Category Archives: Meditation

Cancer Patients Report Easier Recovery, Inner Strength and Renewed Optimism from ‘Inner Engineering’ Yoga and Meditation Program

Posted on December 26, 2011 | Leave a comment

From PRweb

Isha Foundation Offers Scholarships for Cancer Survivors to Attend Program with Sadhguru in Houston in May

Inspired by eager participation in its scholarship program for breast cancer survivors, Isha Foundation is extending its patient scholarships into 2012 and expanding it to include individuals who are recovering from cancer of any kind. The first Isha program to offer the new Cancer Survivors’ Scholarship is “Be, Breathe, Blossom – Technologies for Wellbeing”, a 3-day ‘Inner Engineering Program’ offering simple, but powerful yogic methods to bring about a deep state of meditativeness. This program will be offered by Isha Foundation founder, yogi and mystic, Sadhguru in Houston, Texas from May 4-6, 2012. (Venue TBA.) Cancer Survivors’ Scholarships offer recovering patients and cancer survivors a scholarship of $60 toward the 3-day Houston program fee. These scholarships can be obtained by e-mailing Houston(at)IshaFoundation(dot)org.

“Cancer treatment can be very traumatic for patients and their families, both from a health perspective and an economic perspective,” said Kalpana Rajdev, M.D., a family physician and President of Isha Foundation. “We are thrilled that patients and survivors of cancer are able to benefit so much from these scholarships, empowering them to receive a potent internal support system during one of the most physically and emotionally challenging times in their lives. The meditative process they receive in these three days is with them for life, supporting both their recovery and maintenance of health.”

According the American Cancer Society, twenty years of research on meditation indicates that meditative processes offer significant mental and physical benefits for those with cancer. “Research shows that meditation can help reduce anxiety, stress, blood pressure, chronic pain, and insomnia,” reports the ACS website. A 2008 study of those practicing Inner Engineering’s primary meditative practice, Shambhavi Mahamudra, revealed an instantaneous response of nervous system function during just 21-minutes of practice. These results support a direct and immediate impact of Shambhavi in modulating the autonomic nervous system—the involuntary aspect of the nervous system that is responsible for the stress-response.

Derived from the ancient yogic system, an elaborate system of inner technologies over 10,000 years old, Inner Engineering is a powerful program created by Sadhguru to instill a deep sense of inner balance, joy and mental clarity. According to Sadhguru, health benefits attained as a result of Inner Engineering are the by-product of overall balance achieved within the system. “In yoga, when we say ‘health,’ we don’t look at the body or the mind; we only look at the energy,” Sadhguru explained in a recent Huffington Post article. “If your energy body is in proper balance and in full flow, your physical body and mental body will be in perfect health.”

Many cancer patients who’ve taken Inner Engineering (IE) say that the program offered them a remarkable boost in emotional strength and a positive forward-looking perspective when they needed it the most.

“I have been through chemotherapy and radiation with all the side effects imaginable… I strongly feel that if I had not been doing the (Isha) practices, I would not have had this inner strength to deal with my situation the way I have,” explained Chitra Karnani of Bloomfield, MI. “I still have some challenges left to be dealt with, but I remain mentally and emotionally strong and feel capable to cope with whatever comes my way.”

Margie Hudnell of Dayton, Ohio felt that the Inner Engineering program helped markedly reduce the pain of her surgery and boost her recovery from treatment, as well.

“My recovery post-surgery was quite remarkable. Aside from the pain medicine provided in the recovery room following surgery, I did not have the need for further medication and my incision healed at least twice as quickly as normal as per my surgeon. I felt totally healed and so energetic that my family had to remind me to take it easy,” emphasized Margie. “The traditional radiation and chemotherapies were discussed as was the Tamoxifen protocol, however I opted to not accept these recommendations pending my early diagnosis, clean margins from the lumpectomy, established yoga practice and inclusion of neem & turmeric (documented anti-cancer properties) into my vegetarian diet.

The medical team supported my decisions, being aware that my yoga practices and dietary regimen supported my immune system and natural healing of the body and having witnessed my remarkable postsurgical recovery. I attribute my continued 11 years cancer-free state directly to my Isha practice and the dietary recommendations provided as part of the program designed by Sadhguru.”

Founded by Sadhguru 30 years ago, Isha Foundation is an international non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating human potential through the ancient yogic system. For more information about Isha Foundation, visit http://www.ishausa.org. For more information about Sadhguru visit http://www.Sadhguru.org. For more information about ‘Be, Breathe, Blossom—Technologies for Inner Wellbeing’ coming to Houston this May 4-6, or to apply for a patient scholarship, contact houston(at)ishafoundation(dot)org

An introductory video of the Inner Engineering program can be viewed at http://www.InnerEngineering.com
A free Isha meditation process can be experienced at http://www.IshaKriya.com Isha Kriya in itself is a powerful ongoing support for internal balance. This process, however, cannot offer all the benefits made available through the 3-day Inner Engineering intensive with Sadhguru.

