Yoga For Fatigue

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Rana Waxman

Yoga for Fatigue

yoga for fatigue

Do you suffer from being tired, not getting enough rest, or just having low energy? Here are a few reasons to do yoga for fatigue and improved energy so that you can deal with the challenges of being tired mentally, physically, emotionally.

First of all, it helps to identify whether you are mentally, physically, emotionally tired, but have energy, or, either of these with no energy. This should help you somewhat with a basic idea of how to use your yoga practice for fatigue.

Yoga can be a good way to tone and invigorate your adrenals, but if your adrenals are shot due to being overly tired or stressed, you should think of pacifying your nervous system. You can do this with forward bends, or downward dog, and use some head support if you are mentally tired.

A balanced practice can massage and stimulate your adrenal glands; backbends tend to squeeze them and rid them of stale blood, twists will rinse them with freshly oxygenated blood.

What I enjoy about restorative yoga is that it can certainly open your body but without the brain having to do so much work. Navigating alignment is work, its still you doing something. Apart from legs up the wall, which is a go-to pose, I like Matseyasana when I have been working at my desk and my neck and shoulders are congested. It can be a little stimulating, because the heart and chest open, but this affords a nice opportunity to breathe too.

Come to class or book a private yoga lesson for more tips

yoga for fatigue

Yogic breathing and stress relief

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Rana Waxman

Yogic breathing and stress relief.

BKS Iyengar wrote; “The diaphragm, according to yogic science, is the seat of intelligence of the heart and the window to the soul. During stressful situations, however, when you inhale and exhale, the diaphragm becomes too taut to alter its shape. Yogic exercises address this problem by developing elasticity in the diaphragm so that, when stretched, it can handle any amount of stress, whether intellectual, emotional, or physical.”

New students often feel their breath is caught some place, although as a teacher, I often notice that even people who have ‘done’ yoga are not actually breathing into their bodies and are also kind of stuck someplace. It takes diligence and commitment to understand our own breathing patterns, learn and/or unlearn chronic unhealthy ones. Generally when the breath and the asana are done in unison, with a mindfulness and focus, it actually brings tranquility to the cells, releases held tension, and aids in bringing the mind into a stillness, rather than a stuckness. I think the word ’embodiment’ is a good one here. Smiling inside further helps solicit this response. If you ever practiced and held tension in your face or clenched your teeth, that pattern is not doing anything to create extra ease in body/mind/spirit. The advise below may help you develop, deepen, refine your practice!

simple stress relief

Healing With Yoga

Posted on September 26, 2014 by Rana Waxman

“Healing is not just a physical process, but a process of consciousness” ~ Doug Keller

The body knows how to heal itself. I gashed my thumb the other day and am just amazed at how in just two days, the skin is growing back. We tend to think of using yoga for healing in terms of the injured or sick but that is not always the case. I think an important understanding is that we can have general good health but still merit from a yoga practice that strengthens and supports the immune system, the rest and digest mechanisms, and recognize that managing stress plays a huge part in keeping our minds and bodies fit, resilient and efficient.

Taking our body for granted is a big mistake. Too much activity and not enough rest can interrupt the proper functioning of our inner body/mind and overload it so that it may impede recovery time. If you start to consider balancing out your practice so that there are different components – strength, flexibility and stillness, you are helping to prevent illness, helping to facilitate the miraculous movements that our bodies do silently in 24 hours.

Join me for class to explore a balanced practice, try my breathing for balance exercise or see me for a personalized exploration of healing body, mind, spirit

healing

I love my yoga practice

Posted on June 21, 2014 by Rana Waxman

I love my yoga practice

Laughter is the breath medicine 🙂

The best thing about private yoga classes, as my students tell me, is that they get to ask questions. Maybe you don’t feel your third eye (yet) or have awareness of your thighs (yet) or are less fearful (yet) … but … every time you practice you can enjoy some aspect and self-reflect, learn about yourself, and ultimately transform/organize/balance out in a new way. Enjoy the day on and off the yoga mat

Fighting the Mind

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Rana Waxman

Who do you identify with?

If you plan to sit with your breath, I give full details on how to set up on the Yoga Mind cd; there should be no anxiety or discomfort in your posture, so use a few yoga props to ensure the spine is straight. My curiosity goes to the man on the left – he needs to sit on at least one(or two!) folded blanket(s) so his knees are not higher than the hips and bolsters fit under the outer hips is always welcome relief. Sukhasana = happy seated pose…

Also just know that meditation is a process and involves practice, patience, and replacing old patterns of thinking with a relaxed focus. You are undoing tension to uncover the calm that predates the anxiety..but just coexisting rather than resisting – honouring and accepting and gaining some distance from the busyness of the mind.

Once you are comfortable in your posture, and you are ok with touching base with your witness self, there is no need to force anything. Just bring yourself to the feeling of the breath touching the inside of your nostrils and focus on this sensation.

We can replace panic with peace as a destination 🙂 just stop fighting the mind long enough to practice taming it

Yoga ~ the lesson of presence

Posted on November 30, 2013 by Rana Waxman

The link between the mind and the body is the breath.

With every movement on your mat, where you are conscious of this you are able to build an inner sense of present moment awareness and santosha ~ contentment.