At least 15 percent of Americans experience infertility and the likelihood increases with age.    Couples trying to conceive contend with an array of stressors; physical, emotional , and financial. Many of the unseen stress is very powerful and draining energetically.  The practice of yoga brings balance to the body – both the physical and subtle energetic bodies.  It is also a practical and proven way to relieve and reduce stress. Stress management skills (the basis of many yoga practices) have been shown to help increase the odds of conception in couples undergoing in vitro fertilization.  The University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson found that stress management skills when practiced by a group of patients over two sessions produced a result of 28% of couples conceiving versus the just 6% who conceived without practicing these techniques.

In a similar study one out of 3 infertile women conceived who participated in a relaxation response based behavioral training program became pregnant after 6 months.  Breathing, massage, meditation and yoga are all excellent forms of stress management and when coupled with a balanced diet, avoidance of alcohol, limited intake of caffeine, artificial foods and chemicals, and overly processed foods provides a safe, practical and holistic way to approach infertility that should not adversely affect any other medical interventions.

Below is a miniature Fertility Yoga sequence I have developed – it focuses on opening the energy in the sacral and root chakras (those that effect the reproductive organs), as well as opening the hips and pelvis.  The poses are no different that those found in any other yoga class, it is the intention of the practitioner, the sankalpa, that one sets that dictates the path energy takes during practice.  Take a few moments in the starting pose to set an intention of love, acceptance and compassion for yourself, your body and your partner.  Breathe into the lower abdomen for several  moments before moving on.  Finish with the self massage, sending thoughts of love to your womb as you massage, then move into a supported savasana.  Make sure to complete poses on each side.  As with all exercise, consult your primary health care provider.

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November 12th, 2009 | Tags: Article, fertility, infertility, yoga sequence, yoga therapy | Category: Bodywork, Daily Post, Fitness, Hatha Yoga, Health, Meditation, Pregnancy, yoga therapy | Leave a comment

Equanimity of the Seven Chakras

By Colette Barry

Rest your body on the floor either in the Savasana (Corpse) or Sukhasana (Easy) pose. Close your eyes and begin to allow your mind to to quiet. See nothing and hear nothing. For a moment allow yourself to erase any thoughts or sounds that have been occupying your mind. Feel the peacefulness and tranquility in you and around you.

Begin to allow your mind to visualize the color red. Red represents the the Root Chakra, located down at the base of the spine. Feel the red beginning to burn warm, heated energy rising up within your soul. A sense of desire to survive and feeling grounded to the earth are qualities of the Root Chakra. Say to yourself I am stable, safe and secure. This is the Root Chakra affirmation.

Begin to visualize the color orange, it’s vibrancy and energy. Orange represents the Sacral Chakras located below the naval and above the pubic bone. Feel the life and energy in the orange, circulating and swirling intermixing with the red to create a healing energy within your body and soul. Sensuality and union with nature exist in the Sacral Chakras. Say to yourself I feel the creativity streaming through my body, soul and mind. This is the Sacral Chakras affirmation.

Allow your mind to now visualize the color yellow. A bright, illuminating color glowing in your being. This is the Solar Plexus Chakras located above the navel and below the chest. Sense the warmth and energy permeating throughout your body reaching up to the crown of your head, returning down to your toes. Inner harmony and acceptance are qualities of the the Solar Plexus. Feel the energy that the red, orange and yellow creates, circulating and stirring within your entire body, healing and mending your soul. Say to yourself I am full of radiant light and energy. This is the Solar Plexus Chakras affirmation.

Now we are at the heart, the Heart Chakras color is green. Feel the life and harmony of the color green. The heart Chakras is located at the center of the Chest. Green brings life and divine love into your mind and body. Allow yourself to be energized stirring and mixing all the colors creating a healthy balance within one another. Say to yourself I love opening my heart and sharing it with others. This is the Heart Chakra affirmation.

Next, The Throat Chakras. The throat Chakra is located within the throat area. The color is blue. Allow yourself to experience the liveliness of blue in every cell of your body. Feel the sense of inspiration and aspiration that this Chakra represents. Combine this vivid blue with all the other Chakra colors keeping them alive and flowing. Say to yourself, I freely express my thoughts and feelings. This is the throat Chakra affirmation.

Now allow your mind to turn to the color indigo, a vibrant and strong independent color. This is the Third Eye Chakra located in the center of the forehead. Imagination, idealism and a peace of mind dominate the Third Eye Chakras. Feel a sense of individualism within yourself and the power it entitles. Self Identity and purpose. Allow this and all the other colors to continue to move and stir within your mind and soul. Say to yourself I move toward my vision with clarity and purpose. This is your Third Eye Chakra affirmation.

Last, visualize the pure color of purple. This is the last Chakra, the Crown Chakra located at the top of the head, the crown. Here you embrace perfection, divine wisdom, understanding and enlightenment. Feel one with the spirit within you, it’s omniscient.

