What anxious times we live in! Crazy schedules, crazy media toys, and everything needs to be scheduled! Playdates for us, playdates for our kids, and playdates with our partners.
There is so much more sensory input these days that there's no wonder the rate of anxiety and depression is on the rise.
Our world is changing faster than we can keep up with and it's creating havoc on our systems and our minds..
We say to ourselves that we need to slow down, but how can we when there's this underlying pressure to schedule more and more because we need to.
Many of the illnesses and imbalances in our systems are direct reflections of our fast-paced society.
It's a fact that we get less vacation time than most countries, and the drive for success very strong.
What we really need is to slow down, but how? When you've gotten so wound up in this rat-race it seems very challenging to step off the track and reassess.
Anxiety and depression usually go hand in hand and when you address one you end up addressing the other automatically.
Here's how Yoga can help.
If you've never taken a yoga class before, then you should know that there are many different styles and each style will resonate with a different type of person.
For our purposes here, the type of yoga that would be recommended for the anxious person would be a style with a lot of pranayama (breathing practices), gentle asanas (poses) and meditation.
This will help you slow down on many levels.
Physically, mentally and emotionally.
With a knowledgeable teacher, they can help you learn to breathe properly, or just learn to breathe! So much of anxiety and depression come from breathing shallowly, holding the breath when under stress and sucking it up.
We can get off the rollercoaster just by the simple practice of observing our breathing patterns and then observing how this affects the mind.
The breath is one of the most powerful tools to control and relax the mind and body, which in turn promotes healing on all levels.
Meditation is also a must to keep the mind calm and clear so you can more effectively manage your life.
* I have to say here that anyone can suffer from anxiety and depression, even those who aren't so scheduled and the wisdom still applies.
Having a regular meditation practice helps to control the never ending bombardment of thoughts,scattering the mind, obsessing the mind and disturbing the mind.
As with Yoga, there are also many different practices of meditation.
For the beginner, I would recommend tratak, which is gazing at a candle flame or a picture of something spiritually meaningful, like a deity or something in nature.
Tratak is for the person who just isn't ready to close the eyes.
Too many disturbing thoughts come, making it impossible to focus or concentrate.
Another practice is to observe the breathing without trying to alter it in any way.
For the more experienced or so inclined, repeating a mantra (spiritually imbued sound) is very beneficial.
The practice is to sit comfortably on a pillow on the floor or the front of a chair with feet flat on the floor.
If you're gazing,gaze at the object for about a minute, close the eyes and try and maintain the image.
Repeat this for about 5 min.
and work up to 10-15..
For the breath, simply observe the inhale and exhale for 5 min.
and work up to 15.
Repeat the mantra inwardly for the same durations.
Whichever practice you do, the main point is to return the mind to the one point you've chosen each time it gets distracted.
Blessings and Peace on your journey.