Let's face it: we live in stressful times. The pace of life has built up with some considerable momentum, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to meet life's rapid-fire challenges with anything even remotely resembling level-headed grace.
High stress is endemic in our everyday lives. And while it can be an effective motivator, constant stress is debilitating and damaging. However, while there are many ways of alleviating stress, yoga has been shown to be one of the most effective methods because it uniquely helps prevent stress as well as manage it.
It must first be recognized that a certain amount of stress some of the time is not only natural but beneficial. Stress is a biological reaction to pressure. In response to a threat, the body engages its fight or flight response, causing several hormonal and biochemical changes designed to elevate responses and reactions. When startled, you can feel your pulse begin to race, your breath quicken, and a surge of adrenaline hit your heart. It is a response designed to increase survivability and to help one perform under pressure.
Daily stress is the result of a constant, low-level engagement of the same survival response - now a background buzz of heightened activity. Reacting to various constant pressures, stimuli and concerns - both external and internal - the fight or flight response can remain slightly engaged for extended periods of time. This is when stress becomes damaging.
Maintaining a continuous level of alert is taxing on the body's resources and can be mentally destabilizing and debilitating.
This is where yoga comes in. Now, there are many ways of coping with stress; some people take quiet time for themselves, others engage in an invigorating sports match. But these are ways of alleviating stress. They are methods of coping with stress once it has taken root. In that respect, they are valuable, useful tools; on the other hand, yoga not only alleviates current stress, but regular practice also helps to guard against it in the future.
Just as much a mindset as an exercise regimen, yoga is built around several aspects of a particular frame of mind. It is non-competitive, focused, and introspective, and it is exactly this mentality that makes it effective in stress prevention.
First and foremost, yoga is entirely non-competitive, recognizing that everyone is incomparably different. No one is required to be at a particular level; students are not compared to each other. Competition - in the Darwinian sense - is rife in society and often a primary cause of stress. By taking time away from that atmosphere regularly, your mind becomes acquainted with a more non-competitive frame of mind, and it becomes easier to not get caught up in the stress of competition.
Furthermore, yoga is a discipline that requires concentration - specifically on the breath. During a session, this focus is used as a tool to cope with a strenuous or difficult pose. It directs the mind away from feelings of discomfort and helps to deepen and control the stretch. The same technique can be used outside of yoga. This doesn't mean that deep breathing will entirely de-stress you. It'll help, but the technique of being able to focus on one aspect of something at a time is greatly liberating. With focus, any overwhelming concern or stress can become just a series of manageable steps.
Central to both of these aspects of the yoga mindset, however, is the recognition that yoga is self-reflective. It requires you to know yourself and your limits. Most importantly, yoga practice demands that you accept where you are at any given time. Thus a novice can have as successful and satisfying a session as a master. In yoga, skill is secondary, peace and acceptance is primary. This kind of mindset is invaluable in the working world. It enables you to progress without feeling the pressure to do so. It allows you to accept and go about your life on your time, with your given abilities, thereby fighting the stress of social competition.
While yoga may be an effective fitness regimen, and can certainly help relieve stress, its most valuable aspect may just be its ability to prevent stress. In the fast-paced lives we lead, there is precious little time for ourselves - for some breathing space - and it can be incredibly liberating to learn the mental techniques of yoga practice and find that space in our everyday lives.
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It's been a fascinating time on the planet these past months - the economic crisis, changes in governments, deaths of celebrities.
A friend of mine has fallen very sick. On Monday, he was immobile and had to be taken away by ambulance to Emergency. I haven't heard back since then, but I've been assured that the doctors are performing tests this week to determine the cause and extent of the problem. The trouble is it may not be worth undertaking ameliorative measures - he may have to be written off!
