Mindful Yoga for Stress Catherine Forrester University of Bristol Student Counselling Service 4 th May 2016 The stress response Our body s stress response is an amazing evolutionary tool to get us out of danger. Faced with a threat, all our resources go towards keeping us safe: our heart rate and breathing rate increase, blood surges to our extremities so we can run away from, or combat, the threat. Throughout most of human history, these responses have served us well in combatting the immediate, often lifethreatening dangers that we faced. I can only say it so many times: our bodies are amazing. Unfortunately these amazing bodies now live in an environment drastically different to the one we evolved in. Rather than stress resulting from short-term, life-threatening danger, the stress most of us face now is more insidious. The threats we encounter meeting deadlines, traffic jams, concerns about money, the multisensory overload of living in a busy city are longer term. The amazing physiological responses designed to get us out of danger fast end up being switched on for far longer than they are useful. In the context of an environment it didn t evolve for, it can be easy to begin to see our stress response as an enemy. As the blood and energy rush towards getting us out of trouble fast, they no longer properly serve many other functions - less vital in an emergency, but fundamental to our long term health. The immune system, digestion, sleep, fertility; they just can t function well in a chronically-stressed body. We re unlikely to return to hunter-gathering any time soon. So as busy students, parents, citydwellers, what can we do to combat the effects of chronic stress? As a born worrier and long-term sufferer of anxiety, I have found yoga to be a fundamental tool in helping me understand and respond to my own stress response. How can mindful yoga help with stress? Yoga can help us to befriend our bodies, and learn its signals. Turning our attention inwards, rather than taking it out into the world, gives us a chance to slow down and start to notice how our bodies really feel and what is going on inside. Mindfulness of the body helps us to learn and understand some of the signals that our body is giving us, and offers us a chance to respond compassionately. Mindful yoga offers our bodies and nervous systems alternatives to the habitual patterns they might otherwise fall into. Allowing your body to experience opening, release, softening and full breath in a safe environment mean that your body knows these are options. The more often you practice, the more likely your body will draw on these memories in future situations. And yoga allows us to REST! We are all so busy; even when we rest we often engage in activities that stimulate rather than calm our nervous system. Even activities that we tend to think of as relaxing (for example, sitting still and watching TV) can be quite stimulating for the nervous
system, and so do not allow us to fully enter the resting phase of the nervous system. If we are consciously trying to bring the nervous system back into balance, we need to make time every day for deep relaxation. I always include a period of relaxation and often include restorative yoga poses in my classes. The autonomic nervous system Our autonomic nervous system is the part of the nervous system we don t have conscious control over, distinct from the somatic nervous system, which controls our muscular movement. The autonomic nervous system is made up of two branches the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The sympathetic branch readies our body for action, and it is this which governs the body s fight or flight response. The parasympathetic branch is also known as the rest and digest branch. It governs non-vital bodily functions, and is what governs the body s relaxation response. Both are vital for our survival, and in a healthy state we should be able to move fluidly between the two as necessary. However, if we repeatedly experience stresses we feel unable to respond adequately to, we can end up in a state of sympathetic dominance, stuck in the part of our nervous system that prepares us for action. This can have detrimental effects on our longterm health as non-vital systems suffer. Sympathetic Prepares the body for action: Release of stress hormones Increased heart rate and blood pressure Tensed muscles Inhibition of non-vital processes (eg digestion, reproduction) Blood flows to extremities to allow muscles to function Increased breathing rate High sensitivity/alertness/sense of threat Parasympathetic The Rest and Digest mode: Slower heart rate, lowered blood pressure Relaxed muscles Non-vital processes are prioritised Blood flow prioritises organs Slower breathing Sense of safety