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Posted in Health, Meditation, Nonprofit, Research

Veterans learn to use yoga and meditation exercises to reconnect with their emotions

Posted on November 25, 2011 | Leave a comment

From Sharpbrains.com

Vet­er­ans learn to use yoga and med­i­ta­tion exer­cises to recon­nect with their emo­tions(Wis­con­sin State Journal):

“Rich Low of Madi­son served as an infantry offi­cer in the Army in Iraq in 2005 and 2006, lead­ing some 280 com­bat mis­sions. When he came back from the ser­vice, he didn’t think his expe­ri­ence affected him in any major way. He had night­mares, and he star­tled eas­ily, but he chalked that up to just some­thing vet­er­ans live with.

Then he enrolled in a study he ini­tially wrote off as “just some hip­pie thing,” where he learned about yoga breath­ing and med­i­ta­tion. A year later, Low, 30, sums up his expe­ri­ence with two words: “It works.”

That’s the idea behind the study com­ing from The Cen­ter for Inves­ti­gat­ing Healthy Minds, at the Wais­man Cen­ter on the UW-Madison cam­pus. Researchers there, includ­ing asso­ciate sci­en­tist Emma Sep­pala, believe some­thing as sim­ple as breath­ing can change the lives of vet­er­ans return­ing from Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Link to Study: The effect of mindfulness-based ther­apy on anx­i­ety and depres­sion: A meta-analytic review (J Con­sult Clin Psychol).

Abstract:

  • OBJECTIVE: Although mindfulness-based ther­apy has become a pop­u­lar treat­ment, lit­tle is known about its effi­cacy. There­fore, our objec­tive was to con­duct an effect size analy­sis of this pop­u­lar inter­ven­tion for anx­i­ety and mood symp­toms in clin­i­cal samples.
  • METHOD:  We con­ducted a lit­er­a­ture search using PubMed, PsycINFO, the Cochrane Library, and man­ual searches. Our meta-analysis was based on 39 stud­ies total­ing 1,140 par­tic­i­pants receiv­ing mindfulness-based ther­apy for a range of con­di­tions, includ­ing can­cer, gen­er­al­ized anx­i­ety dis­or­der, depres­sion, and other psy­chi­atric or med­ical conditions.
  • RESULTS:  Effect size esti­mates sug­gest that mindfulness-based ther­apy was mod­er­ately effec­tive for improv­ing anx­i­ety (Hedges’s g = 0.63) and mood symp­toms (Hedges’s g = 0.59) from pre– to post treat­ment in the over­all sam­ple. In patients with anx­i­ety and mood dis­or­ders, this inter­ven­tion was asso­ci­ated with effect sizes (Hedges’s g) of 0.97 and 0.95 for improv­ing anx­i­ety and mood symp­toms, respec­tively. These effect sizes were robust, were unre­lated to pub­li­ca­tion year or num­ber of treat­ment ses­sions, and were main­tained over follow-up.
  • CONCLUSIONS:  These results sug­gest that mindfulness-based ther­apy is a promis­ing inter­ven­tion for treat­ing anx­i­ety and mood prob­lems in clin­i­cal populations.

To learn more, enjoy these related arti­cles on Stress and Med­i­ta­tion.

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Posted in Health, Meditation, personal yoga practice, Research

Veterans learn to use yoga and meditation exercises to reconnect with their emotions in a UW-Madison study

Posted on November 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

From Madison.com

Rich Low of Madison served as an infantry officer in the Army in Iraq in 2005 and 2006, leading some 280 combat missions. When he came back from the service, he didn’t think his experience affected him in any major way. He had nightmares, and he startled easily, but he chalked that up to just something veterans live with.

Then he enrolled in a study he initially wrote off as “just some hippie thing,” where he learned about yoga breathing and meditation. A year later, Low, 30, sums up his experience with two words: “It works.”

That’s the idea behind the study coming from The Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, at the Waisman Center on the UW-Madison campus. Researchers there, including associate scientist Emma Seppala, believe something as simple as breathing can change the lives of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, even those who don’t think they have post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Military people don’t want to be seen as victims, they’re so brave,” Seppala said. “They’re not always open to therapy because they hate the victim status, so we want to give them practices to empower them with tools they can use to help themselves.”

To that end, the scientists at the CIHM plan to take what they learned in the pilot study and back it up with neuroscience, with a larger study planned for early next year.

“There will be the inclusion of a very significant neuroscience component in this new phase,” said Richard Davidson, founder and chair of the CIHM. “We’ll use state-of-the-art brain imaging methods to examine changes in brain functions and structure that are induced by these interventions.”

