Here are seven stress-related health problems you can do something about with gentle yoga and meditation. Remember, stress isn’t a “feeling”–it is a physiologic response to perceived (or real) danger. It isn’t in “your head” and yoga and meditation provide release of deeply held tensions, fears and anxieties through physical, mental and spiritual exercises.
Heart Disease and Diabetes
Stress raises your glucose levels making it harder to manage Type 2 diabetes. Mindfulness-based meditation programs have been proven to reverse heart disease.
Asthma
Chronic stress makes asthma worse and children with stressed-out parents are more likely to have asthma.
Obesity
Stress causes higher levels of the hormone cortisol which makes you collect fat around your middle.
Headaches
Migraines and tension headaches. Enough said.
Depression and Anxiety
Adults who report having stressful jobs (like having a lot of work and very few rewards) have an 80% higher chance of developing depression than adults who do not report a stressful work environment. It’s unlikely that you can change your work situation overnight, but you can change your response to stress with regular yoga and meditation practices.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
You have a very smart gut and stress changes your gut’s ability to process food and can be a factor in GERD, IBS and making ulcers worse.
Accelerated Aging & Premature Death
Caregivers have a 63% higher chance of dying prematurely than adults of the same age who are not caregivers. Life is stressful, but we can use very simple methods of movement and meditation to ease this tension and decrease this risk.
Sign up for my newsletter and you will receive a downloadable/printable PDF with three exercises you can do right now to ease tension and stress (no matter where you are, your physical abilities or what you are wearing—-everyone can do these!). This is posted by Sharon Rudyk, an independent yoga and meditation instructor based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who has designed a unique movement-based meditation program, Matrika Yoga in the hopes of making yoga and meditation available to everyone and improving the quality of life for as many people as possible. Namaste.