The mind/body stress cycle There are very strong connections between our mind and body, which an understanding of the nervous system can help us understand. As far as the nervous system understands, thoughts about threat are no different to a physically present threat. Our minds can provoke the stress response just as readily as the presence of physical danger can. One of the difficult things about stress is that it can create a loop in which the mind and body s individual responses to stress reinforce each other and create a vicious cycle. Mindful yoga provides us with opportunities to understand and begin to interrupt this cycle. Tips for dealing with stress in daily life Here are some specific tips for dealing with stress in daily life. These are all things that we practice in a mindful yoga session, but I think that they only become really useful when they begin to show up in your life outside class, too. One of my friends and teachers, Aki Omori, says: We practice being present when things are easy, so that we have more chance of doing it when they are difficult. In a yoga class we are given conditions that make mindfulness of the body easier. The more we practice, the more we can draw on these skills outside class as well. 1. Notice body-mind connections The first skill doesn t involve any doing at all. It s just a matter of noticing. In mindfulness practices we cultivate the skill of observation simply becoming a gentle witness to what is going on. Beginning to notice what s happening in your body and how this connects to your thoughts is incredibly useful. There are many common patterns to how stress manifests physically, but the details vary from person to person. It will be really helpful to practice feeling your body, and then begin to notice the details of what happens in your own body when things are challenging. In the moment practice: Checking in The next time you find yourself in a mildly stressful situation, give yourself a chance to notice how it affects your body. How is your breath? Your heart rate? Your muscle tension? Pain? See if you can practice witnessing these things without needing them to change right now (although they might well change as you slow down to notice them). Just notice, and see what happens. Home practice: Mindful Yoga We can begin to cultivate the skill of noticing our body by doing gentle movement practices and repeatedly bringing our attention to what we can feel as we move. You can find some simple movement practices on my website: http://helixyoga.co.uk/#free-downloads Mindful movement for stress and 30 minute winding down practice would both be helpful places to start. 2. Befriend your breath Our breath is an amazing bridge into our nervous system. When you start to pay attention to your breath, you will notice how it changes in response to situations, thoughts, feelings. And just as it changes to reflect the situation your nervous system is in, so you can begin to skillfully use your
breath to influence your nervous system. When we are anxious, our breath often shortens, or becomes held. In class, we practice slowly relaxing the breath and lengthening the exhalation. In the moment practice: Noticing your breath, and belly breathing The next time you are feeling stressed, take a moment to notice how you are breathing. Put your hands on your belly and see if you can allow your breath to move under your hands. If it feels possible, begin to invite your outbreath to get a little longer. Home practice: Lengthening your exhale At home, you can practice gently lengthening your exhale. Choose ten minutes when you know you can be undisturbed. Silence your phone, and sit or lie comfortably. Begin to watch your breath, counting the length of your inhale and your exhale. Once you have found your natural rhythm right now, experiment with adding one count on to your outbreath. Breathe this way for a few rounds of breath and see how it feels. If it feels comfortable, you can add one more count. Again, see how it feels. You can continue like this as long as the breath still feels comfortable. Once you have found a rhythm with a longer exhale than you began, breathe with that rhythm for a few minutes. Then stop counting, allow your breath to return to normal, and check in to see how you feel. A longer exhale, practiced gently, can be a really helpful tool when you are worried or having trouble getting to sleep. Home practice: Alternate nostril breathing Breathing through your nose naturally makes the breath longer and slower. Breathing through one nostril at a time slows the breath down even more. The pattern of moving from one side to the other provides your mind enough to focus on that it can often become quieter. Like the straw breathing, this is another practice that is a nice way to begin the day. Sit comfortably and take a moment to breathe and notice your breath. When you are ready to, bring your right hand up to your nose. You will use your thumb to close the right nostril, and the index finger to close the left. When you are ready, close the right nostril and breath out through the left. Then breathe in through the left, and close the left nostril with your ring finger. Breathe out through the right. Breathe in through the right, and then close the nostril with your thumb, and breath out through the left. Continue in this pattern for two or three minutes, as long as it is comfortable. If it feels too restrictive, you can forget about the hand and just let your attention move from side to side as you imagine the breath coming and going from one nostril at a time in the pattern described above. This can be just as effective as using your hand; the important thing is that you are breathing comfortably the whole time. 3. Use your body as an anchor Often when we are stressed, we are so stuck in our thoughts that we lose touch with the body altogether. Coming back to feel the body can bring us right back to what is actually happening, and can be a really helpful tool when you feel stuck in your head. During class we explore lots of different anchors for our attention the sense of weight, the movement of our breath, sensation in different areas as we move. You will find some sensations more compelling than others, so in daily life, try to come back to the ones that feel most helpful for you.