Allow all the colors of the Chakras to freely interchange and restore your body into a healthy balance. Say to yourself I am in total harmony, physically, mentally and spiritually. This is the Crown Chakra affirmation.

As you allow each color to radiate within you, feel a sense of peacefulness and stability permeating your body. All is good, healthy and healing. Once you have allowed yourself to visualize all that is read or spoken turn your mind back to your breath. Listen to your breath and attune your mind into the presence. It’s different, clearer and pleasant. Allow the colors to stay vivid in your mind throughout the day, reflecting on each color as needed..

Namaste

October 12th, 2009 | Tags: chakra, Meditation, yoga | Category: Community, Daily Post, Fitness, Hatha Yoga, Meditation, Yoga Class | Leave a comment

Trataka – A Meditation Practice for Everyone

Trataka is a wonderful practice for everyone and especially for the aspirant of meditation. It is actually classified as a cleansing practice in Yoga.

What it is?

To put it briefly, Trataka – also called Yogic gazing – is a practice where the gaze is fixed on an object for some time and then that object is visualized clearly with the eyes closed, as an inner image at the eyebrow center.

Benefits

Trataka has several benefits which would be helpful to every one and not only mediation aspirants:

• Trataka is believed to have a helpful effect in treating and even resolving several eye disorders such as weak eyesight. It improves the internal and external optic function.
• It improves concentrative powers and mental resolve.
• It helps in disconnecting with the noise and distractions of the external world. This is deeply relaxing.
• In yoga, it is said to also develop the "third" eye – the seat of intuition or that associated with "psychic" powers.

How it Works?

At the physical level it is said to strengthen the eye muscles by exercising them to focus upon a point. Practicing Trataka on an object such as the candle flame is said to provide a unique ‘balming’ effect to the eyes which help in eye health and in the alleviation of certain eye disorders.

At the pre-meditative level, it is necessary to stall eyeball movement for great benefits and experiences. As we are aware, eyeballs are constantly in motion even while sleeping in the form of REM (Rapid Eye Movement). The aim is to minimize and eventually stall even this minutest of movement. Trataka is a wonderful practice in Yoga to achieve this, as it helps in overcoming this by focusing on a point and then visualizing its after-image with the eyes closed.

Many of the hurdles in our personal lives and even on the path to meditation have to do with our inability to disconnect with the external world at will. In yogic terminology, this would mean the inability to withdraw our senses from the sense objects. Trataka, through the focus on one object, helps to make this disconnect more easily and prepares us to do so at will. This is relevant to almost everyone, but specifically vital for the meditation aspirant.

How it is done?

Trataka can be practiced on several objects, but the most popular and effective is trataka on a flame. This is because a flame (such as a candle flame) produces the best after-image that helps in easier visualization of the flame even when eyes are closed. This is the desired effect of Trataka – wherein you can visualize and concentrate on the image even when the eyes are closed.

You should first be seated in a comfortable meditative posture or a squatting position with spine erect. If you have trouble squatting on the mat, you may raise the seating by a few notches.

A candle is placed in a Trataka Stand and the height of the stand is adjusted so that the wick of the flame is at horizontal eye level. The stand is placed at an arm’s length. Trataka is to be practiced with spectacles removed, so people with spectacles may have to adjust the distance between the stand and themselves, so that they observe a clear image of the candle wick without blur.

The focus should on the top end of the wick, as the candle burns. Keep your eyes relaxed while fixing the gaze on the wick. Try not to blink as blinking will interfere in the formation of a clear inner image.

This gaze is kept constant for some time and then eyes closed. With the eyes closed, you should try to observe the inner image of the flame at the eye brow center.

If you don’t see it, don’t be disappointed – you should start seeing it with practice. Keep the eyes closed for as long as you see the inner image. Then re-start.

Detailed instructions of Trataka should be had from your teacher. The Health&Yoga Trataka stand is also accompanied with instructions.

It can be safely said that the practice of Trataka is a powerful practice especially relevant in today’s stressful times and a necessary one for the sincere yoga aspirant.

Courtesy: http://www.healthandyoga.com A popular website that helps you find natural solutions for complete health and detoxification.

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October 12th, 2009 | Tags: Fitness, Health, Meditation, mental, Trataka, yoga | Category: Daily Post, Fitness, Meditation, Yoga Class | Leave a comment

Join Emily Sept 19th to celebrate Yoga Month with an Unwind Yoga Workshop $10

Meditate on health … deep relaxation is as good for you as it feels.

August 20, 2009

Meditation has long been lauded. Now science has shown that deep relaxation changes our bodies on a genetic level – for the better.  Anastasia Stephens reports.

It’s a piece of advice yogis have given for thousands of years: take a deep breath and relax. Watch the tension melt from your muscles and all your niggling worries vanish. Somehow we all know that relaxation is good for us.

Now the hard science has caught up: a comprehensive scientific study showing that deep relaxation changes our bodies on a genetic level has just been published.

