Stress Management and Relaxation Techniques

Archive for the ‘Yoga and Meditation’ Category

The health and fitness benefits of stress reducing yoga have long been reported by practitioners and are now being confirmed by scientific research.  Give yoga a try and discover what it can do for your body, your mind, and your soul.

1.   YOGA FOR … STRESS RELIEF:  Yoga reduces the physical effects of stress on the body. By encouraging relaxation, yoga helps to lower the levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Related benefits include lowering blood pressure and heart rate, improving digestion and boosting the immune system as well as easing symptoms of conditions such as anxiety, depression, fatigue, asthma and insomnia.

2.   YOGA FOR … PAIN RELIEF:  Yoga can ease pain. Studies have demonstrated that practicing yoga asanas (postures), meditation or a combination of the two, reduced pain for people with conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, auto-immune diseases and hypertension as well as arthritis, back and neck pain and other chronic conditions. Some practitioners report that even emotional pain can be eased through the practice of yoga.

3.   YOGA FOR … BETTER BREATHING: Yoga teaches people to take slower, deeper breaths. This helps to improve lung function, trigger the body’s relaxation response and increase the amount of oxygen available to the body.

4.   YOGA FOR … FLEXIBILITY: Yoga helps to improve flexibility and mobility, increasing range of movement and reducing aches and pains. Many people can’t touch their toes during their first yoga class. Gradually they begin to use the correct muscles. Over time, the ligaments, tendons and muscles lengthen, increasing elasticity, making more poses possible.  Yoga also helps to improve body alignment resulting in better posture and helping to relieve back, neck, joint and muscle problems.

5.   YOGA FOR … INCREASED STRENGTH: Yoga asanas (postures) use every muscle in the body, helping to increase strength literally from head to toe. And, while these postures strengthen the body, they also provide an additional benefit of helping to relieve muscular tension.

6.   YOGA FOR … WEIGHT MANAGEMENT: Yoga (even less vigorous styles) can aid weight control efforts by reducing cortisol levels as well as by burning excess calories and reducing stress. Yoga also encourages healthy eating habits and provides a heightened sense of well being and self esteem.

7.   YOGA FOR … IMPROVED CIRCULATION: Yoga helps to improve circulation and, as a result of various poses, more efficiently moves oxygenated blood to the body’s cells.

8.   YOGA FOR … CARDIOVASCULAR CONDITIONING:  Even gentle yoga practice can provide cardio-vascular benefits by lowering resting heart rate, increasing endurance and improving oxygen uptake during exercise.

9.   YOGA FOR… FOCUS ON THE PRESENT: Yoga helps us to focus on the present, to become more aware and to help create mind body health. It opens the way to improved concentration, coordination, reaction time and memory.

10.   YOGA FOR… INNER PEACE: The meditative aspects of yoga help many to reach a deeper, more spiritual and more satisfying place in their lives. Many who begin to practice for other reasons have reported this to be a key reason that yoga has become an essential part of their daily lives.

I know there are a lot of us that pray for people who are sick,or maybe someone that has lost a loved one,or for peace in the world,or maybe you even pray for a lost soul.Whatever it is you may pray for you do it out of the love and faith you have in your heart.Meditating through prayer just gives me a peaceful feeling inside.I guess you can see that when I pray I don’t pray like maybe a minister would pray.I know all about god,however I will be the first to admit I do not know a lot about the bible.

I understand the meaning of what the bible says but I do not understand a lot of the words.I basically should say I use meditation to just talk to god.I believe that the way I talk to god is the same way that people may pray to god. I went to church today and the minister was talking about another minister that liked to tell everyone he knew about everything he has done good in his life. He bragged so much that he really didn’t have the time to listen to what the people in his church needed. I guess you could say even though he preached an excellent sermon and did everything a minister should do,He just really couldn’t see that his pride was taking over his life.

After meditating for a few seconds are minister went on to tell a story of a very religious Christian man and a tax collector walked into a temple at the same time.You could tell when the tax collector walked in everyone stayed away from him because he was not well liked.The Christian man prayed that he would not ever turn out to be anything like the tax collector.The tax collector said a simple prayer asking god that he may be worthy of gods love.I’m sure the Christian man did a lot of good things in his life,But maybe he should have meditated about his pride.

The tax collector did not look down on anyone or asked god if he could be like someone else,he just asked to be worthy of gods love.We all have done things that we wish we could take back.We pray that god will forgive what we have done and we then feel better about ourselves.We know god can forgive us but the important thing is can we forgive ourselves.We truly cannot be happy with ourselves until we do.

I am very concerned about someone I love very much right now.She is a very good Christian person,also a very hard worker and is very sick. She never complains and has been through very much and will have to continue to go through a lot.

As I was meditating in church I felt the tears coming and all I could do is ask god over and over again to please lay his healing hands on this person I love very much. So whether you are practicing meditation through prayer to heal someone you love or to have peace in the world I can tell you the prayer you are saying will comfort you and give you peace of mind.