Today I came across some very interesting information. I had always been wondering why I disliked reading large amounts of text or e-books straight from the computer screen.  After a short time, I start to feel edgy, impatient and my eyes  go out of focus, even though I have enlarged the print to a comfortable size for me. When I started asking around, a lot of my friends told me they felt the same.  I assumed it might simply be the fact that I am old fashioned, that having to get used to technology so late in life  made it too hard to adjust to it.

Yoga teaches us to always listen to our inner voice, our intuition. My intuition was telling me that reading lots on the computer and spending lots of time looking at the screen was not healthy for me. After I spend a few hours on the computer I get an unpleasant,  ”spaced out” feeling which is very hard to describe. I need to go and “ground” myself, get out in the garden, do some cooking or interact with “real” people.

It has come to light now that reading a printed book is soothing, calming and helps the body to release anti-stress hormones like serotonin and melatonin. After a while, our mind and body associate reading a book with sleep and relaxation. You just need to pick up a book and you will go into relaxation mode.  Black colour and darkness will create the same thing – it will help to release these anti-stress hormones as night time is the time when we should naturally go to sleep. The black print in the book also has some soothing effect.

What do we have on a computer screen? Black print with lots of light flooding out from behind. This light enters our eyes and stimulates our brain to intitiate the production of cortisol, a stress hormone. Elevated cortisol causes all sorts of reactions in the body, none of them particularly healthy if they go on for any length of time.  Cortisol is a stimulating hormone, so if you have trouble sleeping you certainly shouldn’t be sitting at the computer before going to bed. Give yourself some computer free time before going to sleep.

It is important for children to learn to read really well from traditional books before they start reading on the computer screen. The body and mind will form a permanent association with and an automatic response to reading depending on how you learn to read. Learn to read from a book and reading will be recognised by your mind as a pleasurable and pleasant experience – so it will be very healthy for you to read.

Take care when teaching your children to read, use real books. When children learn to read from a computer screen  reading will be hardwired into their brain as an activity that causes stress, the body will automatically produce the stress hormone cortisol which will, amongst many other things, increase blood pressure.

Don’t let your children play computer games too close to bed time – their stress hormone levels will be elevated and they will be hard to get to bed and they might develop sleeping problems.

I hope you find the above information useful. In case you want to know more about stress and stress hormones, how it all works and what effects is has on your body, consider having a look at my book:

http://www.stretchyourmindandbody.com/blog/tigerebook

Till next time.

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com

Recently I started teaching a “Seniors’ Yoga Class”. The participants range from 50 and 80 years of age and are very enthusiastic about the new skills they are learning. Attendance is very steady at around 15  and there is one male participant amongst all the women. He asks me some interesting (and sometimes challenging) questions every week.

Last week his question was: “You have been doing Yoga for all these years – what did you get out of it?” Then he partially answered his own question by saying: “You are obviously very fit, strong and flexible – but what else did it do for you?”

I thought for a moment and told him that it really helps me to manage my stress and was getting me through some very difficult patches in my life.  Then it was time to start the class and I couldn’t elaborate any further. My student’s question really made me think. I came up with a lot more things as I was driving home and decided that it would be a good idea to share my thoughts with you as well.

For me personally the benefits of doing yoga for over 20 years have included:

• Stress – using various breathing techniques in very stressful situations, like before surgery.  The so called pre-op medication they give you to calm you down doesn’t work on me at all – but yoga breathing does
• Pregnancy – I did yoga and meditation daily throughout my pregnancy. It helped to control morning sickness.
• Childbirth – I had to be induced and an induced labour is known to be more strenuous than a “natural” labour because the breaks between contractions are much shorter. I got through with only breathing and mind control. The midwife commented after that she had never seen anybody go through induced labour with no pain relief.
• Parenting – I am doing my best to parent according to yogic principles, to stay calm and compassionate and impart those values to my child
• Business – I am doing business according to yogic principles. In a nutshell – not sweating the small stuff, creating quality product that is helpful and useful, teaching to the best of my ability, focusing fully on what I am doing, dealing with customers and students from the heart, no matter how challenging.
• Emotions – I am not pretending to be a saint, things “get” to me too, I have bad days and lose my temper occasionally, say things I regret later – but yoga has given me the tools and the ability to quickly and efficiently “pull” myself out of these negative emotions and get myself back on track.
• Intuition – yoga and the stillness it brings help me to access my intution. I can make decisions made on my inner knowing and go ahead with confidence. I very rarely do things that go against my intuition and when I do – guess what? They go terribly wrong, things end up in a mess.

As you can see, yoga has a profound impact on my life. It is a way of life for me. To apply it to all the situations mentioned above needs practice and perseverance. You cannot expect to do a 6 week yoga course and master everything. Under stress everything you learnt will “go out the window” very quickly. Old coping mechanisms will return.

I am also aware that yoga is not for everybody – it takes time and perseverance, it is well worth it but under certain circumstances it is simply impractical to devote a lot of time to your practice.  So I have distilled some of my experience and knowledge into a basic stress management book. This book teaches you some very basic techniques to get you out of your stressful situation quickly. Have a look here:

http://www.stretchyourmindandbody.com/blog/tigerebook

Till next time,

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com

Here is something for you to relax and just have a few minutes of bliss. I hope you enjoy it is much as I do.

Till next time,
Connie
Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com