Emotions resurface

Last year’s pilot study involved a weeklong regimen in which veterans learned a yoga breathing technique called Sudarshan Kriya yoga, which involves cyclical breathing patterns, along with mindfulness meditation. Seppala said the treatment holds promise for PTSD symptoms, which include intrusive thoughts, emotional numbness and hypervigilance.

Emotional numbness is something Travis Leanna, a 25-year-old veteran and UW-Madison student, identified with after returning from Iraq, where he served with the Marines for six months.

“The study was an eye-opener,” he said, after admitting he signed up for it because of the stipend involved. “I didn’t have PTSD, but I felt disconnected.”

After a close family member committed suicide in 2009, Leanna said, “I was almost unaffected, I didn’t feel it. I looked at life objectively, like I was just going through the motions.”

He signed up for the meditation study with low expectations. “I thought what they were proposing was pretty goofy. I thought, ‘They’re going to tell me to clear my mind — what does that even mean?’”

In the end, it meant something that came as a shock.

“It brought back my feelings. The experience opened me up,” Leanna said, so much so that he continues to use the breathing techniques often.

“They help me focus and de-stress,” he said. “That experience changed my life, and I don’t even have PTSD.”

‘Embryonic stage’

Science seems to be just catching up with ideas espoused by ancient practices such as yoga and meditation.

“The goal of these kinds of practices is to change one’s relationship to the trauma, change one’s relationship to the negative emotions and intrusive thoughts that may arise as a consequence of the trauma,” Davidson said.

“By changing one’s relationships to these disturbing emotions and thoughts, the goal is that eventually those emotions and thoughts will decrease in their intensity,” he said, allowing veterans to move past their trauma.

This sort of treatment could also help those who struggle with mood disorders, such as anxiety and depression, that aren’t associated with military service.

“There is a little bit of evidence in the scientific literature that speaks to the efficacy of these interventions for a broader range of disorders, although it’s also important to underscore that the work in these areas is at a very embryonic stage,” Davidson said. “Our work is really part of a new chapter in research on the applications of these methods with specific clinical groups using rigorous controlled designs.”

The scope of this study will be determined by private funding, as parts of the research require many resources, such as the brain imaging component, Davidson said.

Coping styles

The scientists are seeking veterans to participate in this next larger study, which will examine the differences between the yogic breathing technique versus meditation.

One of the main goals of the new study is to determine who will benefit most from which treatment. As Davidson said, “One size may not fit all.”

Indeed, veteran Low underscored the differences in coping styles among veterans.

“In the military, the way of dealing with an intense situation — like if someone in your platoon is killed — is to sit with chaplain for a ‘cry session’ for maybe an hour, and then you just have to move on,” he said.

The tools he learned at the CIHM take about the same time, and they work for him, but “each person is unique,” he said. “You have to have several ways to deal with things.”

Caught on film

The research study is the subject of a documentary film called “Free the Mind,” which will be released in 2012. Phie Ambo, the documentarian, contacted Davidson with the idea of a film on the work being done at the CIHM.

“She filmed me in very remote places of the planet,” he said, but the focus of the film is on the veterans.

Seppala, the head scientist on the study, said she was thrilled to have the documentarians chronicle the experiment and capture the emotions involved.

“It’s so wonderful to have this film, so that the experience is more than just a paper in a journal,” she said.

Low is featured in the film, and he expressed hope his participation will help other veterans who may be reticent to admit they need help.

“Appearance means a lot in the military. Our uniforms have to be perfectly ironed and starched. We’re not used to dropping our guard,” he said. “I had to let my guard down big time, but that’s incredibly valuable if it helps people.”

Low’s altruistic philosophy comes from a very personal place. After coming back from Iraq, he said he started to feel a lot of intense guilt and frustration, “guilt at things that I had been a part of.”

He withdrew emotionally, and his loved ones took notice.

“I think the breathing released a lot of stuff I had kept bottled up,” he said. “This study took me back through my events in Iraq, and my body finally started dealing with the things in my mind.”

Earlier this year, after the study, Low went hunting with his dad. His easy demeanor impressed his father, who remarked, “You’re you again. The you from five years ago.”

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Posted in Health, Meditation

For This Yogi, Afghan Peace Plan Needs More Downward Dog

Posted on October 27, 2011 | Leave a comment

By DION NISSENBAUM from Wall Street Journal

KABUL—Retired male supermodel Cameron Alborzian sat down with Maj. Gen. Phil Jones at the U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Kabul this past summer to discuss a novel way to persuade Afghan insurgents to lay down arms.

Cameron Alborzian led a group of officials in meditation at Afghanistan’s Pul-e-Charkhi prison near Kabul in June.

Best known in his youth as Madonna’s smoldering music-video love interest, Mr. Alborzian presented a bold plan to the British general who oversaw the coalition’s effort to lure Taliban fighters from the battlefield: Afghan militants should join Western troops in meditation and yoga, embracing a new spirit of brotherly unity.

