Most of the time, I have my asthma under control and can pretty much anticipate what’s going to set it off – usually the change in weather. Perhaps living in a country where we can have rain, snow and sunshine all in one day is not ideal for asthmatics, but I wouldn’t choose to live anywhere else.

Over the years, as I’ve become more savvy about my health, I’ve come to realize that I don’t want to rely on my puffers for the rest of my life. Injecting that horrible stuff into my mouth three times a day (on a bad day) must have some disturbing side effects.

Well, that said, recently I realized that my breathing has started to improve and I’ve been relying less and less on my puffers. After so many years of struggling for breath, something’s changed in me. I can now breathe easier and fuller. How come?

Yoga.

Ever since I started practicing yoga, I’ve been learning how to breathe. Don’t laugh – of course everyone knows how to breathe. But not everyone knows how to breathe correctly.

It’s amazing how yoga can teach everyone – not only asthmatics – how to breathe properly. For example, Pranayama – or yoga breathing – is a yoga discipline that focuses on breath control. Exercises include the Dirga Pranayama – or “three-part breath” – which is an excellent technique for beginners and experts alike as it focuses the attention on calming and grounding the mind.

I’ve just found out that May is Asthma Awareness Month. This year, May 5 has been designated World Asthma Day with its theme being “You can control your asthma. If you want to find out more about this and perhaps participate in some of the events, check out GINA, the Global Initiative For Asthma and click on “World Asthma Day”.

If you have asthma (or know anyone who does), why not try yoga as a form of alleviating your breathing problems. I’m confident that you – like me – will find the results truly breathtaking!

Tags: asthma, asthmatics, yoga breathing, Ashtma Awareness Month, learning to breathe, Pranayama, Dirga Pranayama

Now, I don’t know what I expected, but yoga was more difficult than I remembered it being.

Even the slow, ponderous poses we went through were body-breakingly arduous. It was an embarrassment. I even found it difficult to sit cross legged and meditate. No joke.I figure there was more to it than just two weeks away from yoga. I mean, yeah, you’re going to feel it more the longer you’ve been away from physical activity, but it shouldn’t have been that hard. My suffering was not in proportion to my absence.

So here’s what I think: not only did I spend a couple weeks away from yoga, but I spent a couple weeks away from yoga while feeling maximally stressed out. Now, stress has a funny way of messing with everything. At its root, it may be psychological, but it manifests itself in very physiological ways, affecting all biological processes. It’s not unthinkable, then, that being under stress would cause a good deal of muscle tension, among other symptoms. So the first class back to yoga saw me working through two weeks of inactivity and the stress of compiling an animation portfolio to a deadline. It was unexpectedly brutal.

But there’s an up side. I’m way less stressed out now. Not only have I finished the portfolio, but yoga has proven to be good stress relief. Even within a single class. Relaxing after the workout, I could feel the difference. I left the studio feeling heavier of limb, but lighter of mind.

Tags: stress relief, Yin yoga, meditation, deadline, workout, yoga practice

The funny thing is that I can be headache-free for months and then suddenly, without any prior warning, I get a series of really bad headaches that completely debilitate me and leave me incapable of functioning well.

Last week, during my yoga class, I happened to mention this to my instructor. Well, that was a smart move on my part – even if I didn’t know it at the time! She asked me why I hadn’t mentioned that from the beginning, when she’d asked us at our first class if we had any issues or health concerns. Good point – I’m not sure why it didn’t even cross my mind at the time. Perhaps I was focusing too much on being a “newbie” to yoga and didn’t want to draw any attention to myself.

Well – talk about enlightenment! My instructor reminded us that yoga is about self-awareness. It’s about becoming more aware of how our bodies and minds function and react to certain stimuli so that we are then able to recognize symptoms and learn to address and manage them before they escalate into severe problems.

My instructor continued by explaining that certain yoga poses and breathing exercises could go a long way towards relieving headache pains. She then took us through a series of gentle yoga poses to relax the tension in our bodies, open up our chests, and stretch our upper backs and necks. She ended with the Savasana – also known as the “corpse pose” – reminding us how essential it is for us to finish our yoga practice by breathing deeply, relaxing ourselves completely, and rejuvenating our body, mind, and spirit.

