heart disease | Paper Clay Nature

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.

This weekend, Plamen Karagyozov will be facilitating a three-hour workshop featuring the heart salutations at Yoga Matrika, an intimate space for yoga, meditation and healing in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh. Acquaint Your Heart will be held from 1:00 to 4:00pm on Saturday, October 1, 2011 at Yoga Matrika.

If you were asked to describe your heart’s desire, most likely, you would immediately formulate a cerebral response that would be conditioned by culture, religion, traditions, expectations and other aspects of your unique human experience. In reality, the heart is the very first organ of intelligence that you formed in your embryonic state. We can learn how to consult the heart, listen to the heart and act on the heart through yoga and movement practices that draw upon our embodied intelligence to gain access to this important source of information.

The Heart Salutations that Plamen will offer in the workshop are a twelve step sequence flow (vinyasa) of energetic seals of the whole body(mudras) and asana that are accompanied by the breath (pranayama). At first, the body is warmed up and prepared for comfortable and effortless movement. Then the sequence is taught in sections with highlights on important details and gradually the entire salutation is practiced, featuring the various aspects of the heart and the circulatory system.Once the Heart Salutation is learned, with each pass through it, we layer in additional material, like Om, Yin-Yang and Tantra, transforming them from an intellectual concept to very palpable and practical aid in practice.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that, in 2006, 631,636 people in the United States died of heart disease. This represents over 26% of deaths that year. In 2010, they predicted that heart disease would cost the United States $316.4 billion. This total includes the cost of health care services, medications, and lost productivity. There is most definitely a cost of life, quality of life and time with those we love when we ignore the intelligence of the heart.

In the Tantric view, we can use our bodies as a tool for liberation in this lifetime. Invest in learning the heart salutations and practice them. Learn how to relieve your cerebral perspective and listen to your heart. Feel your heart’s desire and include this important form of intelligence in how you move through the world.

This post was written by Sharon Rudyk, Owner and Director of Programs at Yoga Matrika and Matrika Prenatal. She hopes you will visit her soon and often at The Mat, an intimate space for yoga, meditation and healing in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA, 15217.

Tag: heart disease

Do You Know Your Heart?