“The achievement would be: American soldiers meditate, Taliban meditate and, in jails, they meditate together,” Mr. Alborzian said. “One is on one side of the bar, the other is on the other side of the bar. You are both in jail—and you can find the peace in it together.”

The former model’s message of peace may seem kooky. But it has been persuasive enough to get meetings for Mr. Alborzian and his project’s Kabul-based representative with senior coalition officers, Afghan ministers and even a onetime insurgent leader.

The project also won a sympathetic hearing from Vice Adm. Robert Harward, a U.S. Navy SEAL and yoga practitioner who until recently oversaw American detention facilities in Afghanistan, and currently serves as deputy commander of the U.S. Central Command.
[AFYOGA-Ahed]

Cameron Alborzian

And it has opened doors at Afghan prisons, where the two have taught guards at detention centers to do basic, nonreligious Ayurvedic yoga poses. The pair say they have secretly taught a former Taliban commander how to meditate and soothe his militant mind.

Some analysts say the yoga and meditation approach to ending a decade of war in Afghanistan may be as good as any. “It sounds a bit crazy…but who can’t be supportive of someone that wants to teach the principles of nonviolence?” said Norine MacDonald, working in Afghanistan as president of the International Council on Security and Development, a nonprofit research group.

The quixotic quest for Afghan peace represents the most improbable venture yet for Mr. Alborzian, a 44-year-old Iranian-born yoga devotee.

Mr. Alborzian first gained international attention in the 1980s as a model for Guess Jeans, Versace, Chanel, Levi’s, Vogue and GQ. He became a sensation when Madonna singled him out to appear bare-chested in the 1989 music video for her song “Express Yourself.”

As his modeling career hit its peak, he dropped out, studied yoga in India, and then reinvented himself as Yogi Cameron, an enlightened guide who would come to your home and serve as a live-in guru reportedly for up to $30,000 per week.

Mr. Alborzian served as a personal guru for daytime talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres and wrote a self-help book, “The Guru in You.”

But it was a chance encounter with Amandine Roche at a May conference attended by the Dalai Lama in Newark, N.J., that led Mr. Alborzian to Afghanistan.

Ms. Roche, a French aid worker who was briefly detained by the Taliban after 9/11, had become disillusioned with development work in Afghanistan and was looking for new solutions. At the conference, she persuaded Mr. Alborzian to become part of her Sola Yoga Project, and they distilled their vision for Afghanistan into a catchy phrase: “Peace and Reconciliation Through the Lotus Position.”

The pair crisscrossed Afghanistan in the summer, looking for converts to their cause.

On one stop at the central jail of Bamiyan province, Mr. Alborzian led some prison guards through yoga poses. Most were perplexed by the performance, says prison commander Col. Ghulam Ali Batur—who appeared in a promotional video for the project shouting “Yes, Yoga!” into the camera.

“It was totally a show,” he said.

Even so, Mr. Batur said the project could have some value: “Meditation can be effective for the prison staff if it is done right.”

At their July meeting with Maj. Gen. Jones, Mr. Alborzian and Ms. Roche also suggested that the coalition military offer yoga classes and meditation sessions to war-weary Taliban coming off the battlefield and looking for ways to return to normal lives. Maj. Gen. Jones has left Afghanistan, and the British Ministry of Defence didn’t respond to a request to make him available for comment.

“The general mainly wanted to know how quickly we thought we could train new teachers and how many per year,” Mr. Alborzian said of the meeting. “We explained that meditation needs to be experienced rather than discussed as this is not intellectual therapy, but inner spiritual work.”

Australian Army Capt. Christopher Hawkins, spokesman for the reintegration program then headed by Maj. Gen. Jones, said the peace-through-yoga proposal has failed to get traction.

“It was good that they came out and presented their ideas,” Capt. Hawkins said. “But no action was taken.”

Still, Ms. Roche was able to promote the proposal at several encounters with Vice Adm. Harward, who until recently headed Task Force 435, a coalition unit that oversees detention facilities housing Afghan insurgents, including the major center at Bagram.

The vice admiral was sympathetic, Ms. Roche says, and told her that he had mentioned the peace-through-yoga idea to Gen. David Petraeus, then commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Vice Adm. Harward “did think it might be a constructive program,” confirmed U.S. Army Maj. T.G. Taylor, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command where the admiral serves. “He is open to evaluating nontraditional ideas.”

Vice Adm. Harward’s successor at Task Force 435, however, hasn’t embraced the plan.

“This yoga discussion is not moving forward,” said the Task Force’s spokesman, U.S. Navy Capt. Kevin Aandahl.

