Monday, September 12, 2011
Stress Management
The last week has definitely been the most enjoyable for me in terms of my experiences in the practice of yoga. I have noticed that I am much more relaxed and refreshed after class, which makes it a lot easier to find the energy to study. Also, last week I was assigned a "Behavior Enhancement Project" for my Health Education class - the purpose is to identify an aspect of my lifestyle that needs improvement and to work toward developing long-term behaviors in order to accomplish certain goals. Despite my initial insecurities about yoga, I am surprised at how many times during the week I turn to yoga practice and/or philosophy in situations that may not immediately involve either. The behavior that I have chosen to focus on is stress management, which of course precipitates from many different areas of life, in my case particularly the ability to relax and get a good night's rest. The first method that came to mind for helping me with the project was... yoga! I have already seen a great improvement in my ability to re-energize after class, so I hope that using yoga as a relaxing and energizing technique will not only aid in successfully completing my project, but also in developing lasting habits.
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Glad you are finding yoga helpful already. I like how your two classes are intersecting also.
ReplyDeleteConnecting two classes together? what a BICcer.
ReplyDeleteI TOTALLY agree that I am more energized to get to my other stuff after yoga practice on TTR especially...even though they are my longest days!
Also...on the stress management note, I've been turning to yoga to help clear my head and refocus; when I get overwhelmed, at the very least I change my posture and my breathing. If I'm at home, I do legs-up-the-wall or downward dog...though I considered doing that at Panera last night.
That is so true - I'm much more aware of my posture and breathing patterns particularly when I'm studying. However, I do think that I need to work on clearing my mind while I'm actually practicing. It seems like sometimes I feel more restored at times when I REALLY focus on everything (breathing, meditating/clearing my thoughts, AND form) together while practicing - I just seem to always have my To-Do list in the back of my mind and I need to focus on simply re-energizing. I guess I'll just have to remind myself that it's not going to kill me to forget everything for just a few hours of the week!
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