For some people (especially those who experience panic attacks), your breath might not feel like a safe thing to focus on at certain times. But there are plenty of other bodily sensations that might be easier for you to connect with. In the moment practice: Feeling your body If you are very anxious and your breath is too scary to focus on, can you take your attention elsewhere? Can you feel sensation in the palms of your hands? For some people, the feeling of their feet on the ground can be useful. If standing, you might shift your weight from foot to foot slowly. If sitting or lying, can you do anything to allow your weight to drop more fully into the ground? Home practice: Feeling your body s weight Lie down in any position that feels comfortable to you. You might want to use a blanket under your head, or a cushion under your knees. When you are ready, bring your attention to every surface of your body that is contact with the floor. Which parts feel heaviest? Are there differences left to right? With each breath out, try to allow your weight to drop into the ground. You don t need to force or push anything, just allow your body to be heavy. You might notice that the sense of weight changes from your in-breath to your out-breath. Stay with this sense of weight for as long as it feels helpful. 4. Open your body up One of the things you might start to notice as you begin to pay attention to how your body and mind interact is the way your body posture changes when you are stressed. For many people, the shoulders lift up, the jaw clenches, and we hunch forward, protecting our bellies. Although there are very good reasons for your body taking these actions in response to short-term stress, if you tend to hold onto these posture long-term it can begin to feed into a stress-cycle that is hard to break. There is a very real link between our emotions and state of mind, and our posture. We slump and hunch when we re feeling down, nervous, or tired. Evolutionarily that makes sense; by drawing in on ourselves, we make ourselves less visible and protect our soft, vulnerable front. But if you get into the habit of holding yourself like this all the time (as computers, sofas and stress encourage us to do) your body can feel stuck in these feelings. So the next time you are feeling really stressed, give yourself a moment to find some space in your body. This is not a case of forcing yourself into good posture and rigidly holding yourself there this is just as stressful for the body as being in a collapsed, protective state. Instead it as a process of gently opening and lengthening to find more space.
In the moment practice: Finding space Sitting or standing, bring your attention to whatever is in contact with the ground. Allow your feet or seat to relax and feel the ground underneath you. You are supported. Bring one hand to your belly, and one to your heart. Lift the crown of your head and lengthen the back of your neck. As you breathe out, let your shoulders relax. Find some space between the back teeth. Scan your body and notice where you are holding tension right now, and see what might be able to let go. Breathe. Home practice: Move! When you are working, it is easy to get stuck in one position, usually one which reflects any stress we are experiencing. When you are studying, be sure to take a minute or two every half an hour to stand up, move around, look at something in the distance (to relax the muscles around the eyes which can tense up with a lot of screen time), and stretch. Give your body a chance to open up and it is likely that you will come back to your task a little fresher. Giving consideration to how you hold your body in daily life will also affect how it is experiencing tension. These pictures shows quite graphically the amount of strain we habitually put on our necks looking at our phones or computers. Consciously making space for yourself by finding a long, neutral spine (following the cues above) will help you breathe more fully and reduce strain on your neck and shoulders. And both these things will allow your body to feel more at ease.
5. Rest Harder to do whilst right in the midst of things, but when you get home from a stressful day, notice what it is you do to wind down. Many of the things that we do to relax or wind down are actually fairly stimulating to our nervous systems. Watching TV, using the internet, or playing computer games are all experienced as a stress on the body. There is nothing wrong with them (I do them all, often!) but it is important to be aware that they don t offer your body a chance to rest, and so it might be helpful to find other ways to allow your nervous system to really settle. Meditation and movement practices can be helpful, but consciously resting and relaxing is important too. In the moment practice: Mindfulness of daily activities Unfortunately most of us can t just lie down for a rest whenever we like, but might it be possible to find a more mindful (and so restful) way of doing whatever you are doing? For example, as you are washing up, can you focus on the feeling of the water on your hands and the feeling of your breath, rather than letting you attention stay with worrying and repetitive thoughts? Can you do the same as you brush your teeth, walk to your next seminar, or have a cup of tea? In my experience, it is more restful for my attention to be with the physical realities of the present moment than with worries or rumination. So I take as many opportunities as I can through the day to allow my attention to come to the present moment, and allow my mind and body to rest. Home practice: Constructive Rest Position Might you be able to make time for yourself to lie down, on the floor, and breathe consciously for ten minutes? How about five? Constructive rest position allows your spine to settle into its natural curves, and the psoas muscles (which tend to contract habitually with stress) to release. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet hip distance apart. Let your feet be far enough from your buttocks that your lower back has a slight curve, rather than pressing into the ground. If it feels like it takes too much effort to maintain this position, simply lie on your back with a pillow under your knees so that they are slightly bent, but supported. Rest here for five or ten minutes, with your hands on your lower belly. Invite your breath to move downwards to meet your hands, belly breathing rather than chest breathing. Using a guided meditation or relaxation audio can be really helpful when your mind is busy. You can find some guided meditations on my website: http://helixyoga.co.uk/#free-downloads
Resources There are lots of great books around on the subject of yoga and stress, but these are the ones I have found most helpful: Yoga for Emotional Balance by Bo Forbes I really can t recommend this one highly enough! The Breathing Book by Donna Farhi is great for more in depth exploration of your breath. I have written a short book on developing a yoga practice at home. Feel free to email me if you would like a PDF copy which you can use on screen, or print and bind. I teach mindful yoga classes in Bristol, contact me for class times and keep up to date through facebook: www.facebook.com/helixyoga My website www.helixyoga.co.uk has audio recordings of meditations and movement practices that you can download for free. catherine.j.forrester@gmail.com