The challenges facing the initiative were evident one recent afternoon in Kabul, as Ms. Roche sought to teach meditation to 40 restless Afghan teenage boys at a French-run high school.

Many of the boys couldn’t sit still as Ms. Roche played a Tibetan singing bowl and instructed the students to keep their eyes closed for several minutes.

One of the kids warned his classmates that Ms. Roche was trying to introduce alien Hindu rites, undermining Afghanistan’s Islamic faith.

“We have seen Indians in movies,” he said during the 45-minute workshop. “They do the same thing when they worship in front of their idols.”

A student named Samiullah was one of several boys whom Ms. Roche asked to leave the meditation circle. “This is useless for us,” he said before taking leave to pray with friends on nearby rugs set out by the school. “There are several other things for us to do that give us peace and quiet, like when we pray and recite the Holy Quran on a daily basis.”
—Ziaulhaq Sultani contributed to this article.

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Posted in Compassion, Meditation

OM in the US Army

Posted on September 1, 2011 | Leave a comment

From The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/aug/31/yoga-army-us-military
Is yoga just for suburban baby-boomers and urban stress junkies seeking a hipper way to stay youthful and fit? Not if a growing number of yoga fanatics inside the US military get their way.

That’s right, everyone from grunts in basic training to elite warrior units like the US Navy Seals have caught the yoga bug, and now some top commanders are planning to incorporate the ancient mind-body practice into the military’s official training. The US Training and Doctrine Command (Tradoc), which oversees instruction of soldiers in everything from how to salute to the right way to hold a rifle, is proposing the largest overhaul of military fitness training in more than 30 years – and for the first time, yoga, as well as Pilates and martial arts, are being highlighted.

Tradoc commanders, joined by military health experts, say that traditional exercise models may make soldiers “fit” in the sense of more muscular, but often leave them too bulked up and vulnerable to injuries that yoga, which emphasises flexibility, helps prevent. And yoga’s focus on meditation and maintaining calm, they say, fits perfectly with the military’s broad new emphasis on instilling “mental toughness”, as well as physical strength, to ensure that soldiers can succeed on the modern technology-intensive battlefield pursuing elusive and nerve-wracking adversaries.

But is it ethical for peace-loving yogis to help the Pentagon fight its nasty wars? Many yoga business owners, anxious to spread the yoga “gospel” far and wide, don’t much care who gets the message – or why – as long as the market expands. Stay out of “secular” controversies, they say.

And others yogis have questioned whether yoga’s traditional “do no harm” principle really means “don’t go to war” – or rather, “war if you must, but do it with restraint.” They point out that prior to Gandhi, who largely blessed yoga as a spiritual practice of “non-violence”, Indian leaders in ancient times used it much as the Pentagon wants to today – as a way of preparing mentally for battle.

Naturally, some aspects of the growing yoga-military connection are more controversial than others. At the Walter Reed Medical Centre Washington, DC, a group of yogis has pioneered the application of an esoteric yoga practice known as “yoga nidra” – literally, “sleep yoga” – which new research shows can measurably reduce the effects of PTSD on returning war veterans. The nidra practice actually differs from most other types of contemporary yoga because it doesn’t rely on physically challenging yoga “asanas” or poses to strengthen the body, but depends instead on meditation and relaxation techniques, with participants lying motionless on their backs.

Robin Carnes, a former corporate publicist who helped pioneer the yoga-military-PTSD connection, has even established a teacher-training programme for aspiring military yogis through her organisation, Warriors at Ease, which may soon become one the first officially recognised “yoga defence contractors”. Carnes, together with a Harvard-trained professor, Richard Miller, conducted one of the first formal studies that measured the effects of yoga nidra on soldiers who had been scarred mentally and emotionally by their wartime service, and military planners came away impressed with the results.

But not all yogis have agreed to restrict their yoga training to healing practices. A big stir was created in the yoga world in 2006 when it was revealed that US Navy Seals and other US military units were getting trained in yoga, because they saw its application to Seal operations where stealth and calm could make the difference between life and death. Some Seals went on to pioneer yoga hybrids like “combat yoga” or “warrior yoga”, and even set up their own yoga schools, blending the yoga training with martial arts, and special Seal combat techniques.

Developments like these have left many peace-loving yogis aghast. But after a decade of exponential growth – an estimated 1 in 10 adults now practises yoga regularly – the $6bn yoga industry still has no widely-accepted training guidelines, to say nothing of licensing programmes, to guide the estimated 70,000 yoga teachers in the US as they navigate the burgeoning yoga market, with all its temptations and possible pitfalls.

“The few, the proud, the brave,” say the Marines. For some, it’s a marriage made in Nirvana.

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Posted in Meditation, personal yoga practice

5 Surprising Things That Mindfulness Can Do For You

Posted on July 26, 2011 | Leave a comment

From Rodale Press
By Brittany Linn

New research shows mindfulness exercises can calm a troubled gut. But wait, there’s more!