What researchers at Harvard Medical School discovered is that, in long-term practitioners of relaxation methods such as yoga and meditation, far more ”disease-fighting genes” were active, compared to those who practiced no form of relaxation.

In particular, they found genes that protect from disorders such as pain, infertility, high blood pressure and even rheumatoid arthritis were switched on. The changes, say the researchers, were induced by what they call ”the relaxation effect”, a phenomenon that could be just as powerful as any medical drug but without the side effects.

”We found a range of disease-fighting genes were active in the relaxation practitioners that were not active in the control group,” Dr Herbert Benson, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School , who led the research, says.

The good news for the control group with the less-healthy genes is that the research didn’t stop there.

The experiment, which showed just how responsive genes are to behaviour, mood and environment, revealed that genes can switch on, just as easily as they switch off.

”Harvard researchers asked the control group to start practising relaxation methods every day,” says Jake Toby, hypnotherapist at London ’s BodyMind Medicine Centre, who teaches clients how to induce the relaxation effect.

”After two months, their bodies began to change: the genes that help fight inflammation, kill diseased cells and protect the body from cancer all began to switch on.”

More encouraging still, the benefits of the relaxation effect were found to increase with regular practice: the more people practised relaxation methods such as meditation or deep breathing, the greater their chances of remaining free of arthritis and joint pain with stronger immunity, healthier hormone levels and lower blood pressure.

Benson believes the research is pivotal because it shows how a person’s state of mind affects the body on a physical and genetic level. It might also explain why relaxation induced by meditation or repetitive mantras is considered to be a powerful remedy in traditions such as Ayurveda in India or Tibetan medicine.

But just how can relaxation have such wide-ranging and powerful effects? Research has described the negative effects of stress on the body. Linked to the release of the stress-hormones adrenalin and cortisol, stress raises the heart rate and blood pressure, weakens immunity and lowers fertility.

By contrast, the state of relaxation is linked to higher levels of feel-good chemicals such as serotonin and to the growth hormone which repairs cells and tissue. Indeed, studies show that relaxation has virtually the opposite effect, lowering heart rate, boosting immunity and enabling the body to thrive.

”On a biological level, stress is linked to fight-flight and danger,” Dr Jane Flemming, a London GP, says. ”In survival mode, heart rate rises and blood pressure shoots up. Meanwhile muscles, preparing for danger, contract and tighten. And non-essential functions such as immunity and digestion go by the wayside.”

Relaxation, on the other hand, is a state of rest, enjoyment and physical renewal. Free of danger, muscles can relax and food can be digested. The heart can slow and blood circulation flows freely to the body’s tissues, feeding it with nutrients and oxygen. This restful state is good for fertility, as the body is able to conserve the resources it needs to generate new life.

While relaxation techniques can be very different, their biological effects are essentially similar. ”When you relax, the parasympathetic nervous system switches on. That is linked to better digestion, memory and immunity, among other things,” Toby says. ”As long as you relax deeply, you’ll reap the rewards.”

But, he warns, deep relaxation isn’t the sort of switching off you do relaxing with a cup of tea or lounging on the sofa.

”What you’re looking for is a state of deep relaxation where tension is released from the body on a physical level and your mind completely switches off,” he says. ”The effect won’t be achieved by lounging round in an everyday way, nor can you force yourself to relax. You can only really achieve it by learning a specific technique such as self-hypnosis, guided imagery or meditation.”

The relaxation effect, however, may not be as pronounced on everyone. ”Some people are more susceptible to relaxation methods than others,” says Joan Borysenko, director of a relaxation program for outpatients at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston . ”Through relaxation, we find some people experience a little improvement, others a lot. And there are a few whose lives turn around totally.”

The health benefits of deep relaxation

The next time you tune out and switch off and let yourself melt, remind yourself of all the good work the relaxation effect is doing on your body. These are just some of the scientifically proven benefits …

Immunity

Relaxation appears to boost immunity in recovering cancer patients. A study at the Ohio State University found that progressive muscular relaxation, when practised daily, reduced the risk of breast cancer recurrence. In another study at Ohio State , a month of relaxation exercises boosted natural killer cells in the elderly, giving them a greater resistance to tumours and to viruses.

Fertility

A study at the University of Western Australia found that women are more likely to conceive during periods when they are relaxed rather than stressed. A study at Trakya University , in Turkey , also found that stress reduces sperm count and motility, suggesting relaxation may also boost male fertility.

Irritable bowel syndrome

When patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome began practising a relaxation meditation twice daily, their symptoms of bloating, diarrhoea and constipation improved significantly. The meditation was so effective the researchers at the State University of New York recommended it as an effective treatment.

August 26th, 2009 | Tags: meditate, relax, unwind, workshop, yoga | Category: Community, Daily Post, Fitness, Hatha Yoga, Meditation, Naperville, Yoga Class | Leave a comment