Yoga for Stress
Don’t let stress get to you. Gen up on subtle anatomy and get the hang of both ancient and modern yogic techniques to fight off any pressure.
Stress is a killer
Alarm, resistance, exhaustion. Autonomic reaction to threats, actual or imagined. Normally a temporary condition that packs many symptoms and lasts anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours. If given no breaks however: how protracted or recurrent exposure to severe stressors, or frequent, long-lasting and acute stress reactions—combined with inadequate rest and recovery—weaken immunity, escalate aging, and cause damage to body organs, systems and functions. Autonomic nervous imbalance and chronic overload.
Yoga versus drugs
Yoga: safe and harmless; no drawbacks or contraindications. Drugs: don’t remove the causes, only suppress the symptoms; a bunch of harmful side effects.
The 3-fold approach
The 3-fold approach to treatment and prevention of stress-related maladies: (1) eliminate causes and conditions; (2) reduce the effect stress has on the body-mind; repair the damage done by stress reactions; (3) balance and strengthen the body and mind, and thus increase the organism’s resistance to stress and disease.
Causes: chronic overstimulation of the sympathetic nervous system; a build-up of fatigue, tension and toxins (including stress hormones and cellular waste products).
Yogic arsenal: postures, breath, kriyas, rest, relaxation, yogic sleep, mantra, meditation, limiting toxins, fasting, diet, lifestyle, and the like.
Tips
Relaxation and awareness, the common denominators of every yogic practice. Overeating is a killer. “Eat less, exercise more” motto. Advice on what to eat more of and less of. “Early to bed, early to rise, makes you healthy, wealthy and wise” principle. Frequency of exercise, daily routine, and discipline.
On bodily exercise
Heavy exercise tends to strain and tire rather than relax, revitalize and heal the body. “Don’t force or strain” and “Exercise within tolerance” rules. Exhaustion indicates wrong exercise. Tense muscles resist stretching. Slow, gentle movements coordinated with the breath not only conserve energy but build it up too. Exerting pressure on particular muscle and organ groups while the muscles remain relaxed. How postures increase the blood and energy flow, improve cellular respiration, and break down deep muscle tension and rigidity. The placement of attention: shape of the body, movement, breathing, physical sensations, emotional and mental reactions.
Practice: Modified pavanmuktasana (‘wind-releasing postures,’ exactly, ‘purifying and loosening’ joints exercises) to systematically loosen up the joints and remove tensions and toxins that hold the body stiff and prevent a free flow of life energy. Adjusted Surya Namaskara (‘the Sun God Salutation’), a twelve-posture flow synchronized with breath and sacred phrases that invigorates the entire body. Tension-releasing stretches and restorative poses to gently massage the body into balance.
Subtle anatomy
The five sheaths (literally ‘skin,’ kosha in Sanskrit)—made of food, life energy, mind, intelligence and bliss—enveloping the soul. The three bodies (literally ‘frames’)—gross, subtle and causal—the being inhabits.
On winds, canals and wheels
The thing that animates the body and does all the healing. The five vital airs (literally, downward, middle, forward, upward and diffused) that govern crucial bodily functions. The nadis, or the life-energy ‘vessels’ of the subtle body. The three major flows. How blockages, that is the impurities, in the nadis impede the flow of vital force, which leads to disease. Purifying these energy channels, cleansing the subtle body. The link between the body and mind. Endocrine glands and energy ‘whirlpools’ (chakras). Toning down the sympathetic nervous system and adrenal oversecretion. Activating and circulating the life force, increasing energy and vitality, balancing and restoring the energy flows, energizing and opening the chakras.
Practice: The abdominal, chest, and complete yogic breathing explained. The healing gift of deep, slow breathing. A simple exercise to slow down the heart rate by slowing down the breathing. Ujjayi (‘victorious’), nadi shodhana (‘pranic tubes purification’) and the three stages of, bhramari (from bhramara ‘bee’), shitali (‘cooling’), sheetkari (‘hissing’), rhythmic, and charging breathing.
From alpha through theta to delta
When you are truly relaxed, your muscle and brain activity slows but your awareness expands. Lifted above fragmented thoughts and worries, you experience a liberating sense of peace and well-being, a euphoric release from anything and everything that troubles you. Timelessness.
Moving deeper into relaxation, we enter a state where brain activity slows almost to the point of sleep, but not quite. Yogic sleep, an extraordinary “body asleep/mind awake” state, also known as the twilight or ‘in-between’ state which we normally only experience fleetingly when waking up or drifting off to sleep, for example. As physical tension and mental anxieties dissolve, you begin to sink into the inexhaustible reservoir of creativity that lies just below your conscious awareness. You experience flashes of insight and inspiration, dreamlike imagery, long-forgotten memories, and often lucid dreaming. An ideal state for super-learning, self-hypnosis, re-programming your mind, creative visualization, and dream recall. Not only a yogic tranquilizer but also a cure-all for psychosomatic illness. A regenerative state of total relaxation, but not quite meditation yet. The gateway that leads into still deeper states of consciousness.
With the slowest of all four brain wave frequencies, delta, healing and regeneration take place. The stages of meditation: withdrawal of the senses from external objects (detached awareness); concentration (you are wide-awake, alert; your mind is sharp, focused); calm abiding; clear seeing. Insights into and the override of automatic reactions.
Practice: Correct posture. Body awareness and relaxation. Listening without judging, or mindfulness of sounds meditation. Rotation of consciousness through all the body parts. Mindfulness of breathing meditation: (i) watching and counting; (ii) opening, expanding on the inhalation / releasing hold, letting go on the exhalation; (iii) circulating prana along with breath. To catch a thief in the act—insight meditation: watching the sensations without reacting. Just sitting meditation: releasing the grasping, resting in your nature. Auxiliary practices: autosuggestion; healing visualization; creating an inner sanctuary you can go back to again and again to restore balance at the deepest level.
Ajapa japa
‘Repetition without repetition,’ or spontaneous japa (repeating the mantra over and over again). Also, breath awareness joined with mantra repetition or listening to the sound of one’s breathing. The three elements: (1) breath awareness; (2) the flow of prana; and (3) mantra repetition. When the mantra repeats itself automatically, without any conscious effort involved. Nadis understood as flows of prana and chitta (vital force and awareness).
Kundalini Yoga kriyas
Nada, pavan and shabda sanchalana, that is, the conduction of sound, vital air and word, respectively. Kriyas (literally ‘actions’) for the nervous and immune systems.