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Researchers at the University of North Carolina tracked symptoms in 75 women burdened with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), an intestinal disorder that produces discomfort in the form of gas, bloating, and diarrhea. For eight weeks, half of the group was taught mindfulness and yoga skills, while the others attended IBS support groups.

During the three months immediately afterward, the women who’d had mindfulness training saw significantly bigger improvements in their IBS symptoms. And it seems there are many other ailments that mindfulness has been found to help.

Read on for some of the most impressive examples of what mindfulness can do for you:

Knock out germs. When you’re stressed, your body produces high levels of C-reactive protein (a substance found in the body that is associated with inflammation and disease) and low levels of the immune system’s protector cells (called killer cells, but remember they’re good for you). One study found that volunteers participating in mindfulness training experienced a lowering of C-reactive protein and a boost in levels of killer cells. They also reported improvements in their general well-being.

Mindfulness exercises can help you fight off harmful bacteria, germs, and even the flu. However, this doesn’t mean that you should stop washing your hands if you meditate!
Help you remember things.

Mindfulness meditation seems to improve your working memory, as shown in a study that involved U.S. marines about to be deployed to war.

Twelve minutes of mediation a day was enough to produce improvements in memory, with longer mediation periods leading to better memory test scores.

Soothe pain. Mindfulness can actually change your brain—yes, change your brain—according to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans done on people trained in mindfulness mediation. In the study, areas of the brain that process pain signals became much less active after meditation training.

Take you away from stress and anxiety.Ever wish you could leave stress behind? Try practicing mindful walking, which channels anxiety and nervous energy into physical activity.

For an extra-meditative experience, do your mindful walking in a labyrinth.

Put perfectionism in its place. Striving to be perfect is unrealistic, to be sure, but a drive for perfection is also bad for your health.

Mindfulness exercises can help you turn off your inner critic.

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Posted in Health, Meditation

Deepak Chopra, MD – Weekly Health Tip: Yoga’s Health Benefits

Posted on July 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

From The Visual MD

Between work, raising a family, and coping with an uncertain economy, stress has become a “normal” part of daily life for most people. That could explain why so many Americans—about 16 million at latest count—have started taking yoga classes or doing yoga at home. This ancient practice, which started in India more than 4,000 years ago, connects mind and body through a series of postures, breathing exercises, and meditation. By stretching and toning the muscles, flexing the spine, and focusing the mind inward, yoga helps reduce stress. That can impact your overall health since stress plays at least some role in many illnesses. Studies show that chronic stress doubles the risk of heart attack, for instance.

How yoga may promote health Research into the health benefits of yoga is still in its infancy. But recent pilot studies point in promising directions. Yoga has been shown to lower blood pressure and heart rate, which can help reduce a person’s risk of heart disease. There may be other heart benefits, too: A 2006 study found that yoga helped lower cholesterol levels and improve circulation in people who have cardiovascular disease. Some hospitals have incorporated yoga into their post-cardiac rehabilitation programs.

While the evidence of yoga’s success in reducing a person’s body mass is mixed, one study did find that yoga can help people lose weight by leading them to a healthier lifestyle. The study reported that people who regularly practiced yoga started eating less, eating more slowly, and choosing healthier foods. They also showed fewer symptoms of eating disorders.

Many people report that yoga gives them an overall feeling of wellbeing. But research shows that it may also help alleviate specific kinds of pain, including migraine headaches, lower back problems, arthritis, and pain during childbirth. Researchers are not sure what mechanism is at work, but one theory is that the yoga postures work like the way massage works. When a yoga posture places pressure on a nerve fiber, the signal for “pressure” is sent quickly to the brain via myelinated (insulated) nerve fibers, while the signal for “pain” reaches the brain more slowly via less myelinated nerve fibers. The signal for “pressure” closes the receptor gate and shuts out the “pain” stimulus. Another theory is that yoga causes an increase in serotonin, the body’s natural anti-pain chemical.

While more research is needed into these areas, people who practice yoga have also reported that they experience less insomnia and better digestive health. Pregnant women in particular seem to have an easier time sleeping when they do yoga. They are also less likely to develop high blood pressure or deliver prematurely.

Calming the mind Since yoga involves the mind as well as the body, it’s not surprising that it may help reduce anxiety and depression, especially in people whose anxiety is related to an illness like cancer. More research is needed to learn exactly how yoga affects mood, but a 2007 study may provide a clue: It found that in experienced yoga practitioners, a 60-minute yoga session increased levels of a neurotransmitter called GABA. Low levels of GABA have been linked to depression and anxiety disorders. Another pilot study suggests that yoga may influence depression by increasing the alpha waves in the brain. Alpha waves are associated with relaxation. Yet another possibility is that yoga reduces the amount of cortisol, a hormone that the body releases in response to stress. Some scientists think chronic high levels of cortisol may be tied to depression as well as impaired immune function.

