Managing your
mood with YOGA
The practice of yoga is much more than the postures, called asana, or even the
breathing exercises, called pranayama, that most yoga schools teach. There is a rich,
nearly 5000 year-old tradition of yoga that does not even include most of the postures
we learn in our various yoga classes. The ancient yogis understood that emotional and
mental wellbeing were possible through yoga practices that did not require a mat,
blocks, straps, eye pillows, or even cushions. These practices are simple to learn and
within moments can help you break through whatever mood clouds have rolled in to
obscure your happiness and ease.
New evidence shows that certain techniques like chanting “OM” stimulate vagal nerve
activity, which calms you down by activating the parasympathetic nervous system and
deactivating the over-stimulated limbic (emotional) brain. Take Joy Bennett, for example,
a yoga therapist in Southern Massachusetts, who spent a large part of her life struggling
with a genetic pre-disposition to depression, and “like many of my relatives,”
she says, “I also happen to be wired for anxiety.”
After years of emotional upheaval, discovering yoga in her 40’s brought her “out of
the brain fog and tears.” Later, in her 50’s, Joy began experiencing panic attacks she
associates with the hormonal changes of menopause. “I was a yoga teacher by this
time. I wasn’t supposed to feel this way!” Joy added what she was learning in her
training as a LifeForce Yoga Practitioner to her daily practice. She added the daily
practice of the LifeForce Yoga Chakra Clearing Meditation (LFYCCM) to her routine,
which incorporates a breathing practice called Bee Breath, mantra tones and hand
gestures called mudras. “I kept up with the chakra-clearing consistently—in the shower,
no less! Between the steam, the breathing and the sounding, I was feeling mighty clear
when I toweled down and started my day feeling focused and fresh!”
Photographer :
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Stylist :
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Oz Millennia
Katelyn O’Donnell @Spike Models
Georgina Chen
Mountain Side Crafts
Mountain Side Crafts
Neenee Salfelder Dill
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