Count on Yoga - fourth in the series of articles.

Yoga on Monday, November 23, 2009 at 6:30 p.m.   CANCELLED!  Toddler is sick, so.... So Y'all come on Nov 30th with your oatmeal!! 

Thank you!

Count on Yoga.  Looking for a reason to start practicing (or restart your practice)?  Here are a few ways yoga can improve your health and well-being.

Count on Yoga.  More benefits of a regular yoga practice. Fourth in the series of articles.

1. Breathing Room.
   Yogis tend to take fewer breaths of greater volume, which is both calming and more efficient.  A 1998 study published in The Lancet taught a yogic technique known as "complete breathing" to people with lung problems due to congestive heart failure.  After one month, their average respiratory rate decreased from 13.4 breaths per minute to 7.6.  Meanwhile, their exercise capacity increased significantly, as did the oxygen saturation of their blood.  In addition, yoga has been shown to improve various measures of lung function, including the maximum volume of the breath and the efficiency of teh exhalation.
   
   
2. Pain Drain.
   Yoga can ease your pain.  According to several studies, yoga postures (asana), meditiation, or a combination of the two, reduced pain in people with arthritis, back pain, fibromyalgia, carpal tunner syndrome, and other chronic conditions.  When you relieve your pain, your mood improves, you're more inclined to be active, and you don't need as much medication.
   
   
3. Connective Tissue.
   As you read all the ways yoga improves your health, you probably notice a lot of overlap.  That's because they are intensely interwoven.  Change your posture and you change the way you breathe.  Change your breathing and you change you nervous system.  This is one of the great lessons of yoga:  Everything is connected - your hipbone to your anklebone, you to your community, your community to the world.  Such interconnection is vital to yoga.  This holistic system simultaneously taps into many mechanisms that have self-perpetuating and even multiplicative effects.  Synergy may be the most important way of all that yoga heals.
   

These 3 little reasons as to why yoga is good for you, can be found in a new magazine (I found at Walmart, way in the back, in the book section, near the entertainment section) Yoga for beginners.  It is written by the editors of Yoga Journal.  I'll be excerpting from the magazine for the next few weeks.
 
See you on Monday, whether you been here on a regular basis, or getting back into a yoga routine!  And remember mark your calendar for 6:30 p.m., and start collecting Quick Oats or Old Fashioned Oats for Oatmeal 5th Monday Yoga Night, November 30th!

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Count on Yoga - third article in this series.

Count on Yoga.  Looking for a reason to start practicing (or restart your practice)?  Here are a few ways yoga can improve your health and well-being.

Count on Yoga.  More benefits of a regular yoga practice.  Third in a series.

1. Strength Test.
   Strong muscles do more than look good.  They also protect us from such conditions as arthritis and back pain, and help prevent falls.  And when you build strength through yoga, you balance it with flexibility.  If you just lifted weights, you might build strength at the expense of flexibility.
   
   
2. Spinal Rap.
   Spinal disks - the shock absorbers between the vertebrae that can herniate and compress nerves - crave movement.  That's the only way they get their nutrients.  If you've got a well-balanced asana practice with plently of backbends, forward bends, and twists, you'll help keep your disks supple.
   
   
3. Standing Orders.
   Your head is like a bowling ball - big, round, and heavy.  When it's balanced directly over an erect spine, it take much less work for your neck and back muscles to support it. Move it several inches forward, however, and you start to strain those muscles.  Hold up that forward-leaning bowling ball for 8 or 12 hours a day and it's no wonder you're tired.  And fatigue might not be your only problem.  Poor posture can cause back, neck, and other muscle and joint problems.  As you slump, your body may compensate by flattening the normal inward curves in your neck and lower back.  This can cause pain and degenerative arthritis of the spine.

These 3 little reasons as to why yoga is good for you, can be found in a new magazine (I found at Walmart, way in the back, in the book section, near the entertainment section) Yoga for beginners.  It is written by the editors of Yoga Journal.  I'll be excerpting from the magazine for the next few weeks.
 
See you on Monday, whether you been here on a regular basis, or getting back into a yoga routine!  And remember mark your calendar for 6:30 p.m., and start collecting Quick Oats or Old Fashioned Oats for Oatmeal 5th Monday Yoga Night, November 30th!

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Yoga for Food

My Yoga for Food event, is November 30th, 2009, Monday at 6:30 p.m.  

For three canister's of either: Old Fashioned Oats, or Quick Oats, you could enjoy a gentle beginning yoga class at Wesley United Methodist Church, 3515 Helena Avenue, Nederland, Texas 77627.   Or a small monetary donation.  Oatmeal Donations & money will go toward the United Board of Missions. 

Wesley's food pantry item is Oatmeal, and we'd like to share a free yoga class with you, to help enlarge our pantry food item.  Beginners, seasoned yogi's, senior and prenatal ladies are all welcomed to attend.  Childcare available, if you give me a call 24 hrs prior to the event (409) 727-3177.  Same phone number for questions too!   Gail Pickens-Barger, E-RYT, Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher.