If the potential health benefits of yoga aren’t enough to make you want to try it, consider this: Yoga can also make you look more toned and fit and help you move with greater ease, especially as you grow older. A 2007 study of the Hatha yoga style showed that it increased muscular strength, flexibility, and endurance. It’s no wonder that many athletes use yoga to cross-train.

Getting started You don’t need a lot of expensive equipment or to be in tiptop shape to start practicing yoga. All it takes is loose clothing, a mat (some classes will provide mats), and the desire to learn.

There are several different styles of yoga. Most use a series of postures designed to stretch and strengthen muscles and also use controlled breathing to quiet your mind. The most popular style in the U.S. is Hatha yoga, a relatively slow-moving, gentle style. Other styles such as Ashtanga (also known as power yoga) are more vigorous. Find out about the different kinds of yoga that are offered at classes in your area. Choose the style that fits your goals and level of fitness. You can also get started by using a good instructional book or DVD at home, although it’s useful for beginners to start with a class. If you are pregnant or have any serious health conditions, talk to your doctor before you begin. Once you start a class, let your teacher know about any injuries or health issues.

Whichever style of yoga you choose, take it slowly at first. Don’t try to force yourself into difficult poses at the beginning. After a while, you will develop more flexibility, strength, and stamina. Your teacher shouldn’t push you to do poses that aren’t comfortable. If your teacher is going too fast, talk to him or her, or look for a class that is a better fit.

While yoga won’t cure everything that ails you—or make your boss nicer—it will help you deal with stress better. And that could make a big difference in your overall health.

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Posted in Health, Meditation, Research

Yoga Warriors: Helping Combat Veterans Find Peace

Posted on July 16, 2011 | Leave a comment

From 33 News

Yoga Class Designed Specifically for Combat Veterans
Barry Carpenter
The 33 News

July 15, 2011

FLOWER MOUND, TEXAS

At first glance the group at Yoga Island in Flower Mound, Texas may look like any other yoga class–but it’s not–it’s for Yoga Warriors–combat veterans like Terry Ratliff who had three tours of duty Iraq’s triangle of death.

Terry signed up in the days following September 11th and now has post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, a bad back, a bad shoulder and shrapnel wounds on his legs.

He said he was in a dark place, had thoughts of suicide and pills and therapy were not working.

“PTSD is like a wound you don’t see, you don’t see the injuries,” Terry said. “It’s a bad injury because I don’t have control of my emotions.”

His wife Traci knew there had to be a better way and called every yoga studio should could looking for a program and found one at Yoga Island.

It’s an affirmation filled yoga programmed for veterans like Terry–his wife Traci says its working wonders.

“As soon as we leave the class his emotional well being is so much better,” Traci said. “Throughout the day he may be somewhat depressed, down on himself, just not really in a good mood and we come to a class and afterwards it’s just like a total change.”

After Traci’s call–Suzette Cole and another instructor became Yoga Warriors certified and started classes about two weeks ago.

“It’s to reaffirm that we are good people,” Suzette said. “That the things that you may have done in the past need to be put in the past.”

Terry has been there and done that.

“I’m used to kicking in doors and going after the bad guy, you know that what I did for ten years in the arm,” Terry said. “I was trained to capture, kill or destroy the enemy and now I’m sitting here working on my breathing.”

Terry admits that at first he didn’t think it would work but after class he said he feels like a new man–like he can do anything.

These days this yoga warrior is more at peace.

“Anybody who says this stuff doesn’t work I challenge them to come and do it one time,” Terry said. “I guarantee that you will feel better about yourself after you leave.”

Copyright © 2011, KDAF-TV

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Posted in Health, Meditation, personal yoga practice

Yoga Camp for Kids

Posted on May 31, 2011 | Leave a comment

From The Well Daily:

Kids are natural yogis; they’re open, flexible and fearless. Yoga is play for them (as it should be for us!) and provides tools that will serve them well for the rest of their lives. Summer yoga camps are a great way to encourage your kids to explore yoga—and just maybe fall in love with the practice for life.

Very little ones are welcome at Bija Kids in Clinton Hill, which runs half and full day camps for kids ages 3 to 8 from June 29th to September 2nd and a mini camp from August 1st to 12th. Camps open with an hour-long yoga session, followed by eco-friendly arts and crafts, music sessions, field trips to parks and museums and organic gardening.

Uptown campers can have Adventures in Yogaland at Land Yoga, open to ages 3 to 10 on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, June 21st to Aug 25th. This new yoga center in South Harlem is run by Ashtanga teacher Lara Lauchheimer, who has taught autistic and HIV+ children and spent three months working with genocide survivors in Rwanda. Lara teaches kids yoga poses by encouraging them to mimic plants and animals. Art and music projects and healthy snacks are included.

