Doing something for yourself shouldn’t make you feel guilty.
Between work and family, obligations and hobbies, we’re always on the go. Even though we know burnout or depression loom in our futures, we still push to fit more activities into our busy days.
So, even though we know that it’s important to decompress. Even though doctors and studies have hammered home this point over and over.* We find it hard to actually, y’know, take that time to regroup.
So when I offer you a 75-minute session to take for yourself, to find peace and calm, you may find it hard to say yes. But:
What if I could offer you a 75-minute session to find peace and calm that also doubles as good for your body and your joints? Now you’re not just taking a mental break, you’re also working out.
Interested?
The key is Yin Yoga. You may not have heard of it, being the kind of person who likes fast-flowing workouts and handstands and mountain-climbing and getting to your next meeting and and and, so let me explain.
In Yin Yoga, you work your connective tissue (e.g., bones, fascia, and ligaments) instead of your muscles. Unlike muscles, which respond well to lots of fast movement and blood pumping, your connective tissues take time and gentle pressure to change. It’s the yoga equivalent of wearing braces. This means you’ll hold poses for longer periods with all your muscles turned off. And while you hold those poses, supported by props, we’ll work on connecting your mind to your body… instead of to whatever is on your to do list.
You will relax your way toward a sharper mind, a more flexible body, and stronger joints. What’s not to love?
* “In medicine, we are learning that physical problems such as high blood pressure and heart disease can be influenced by psychological interventions such as relaxation training. Indeed, the Food and Drug Administration issues a report recommending these non-drug approaches as the treatment of choice for milder forms of hypertension. Mind and body are connected and must work together, and this should be a powerful asset in treating medical illness.” – David Spiegel, M.D., author of Living Beyond Limits in Relax and Renew by Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D., P.T.
* Even Consumer Reports talked about Yoga and Meditation as being useful in their recent article on Alternative Medicines (September 2018). If you don’t get the magazine, you can’t find that particular article, but they do have another one that basically says “do the thing, subscribers.” – https://www.consumerreports.org/alternative-medicine/benefits-of-yoga/ (last visited 26 Nov 2018)