before you go to bed. A rich, heavy meal close to bedtime will interfere with your rest and leave you feeling sluggish in the morning.
Avoid caffeine, especially after midday. This includes coffee, tea, chocolate, and many sodas. Coffee has a half-life of four to six hours. That means it takes that long for half of the coffee to be digested, and another four to six hours for the next quarter of it to be eliminated from your body. In other words, it takes twelve to fourteen hours for 7/8 of the coffee you have ingested to be eliminated. No wonder you still feel wide awake at eleven when you had your last cup after dinner.
Sugar can also cause problems. Consider avoiding refined sugar in the evening because it is absorbed immediately into the bloodstream. That's why it gives you a burst of energy and sometimes makes you feel a little high. Eating sugar near bedtime can make you restless and jittery and can keep you from falling asleep. If you need a treat at bedtime, a glass of warm milk is your best bet.
Alcohol and tobacco taken near bedtime can also interfere with deep sleep. It's true that a nightcap will make you sleepy, but the sleep it induces is light, restless, and shot through with periods of wakefulness. Likewise, you may associate tobacco with relaxation, but it actually increases tension. Tobacco is a stimulant that makes the heart race and blood pressure rise. It's best avoided altogether, but if you choose to smoke, avoiding it in the hour or two before bedtime will make your sleep more restful.
Get Some Exercise
If we polled farmers or anyone else who does manual labor eight to ten hours a day, very few would report a problem with insomnia. But for most of us, hard work is reserved for the mental sphere, so we need to exercise our bodies if we're going to sleep well. Studies of athletes have shown that they do not require more (or less) sleep than sedentary folks, but their ratio of deep to light sleep is higher. Doing some form of aerobic exercise at least three times a week also increases this ratio. Just be sure to avoid strenuous exercise within several hours of bedtime-it can be stimulating. But if you exercise at any other time, you'll sleep better.
It's OK to do long, slow stretches near bedtime, however, for they will release muscular tension and prepare you for sleep. Focus on asanas that you find relaxing. Avoid intense backward bends, such as the wheel, as they may prove to be too invigorating at the end of the day.
Don't Drug Yourself to Sleep
According to a recent article in the Archives of Internal Medicine, approximately 20 million prescriptions are written each year for sleeping aids, a number dwarfed by the quantity of over-the-counter sleep medications sold annually. Although most of these drugs do induce sleep within ten to twenty minutes, they interfere with the deeper stages of sleep. And all of them impair functioning the next day in one way or another. They can be helpful for short-term insomnia resulting from a sudden stressful event, but even the mainstream medi-cal community agrees that sleep medications/sedatives are not helpful in resolving chronic sleep problems.
Experiment with Natural Remedies
Homeopathic remedies and herbs can help with insomnia. Homeopathic medicines are extremely dilute extracts from natural substances, so they don't have the rebound effects drugs do. They are considered to be non-toxic by the FDA, and many lowpotency remedies are sold over the counter. One of the best treatments for insomnia is homeopathic coffee, coffea cruda. Although coffee causes irritability and sleeplessness in physiologic doses, in homeopathic doses it can cure these states.
Valerian root, passionflower, and hops, taken before bedtime in either tablet or tea form, are other alternatives. These gentle, relaxing substances help your body rest, but they don't affect your central nervous system the way prescription sleep medicines do. Both homeopathic remedies and herbal preparations can be purchased at most healthfood stores or through a holistic physician.
Don't Panic!
Insomnia is a huge problem in this fast-paced, sugar and caffeine addicted country. But if we can first identify the habits we have that contribute to our sleeplessness and slowly change them, and at the same time add more relaxation and deep breathing to our pre-sleep routine, we will sleep better.
Above all, don't panic. Insomnia is not life-threatening, although many people respond to it with agitation or fear. The more anxious you make yourself about not sleeping, the more sleep will elude you. So turn the clock to the wall and drop the internal dialogue about what a horrible day you will have tomorrow if you don't get to sleep immediately. The key to sound sleep lies in surrendering, not in trying harder. Once you're in bed, focus on your breath and empty your mind. If you have a mantra, let your mind rest in it. Be kind to yourself. Remember, sleep cannot be forced, but it can be coaxed. It is waiting for you. Allow yourself to come to it, enter it, and let the world spin without you for a while.
Carrie Angus, M.D., is a yoga student practicing holistic medicine at the Himalayan Institute's Center for Health and Healing in Honesdale, Pennsylvania.
This article was provided by the Yoga International Article Archive - http://www.himalayaninstitute.org/
Monday, January 19, 2009
Master Yoga Chart of 908 poses
Sri Dharma Mittra is a Yoga teacher, and a student of Sri Swami Kailashananda Maharaj. Best known for creating the "Master Yoga Chart of 908 Postures," his "influence on the yoga world extends far beyond the nearly 50,000 copies of that poster that have been printed since Mittra completed the laborious project in 1983." [1] He has been teaching since 1967, and is Director of the Dharma Yoga Center in New York City.