Don’t worry; we haven’t forgotten your bored teenagers. Namasteens uses music to engage teens and pre-teens at Pure Yoga East (ages 10-12) and Pure Yoga West (ages 13-15). These classes are designed by Pure senior teacher Lara Benusis, who spent two years teaching in New York public schools and designed a yoga program for The Children’s Aid Society. Each weekly class uses games, creative sequencing, story-telling and music to draw teens out. The goal is to help teens express themselves, release stress and tension, focus their minds and build confidence and strength.

If your kids are adventurous and ready to try sleep-away camp (and you’re ready to part with them for a week), send them to Camp Yogaville for the last week of June. The camp is held at Satchidananda Ashram in Buckingham, Virginia, which is situated on 600 acres of woodlands on the banks of the James River. Against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains, 8- to 12-year-old campers will experience a week of yoga, meditation and vegetarian meals, plus more traditional summer camp activities like hiking and canoeing.

Wait, can we go?

Foot Traffic:
Camp Yoga
Bija Kids Yoga
900 Fulton Street in Brooklyn

Land Yoga
2110 Frederick Douglass Blvd

Pure Yoga East
203 East 86th Street

Pure Yoga West
204 West 77th Street

Camp Yogaville
Satchidananda Ashram in Buckingham, Virginia

The Well Wisdom:
One of the reasons yoga is so beneficial for children is that it teaches self-regulation—the ability to control and direct one’s thoughts and actions. Improving a child’s self-regulation skills can have a positive impact on attention, behavior, school performance and social skills. Just learning to breathe deeply will help children handle their emotions for the rest of their lives.

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Posted in Children, Health, Meditation, travel, yoga class

Meditation More Effective Than Morphine to Manage Pain

Posted on April 10, 2011 | Leave a comment

From Daily Good:

Meditation has long been touted as a holistic approach to pain relief. And studies show that long-time meditators can tolerate quite a bit of pain.

Now researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have found you don’t have to be a lifelong Buddhist monk to pull it off. Novices were able to tame pain after just a few training sessions.

Sounds a bit mystical, we know, but researchers using a special type of brain imaging were also able to see changes in the brain activity of newbies. Their conclusion? “A little over an hour of meditation training can dramatically reduce both the experience of pain and pain-related brain activation,” Fadel Zeidan, a neuroscientist and the study’s lead author, tells Shots. That finding’s a first, Zeidan says.

In the study, a small group of healthy medical students attended four 20-minute training sessions on “mindfulness meditation” — a technique adapted from a Tibetan Buddhist form of meditation called samatha. It’s all about acknowledging and letting go of distraction.

“You are trying to sustain attention in the present moment — everything is momentary so you don’t need to react,” Zeidan explains. “What that does healthwise is it reduces the stress response. The feeling of pain is a very blatant distraction.”

So how did the researchers gauge the effect? They administered a very distracting bit of pain: A small, thermal stimulator heated to 120 degrees was applied to the back of each volunteer’s right calf. The subjects reported both the intensity and unpleasantness of the pain. If pain were music, intensity would be volume. Unpleasantness would have more of an emotional component, kind of like how much you love or hate a song.

After meditation training, the subjects reported a 40 percent decrease in pain intensity and a 57 percent reduction in pain unpleasantness. And it wasn’t just their perception of pain that changed. Brain activity changed too.

Every part of the body is mapped to a specific part of the brain called the primary somatosensory cortex. “If I touch you on your left hand right above your left knuckle, there is an area in the brain that corresponds to that specific area in your hand that will be activated,” Zeidan explains. “When you are in pain it is much more activated — more intense and more widespread.”

This activation shows up on MRI brain scans. When subjects experienced the heat stimulus under normal conditions, the “right calf” part of the primary somatosensory cortex lit up. But after the subjects were trained in meditation, the activity in this region was not even detectable.

Brain images also show that meditation increased activation in areas of the brain related to cognitive control and emotion — areas where the experience of pain is built. What’s more, better meditators (those who scored higher on a standard scale of mindfulness) tended to have more activation in these areas and a lower experience of pain.

But can you achieve similar results by just approximating meditation, or believing you are in control of your pain tolerance? Zeidan says probably not. In this study, subjects who paid attention to their breathing to mimic meditation saw no significant change in pain. And, in a previous study, subjects given fake training failed to see meditation’s effects, even though they believed they were actually performing mindfulness meditation.

Zeidan says he will run some more studies to get at how meditation relieves pain. He hopes meditation can soon be applied clinically, perhaps to help patients cope with pain after surgery or chemotherapy.

“You might not need extensive training to realize pain-relief benefits,” Zeidan says. “Most people don’t have time to spend months in a monastery.”

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Posted in Health, Meditation