By practicing these poses regularly and learning how to breathe through the pain, she was confident that I would not only be able to get rid of my headaches but also learn how to prevent them from happening.

I’m willing to give it a try.

Does anyone else have headache problems? If so, I’d really like to hear what you do to get rid of the pain.

Tags: headaches, cure for headaches, savasana, benefits of yoga, yoga poses, breathing exercises, relaxation

Last week, I was feeling very sorry for myself because I’d come down with a cold. Nothing serious – just a common cold. But I hate colds. I hate feeling all stuffed up and I hate the pounding headaches that inevitably come with colds – my colds anyway.

Oh, I know – I’m such a baby. It’s funny because I can handle almost anything else. I’ve breezed through medical tests that would freak most people out and have had two surgeries in the last five years. And I haven’t whined once (okay, maybe once, possibly twice, but that’s it ~ I swear)!

But colds…hate ‘em!

Well, aren’t I a little bundle of joy?! It’s no wonder people stay away from me in droves when I’m grumpy with a cold. I’d stay away from myself if I could!

Failing that (have you ever noticed that it’s really very hard to avoid yourself…), I finally decided to do something constructive besides moan and complain. I mean, there’s a limit to how long you can indulge in self-pity before you bore yourself to tears, right? So I dragged myself over to the TV (I know – I’m such a drama queen!), popped in my yoga DVD and started practicing some yoga moves.

Well, that was an experience. My legs felt so wobbly that I couldn’t hold most of the poses, and I (puff) couldn’t (puff) breathe (puff) at (puff) all (puff), which totally frustrated me. Then all of a sudden I realized that maybe I was just pushing myself too hard. Maybe I just needed to calm down and “go with the flow.” So I made a conscious effort to calm down, relax, and focus on my breathing. Before I knew it, I’d fallen asleep on my mat!

Okay, perhaps that was just what my body needed and I was too busy groaning and moaning to listen to it. I sure felt better when I woke up. I was (almost) back to my normal self, to the relief of my husband and mother, who were probably on the verge of locking me in the bedroom until I could revert to being a civilized human being again.

So now I’m 98% better and am allowed to roam the house freely and spread my joy again. Between us, though, I sometimes think my husband prefers it when I’m buried under the blankets feeling sorry for myself as it gives him some precious peace and quiet!

Tags: colds, self-pity, yoga DVD, frustration, complain, joy, peace

My doc’s great, though. He’s not one to take the easy way out and throw a pill at his patients immediately. Instead, he suggested that I consider adding some flaxseed oil and fiber to my diet. Oh, and while I was at it, he said, a little exercise wouldn’t hurt – although he hastened to add that he wasn’t insinuating that I was overweight by any means (oh thanks)!

So for the past year, like a good girl, I’ve been having cereal with fiber and drinking a daily mixture of flaxseed powder and warm milk – it’s really not as bad as it sounds, okay? In fact, I quite enjoy it now, which leads my husband to believe that my taste buds have died!

In addition, I’ve taken my doc’s advice on getting some exercise and have been going to yoga classes. I love my yoga classes so there’s no hardship there – but I must admit that I’ve been wondering whether all this effort on my part has been working in getting my cholesterol down.

Well, wonder no more. My doc said the results of my latest cholesterol test are excellent. My “bad” cholesterol is way down and my “good” cholesterol is great – the best he’s seen in a long time. He also noticed that I’m looking very fit and “far younger than your 52 years” (didn’t I tell you he’s a great doctor?), so I told him that’s because I’ve been doing yoga for the past few months.

Well, guess what – it turns out my doc’s been doing yoga for years and thinks it’s one of the best forms of exercise for both the mind and body. So I guess that means I made the best choice possible for my health when I decided – thanks to Christina’s encouragement – to take up yoga.

Excuse me while I go and pat myself on the back now…

Tags: yoga and health, lowering cholesterol, benefits of yoga, fiber, flaxseed oil, improving one’s health