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Count On Yoga - Second in the series of articles.

Count on Yoga.  Looking for a reason to start practicing (or restart your practice)?  Here are a few ways yoga can improve your health and well-being.

Count on Yoga.  More benefits of a regular yoga practice.

1. Sugar Show. 
   Yoga lowers blood sugar and LDL ("bad") cholesterol and boosts HDL ("good") cholesterol.  In people wit diabetes, yoga has been found to lower blood sugar in several ways:  by lowering cortisol and adrenaline levels, encouraging weight loss, and improving sensitivity to the effects of insulin.  Get your blood sugar levels down, and you decrease your risk of diabetic complications such as heart attack, kidney failure and blindness.
   
   
2. Space Place. 
   Regularly practicing yoga increases proprioception (the ability to feel what your body is doing and where it is in space) and improves balance.  People with bad posture or dysfunctional movement patterns usually have poor proprioception, which has been linked to knee problems and back pain. Better balance could mean fewer falls.  For the elderly, this translates into more independence and delayed admission to a nursing home or never entering one at all.
   
   
3. Loose Limbs. 
   Do you ever notice yourself holding the telephone or a steering wheel with a death grip or scrunching your face when staring at a computer screen?  These unconscious habits can lead to chronic tension, muscle fatigue, and soreness in the wrists, arms, shoulders, neck, and face, which can increase stress and worsen your mood.  As you practice yoga, you begin to notice where you hold tension:  It might be in your tongue, your eyes, or the muscles of your face and neck.  If you simple tune in and pay more attention to these areas, you may be able to relieve some tension.

These 3 little reasons as to why yoga is good for you, can be found in a new magazine (I found at Walmart, way in the back, in the book section, near the entertainment section) Yoga for beginners.  It is written by the editors of Yoga Journal.  I'll be excerpting from the magazine for the next few weeks.

To see all 38 ways yoga can improve your health and well-being click on over to the Yoga Journal Website.http://www.yogajournal.com/health/1634
 
See you on Monday, whether you been here on a regular basis, or getting back into a yoga routine!  And remember mark your calendar for 6:30 p.m., and start collecting Quick Oats or Old Fashioned Oats for Oatmeal 5th Monday Yoga Night, November 30th!

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Neti Pot vs the Flu. What shall I do?

A friend of mine posted this, and I thought it was worth sharing!

Dr. Vinay Goyal is an MBBS, DRM, DNB (Intensivist and
Thyroid specialist) having clinical experience of over 20 years. He has
worked in institutions like Hinduja Hospital, Bombay Hospital, Saifee
Hospital, Tata Memorial etc.


Presently, he is heading our Nuclear Medicine Department
and Thyroid clinic at Riddhivinayak Cardiac and Critical Centre, Malad
(W). The following message given by him, I feel makes a lot
of sense and is important for all of you to know.


The only portals of entry are the nostrils and
mouth/throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it's almost
impossible not coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all
precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much a problem as
proliferation is.

While you are still healthy and not showing any
symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation,
aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some
very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official
communications, can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock
N95 or Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications). 
2. "Hands-off-the-face" approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe or sleep). 
3. *Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don't trust salt). *H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don't underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method. 
4. Similar to 3 above, *clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. *Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but *blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.* 
5. *Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). *If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.
6. Drink as much warm liquids as you can. *Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.
   

Here is what Dr. Oz recently said...

"
Nasal cleansing using a well-designed Neti pot can help you:

• Clear your nasal passages
  
• Remove excess mucus
  
• Reduce dust and pollen by cleansing nasal passages
  
• Relieve nasal dryness
  

Further, Dr. Oz said in an interview with Healthy Living Magazine:

“When you use it [a Neti pot] properly, it reduces dust and other contaminants in the nose, and it’s a very effective way to clean the sinuses. Modern studies are showing that it’s as effective as drugs for preventing sinus infections. Regular use of a neti pot is also hugely beneficial for people with nasal allergies and headaches. It just takes all the gelatinous goo out of there.

What a lot of people don’t know is that the sinuses are linked closely to lung health. The sinuses are a major source of nitric oxide in the body. Nitric oxide opens things up: the blood vessels, the airways. When we intubate a patient through the nose, we always worry about how that will affect their breathing -- because it can reduce the lungs’ content of nitric oxide. So, it follows that keeping the sinuses healthy also keeps the lungs full of fresh, clean air.”

Gaileee

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Yoga Mat Bag, Repurpose shirt into Yoga Capri's!

Over at Sew Mama Sew, is a giveaway, and several tutorials on how to make a yoga mat bag, crocheted, and of course sewing, plus making your own wet bags and turning shirt sleeves into yoga capri's!

Hop on over to Sew Mama Sew, Post a comment, maybe you'll win the book too!   http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=2501  http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=2501

Gaileee

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