Dharma Mittra was born in 1939 in Minas Gerais, Brazil, and started studying Yoga since 1958. In 1964, he left the Brazilian Air Force and moved to New York City, to study under his newguru, Sri Swami Kailashananda. After intensive study of ashtanga and Karma Yoga, he was accepted and initiated as a sannyasi (one who renounces the world in order to realize God). Dharma started teaching in 1967, after spending a decade as a full time Yogi and bramacharia (a celibate religious student who lives with his teacher and devotes himself to the practice of spiritual disciplines). A celebrated teacher at his guru's ashram, he left in 1975 and founded the Dharma Yoga Center in New York City. He has been teaching daily since that time.
Dharma Mittra completed the Master Yoga Chart of 908 Postures in 1984, after having meticulously photographed himself in 1300 Yoga postures, then cut and pasted the pictures to create the work. The Master Yoga Chart is hung in many ashrams and Yoga centers worldwide, as a teaching tool and inspiration for all students of Yoga. His more recent book, entitled Asanas: 608 Yoga Poses was published in 2003. In 2006, he released an instructional yoga video series entitled Maha Sadhana: The Great Practice. Mittra is also featured as the inspiration and model for Yoga Journal's coffee table book, entitled Yoga.
Dharma Mittra is considered by some to be one of the original independent teachers, starting many on the path of studying, and teaching Yoga. He began teaching Yoga before various diverging styles became popular, and is considered by some to have remained true to the original practice of the third limb of Raja Yoga, asana, or the postures of ashtanga. Having initiated tens of thousands of individuals into the practice of Yoga, Dharma Mittra's students and admirers call him the "Teacher's Teacher" and the "Rock of Yoga."
Yoga Helps People with Schizophrenia
People with schizophrenia often have difficulty functioning socially and at work, even when they receive medical treatment. A new study found that yoga, in conjunction with conventional medical treatment, may improve schizophrenia symptoms, social and occupational functioning, and quality of life.
Schizophrenia is a psychiatric illness marked by episodes of psychosis in which disordered thoughts, sometimes experienced as voices, become overwhelming. This chronic condition usually begins in young adulthood and interferes with relationships and makes daily functioning difficult.
Treatment options include antipsychotic medications, but these cause many side effects, including sedation, listlessness, and loss of a normal range of emotions. Muscle rigidity and repetitive gestures or tics are among the other problems caused by long-term use of some of the older antipsychotic medicines; newer drugs in this family can cause obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol levels.
In the new study, published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 45 people with schizophrenia were randomly assigned to either a yoga training group or a physical training group. The yoga training included breath work and traditional yoga poses and exercises, while the physical training included brisk walking and jogging, and sitting and standing exercises. Both groups underwent training sessions five times per week for one hour.
After four months, both groups scored better on measures of schizophrenia symptoms and social and occupational functioning than they did before the training, but those in the yoga group improved more than those in the physical training group, especially in social and occupational functioning. The yoga group also reported an improvement in overall quality of life, but the physical training group did not.
Originally from India, yoga is a group of ancient spiritual practices designed to integrate the body, mind, and spirit. Outside of India, the term yoga often refers to the practice of poses (asanas) and is thought of as an exercise program to increase strength, balance, and flexibility. Yoga has been shown to reduce stress and improve mental functioning in healthy people, and there is evidence that yoga can reduce blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
“[Yoga] grounds you in the body. People with schizophrenia often have trouble distinguishing themselves from what’s outside of them,” commented Helen Dicke, MSW, who teaches yoga in Vermont. “The breath work in particular deepens and stabilizes the connection to the body. When a person with schizophrenia becomes more grounded, they become more aware of what is internal and what is external, and their social skills and ability to function are greatly enhanced. In fact, yoga has this benefit for everyone.”
Schizophrenia is a psychiatric illness marked by episodes of psychosis in which disordered thoughts, sometimes experienced as voices, become overwhelming. This chronic condition usually begins in young adulthood and interferes with relationships and makes daily functioning difficult.
Treatment options include antipsychotic medications, but these cause many side effects, including sedation, listlessness, and loss of a normal range of emotions. Muscle rigidity and repetitive gestures or tics are among the other problems caused by long-term use of some of the older antipsychotic medicines; newer drugs in this family can cause obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol levels.
In the new study, published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 45 people with schizophrenia were randomly assigned to either a yoga training group or a physical training group. The yoga training included breath work and traditional yoga poses and exercises, while the physical training included brisk walking and jogging, and sitting and standing exercises. Both groups underwent training sessions five times per week for one hour.
