Anxiety
Anxiety is a common state for all human beings. It is normal to experience anxiety during life it helps us to mobilize the energy to act in the world. Unfortunately, most of us experience anxiety too often or too intensely and it becomes painful and debilitating. We start to get lost in constant obsessive thinking about the past and the future. This leads to breathlessness, lack of ability to sleep, trouble concentrating, and limits our relationships with others. In extreme forms we experience panic attacks and lose complete ability to state present feeling completeing overwhelmed and out of control.
Yoga is an excellent method for coping with anxiety, because it trains the body to relax and teaches the body and the mind to better manage stress. Once the stress response is activated by the body it must run its course and even if we are conscious of what is happening and mentally sound the experience of increased heart-rate and gitters will not be averted even by the most rational mind. This is because our system is intrinscially structured to release hormones into our system that make fight or flight possible for surivial and this system can not this process, once in motion will have physiological consequences. However, through specific breathing practices combined with movement we can learn to relax the trigger response and also balance the nervous system so that the stress response does not have an opportunity to take over and completely flood the system. Furthermore these practices help the system to restore calm once the system is activated at a much quicker rate. Within the Yoga for the Mind model we also teach students and clients how to watch the mind, create focus, and how to let go. In this way yoga meets the psychological and physiological aspects of transforming anxiety.
Yoga for the Mind combines all its breath work and yoga postures with mindfulness so that students can learn to effectively calm the mind through the body. This is much easier than trying to do self-talk, which cannot meet the physiological aspects of anxiety such as heart palapations, rapid breathing, sweating, and deep limbic brain activation. Yoga for the Mind offers both private yoga therapy sessions for anxiety and also courses to meet your specific needs.
Stress
Stress is an unavoidable part of everyday life. Yoga is once of the best way to both cope with the stress that has built up through daily life and to learn to relax when difficult situations arise. All classes taught by Heather Mason, including general classes teach students how to use yoga practises to better manage the stress of daily life
This includes both reflection and rebalancing of the autonomic nervous system through activation of both the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system. Heather views yoga as a path and teaches it in a way that allows students to transform aspects of their lives through relationship to the body and the mi
For more on this topic check Yoga for the mind