Yoga for Panic Attacks

Cultivate balanced breathing�both on and off your sticky mat. Throughout your day, focus on balancing your inhalation and exhalation. Breathe slowly and smoothly through your nose, allowing the beginning of each phase of the breath to be as even and smooth as the end of each phase. In general, the beginning of both the inhalation and exhalation moves more easily and quickly than the end. So in order to bring more balance to the breath, allow the beginning of both inhalation and exhalation to be a little slower, while making the last part of each breath stronger and more full.

During the onset of a panic attack, focus on your exhalation. Allow your exhalation to be slower and fuller than your inhalation. This helps the parasympathetic nervous system slow down the heartbeat and blood pressure, which will help calm you.

Do a regular asana practice that incorporates a good blend of up-tempo activity and resting poses. Instead of practicing just restorative poses, include challenging asanas like standing poses, backbends, arm balances, and inversions. Incorporate these challenging poses into your practice, performing them at a brisk pace in order to smoothly elevate your heart rate, and then follow with a few minutes of quiet, slow, and easy poses to calm the heart. Alternate a few minutes of more vigorous work with resting poses two or three times during a full practice. This will help to clear some deep-seated tensions and restore the natural, balanced internal rhythms of the heart and nervous system.

While performing your asanas, it is important to keep your muscles firm and engaged, hugging the muscles to the bones. This type of muscular action has several benefits including creating an insulating and calming influence on the nervous system.

Within your regular asana practice, emphasize grounding poses like standing poses and hip-openers, which will help you feel a lot more secure. In all poses, move the thigh bones toward the backs of the legs (the hamstrings). Also, while keeping the pelvic floor wide and expanded, lengthen the tailbone so that the legs and pelvis feel rooted into the earth. This will induce a sense of security and greatly reduce fear.

Cultivate regular sleep habits. Attempt to go to sleep before 10 p.m. and awake at a regular hour after at least 7 hours of sleep. Spend some quiet time reading some inspirational writings before going to sleep.

SOURCE: YogaJournal

Building a Home Yoga Practice

Starting or strengthening a home practice can be a great way to maintain and even deepen your yoga practice. It's also a great option if you struggle to fit classes in to your schedule, or want to practice more often than is financially realistic. One great thing about a home-based practice is that it can be whatever you need it to be. It can start and end at any time, target your mood and physical needs, and utilize any genre or volume of music that moves you in the moment.
Read the FULL Article HERE

Deepen Forward Bends

I'm saving this for future info for myself - it's from Yoga Journal

Deepen Forward Bends

You attend class regularly (perhaps for years), practice at home, and make progress in most poses—except for forward bending. You seem to have hamstrings of steel! No matter how often or how long you practice, there doesn't seem to be any change.

If this sounds like you, it might be because you're looking in the wrong place to find a solution. Hamstrings aren't the only muscle that needs to be worked to see progress in forward bends. A group of muscles in the hip area—the external rotators—can also interfere with the ability to bend forward. Working on poses that loosen up your hips might be exactly what you need to help you surrender into deeper forward bends.

Read the full articles:

• Forward Bends
• Hips Too Tight?

yoga practice twist into spring

Source: kripalu.org

by Janna Delgado, Yoga Teacher and Personal Trainer

Rhythmic standing twists are a great way to warm the body, release stagnation, and rebalance the nervous system. They also gently stretch and tone the spine without causing strain.

To practice, stand with the feet parallel, shoulder-width apart, arms relaxed by the sides, knees soft. Slowly begin to turn the hips and shoulders from left to right, rotating the torso from side to side. Let the arms and knees be soft and relaxed as you twist. Exhale as you rotate left, turning the head to look over the left shoulder and lifting the right heel. Inhale as you pass through center. Exhale and twist to the right, turning the head to look over the right shoulder and lift the left heel. Keep your spine relaxed and tall as you move.

Coordinate the breath with the movement by exhaling into the twist and inhaling as you pass through center. After 10–30 repetitions, gradually slow the movement down until you return to stillness. Pause here, breathing in the stillness. Direct your awareness inside to observe and absorb the effects of the practice.

nutrition notes follow the flow of the season

By Annie B. Kay, Nutritionist

The world awakens earlier, and life sprouts all around us now. Accept spring’s invitation to lighten up by cleaning out your pantry, your fridge, and your eating habits. Choosing the season’s young greens will give you the nutrient density (a high concentration of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, per calorie) to make the most of the lengthening days, and allow you to feel the energy of fresh local food.

Reconnecting with raw foods this season will ensure that you get the most phytonutrition to keep your body’s problem-preventing systems operating properly. Phytonutrients have a wide variety of benefits, from cardioprotection, to antivirals, to antibacterials, and more. Cooking and processing often decreases phytonutrient activity, so having some raw fruits and vegetables in your diet ensures their phytonutrient potency.

While colorful fruits and vegetables are phytonutrient superstars, legumes, nuts, seeds, and beans; fresh greens and other colorful foods like our Spring Fling Salad; and nutritious drinks like clean water, herbal teas or fresh Carrot, Celery, and Apple Juice also pack a punch. Follow the flow of the season and awaken your own growth and renewal.

Source: kripalu.org