After four months, both groups scored better on measures of schizophrenia symptoms and social and occupational functioning than they did before the training, but those in the yoga group improved more than those in the physical training group, especially in social and occupational functioning. The yoga group also reported an improvement in overall quality of life, but the physical training group did not.
Originally from India, yoga is a group of ancient spiritual practices designed to integrate the body, mind, and spirit. Outside of India, the term yoga often refers to the practice of poses (asanas) and is thought of as an exercise program to increase strength, balance, and flexibility. Yoga has been shown to reduce stress and improve mental functioning in healthy people, and there is evidence that yoga can reduce blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
“[Yoga] grounds you in the body. People with schizophrenia often have trouble distinguishing themselves from what’s outside of them,” commented Helen Dicke, MSW, who teaches yoga in Vermont. “The breath work in particular deepens and stabilizes the connection to the body. When a person with schizophrenia becomes more grounded, they become more aware of what is internal and what is external, and their social skills and ability to function are greatly enhanced. In fact, yoga has this benefit for everyone.”
Meditation: The Art of Being Centered
By Bharat Cornell
Last spring while I was in New Jersey on a lecture tour, Thomas, my host, told how his meditation practice had helped him calm a potentially dangerous situation. Thomas is the superintendent of a small, rural school district, with three schools and 125 teachers. He had recently suspended the high school wrestling coach for verbally abusing his players. The suspension had been bitterly resented by the young coach and his large, extended family-so much so, that some of them had physically threatened Thomas.
One Sunday Thomas was working alone in the district office, when he observed four cars charging into the parking lot. The cars came to a screeching halt in front of his building, and out came a furious mob of the coach's relatives. As they charged into the building, Thomas quickly called his daughter to notify school security. In the seconds remaining, Thomas centered his energy, and waited for the approaching storm. And storm it did; as his "guests" barged into his office, they began yelling, trying to intimidate him. Thomas sat quietly and weathered their rage. Seeing they couldn't scare him, they began vigorously stating the reasons why he was wrong. Calmly, and without fear, Thomas listened to their ranting, and then quietly shared why he had done what he did.
During the confrontation, the relatives didn't want to agree with Thomas. They did, however, admire his courage and centeredness. They were very physical people, and they respected strength. Thomas's demonstration of it won them over, and soon afterwards they not only accepted, but helped resolve, the situation.
The more centered we are, the more outer events adjust themselves to our inner control, because centered energy is stronger than dissipated, reactive energy. Meditation is the art of learning to live from one's center, because it dynamically brings our consciousness into the spine. When our energy is centered there, we are in tune with God and our spiritual nature.
Albert Einstein said that the significant problems of today can't be solved at the same level of thinking that created those problems. When we react in kind to a negative or even mundane situation, we only perpetuate its consciousness. We can never control things outwardly. We can, however, control our own energy. Lahiri Mahasaya's advice for overcoming any problem was always the same-to meditate more, because meditation centers and raises our consciousness and strengthens our aura. Through regular meditation we literally change our destiny.
Last spring while I was in New Jersey on a lecture tour, Thomas, my host, told how his meditation practice had helped him calm a potentially dangerous situation. Thomas is the superintendent of a small, rural school district, with three schools and 125 teachers. He had recently suspended the high school wrestling coach for verbally abusing his players. The suspension had been bitterly resented by the young coach and his large, extended family-so much so, that some of them had physically threatened Thomas.
One Sunday Thomas was working alone in the district office, when he observed four cars charging into the parking lot. The cars came to a screeching halt in front of his building, and out came a furious mob of the coach's relatives. As they charged into the building, Thomas quickly called his daughter to notify school security. In the seconds remaining, Thomas centered his energy, and waited for the approaching storm. And storm it did; as his "guests" barged into his office, they began yelling, trying to intimidate him. Thomas sat quietly and weathered their rage. Seeing they couldn't scare him, they began vigorously stating the reasons why he was wrong. Calmly, and without fear, Thomas listened to their ranting, and then quietly shared why he had done what he did.
During the confrontation, the relatives didn't want to agree with Thomas. They did, however, admire his courage and centeredness. They were very physical people, and they respected strength. Thomas's demonstration of it won them over, and soon afterwards they not only accepted, but helped resolve, the situation.
The more centered we are, the more outer events adjust themselves to our inner control, because centered energy is stronger than dissipated, reactive energy. Meditation is the art of learning to live from one's center, because it dynamically brings our consciousness into the spine. When our energy is centered there, we are in tune with God and our spiritual nature.
Albert Einstein said that the significant problems of today can't be solved at the same level of thinking that created those problems. When we react in kind to a negative or even mundane situation, we only perpetuate its consciousness. We can never control things outwardly. We can, however, control our own energy. Lahiri Mahasaya's advice for overcoming any problem was always the same-to meditate more, because meditation centers and raises our consciousness and strengthens our aura. Through regular meditation we literally change our destiny.
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