Need an Energy Boost?

How about brain fitness from an ancient practice?

Are you feeling tired or sluggish? It might be time to get curious about yoga. It can increase your energy levels, revitalize your mind and restore your body. A healthy energy boost.

Traditional yoga is a low-impact exercise that increases flexibility, reduces stress,
and builds strength using your body weight as resistance.

Yoga has been a part of my energy healing, wellness path for decades and I continue to enjoy the stretching, strengthening and serenity created from the practice.

Not only does alternative, integrative and functional medicine embrace yoga, but mainstream medicine as well. If you want to zap your stress and clear your mind, yoga is one healing solution.

According to the US National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress.

Yoga’s science supports application in health science and medical fields (Bussing et al 2012), especially in the following areas of medical practice:

• Pain management
• Stress-related chronic disease
• Stress management
• Orthopedics
• Women’s health Prenatal/Postpartum
• Women’s health Oncology
• Mental health

I have always been drawn to a slow flow traditional yoga and taken classes that give me a gentle full stretch yet strengthen my body at a quiet steady pace and of course, an all day energy boost.  Believe me, you will sweat and voila… an added detox benefit.

If you only have ten minutes you can still practice yoga, destress and boost your energy with the following poses:

• Downward Facing Dog
• Low Lunge
• Table Top pose
• Hero’s pose
• Camel pose
• Child’s pose
• Locust pose
• Plank pose

Or check out the Half Sun Salutation, which is a sequence of moves that will stretch, strengthen and awaken your body.

The Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease published a study about the practice of yoga. The study was funded by the American-based Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation.

This study involved 25 participants over the age of 55. Conducted over a 12-week period, 11 of the study’s participants had weekly one hour-long memory training sessions with activities such as crossword puzzles and digital games. The other 14 participants were given weekly one hour-long yoga sessions. This group was tasked with adding in a 20-minute spiritual meditation to at homeeach day over the same 12 weeks.

At the end of the 12-week study, participants showed similar verbal memory improvements, but the yoga study group improved the most with visual-spatial memory. Through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans the researchers saw changes in the way the brain cells connect with each other changed in both groups, but they were only statistically significant in the people practicing yoga.

The lead researcher, Harris Eyre, of the University of Adelaide stated “Historically and anecdotally, yoga has been thought to be beneficial in aging well, but this is the scientific demonstration of that benefit. We’re converting historical wisdom into the high level of evidence required for doctors to recommend therapy to their patients.”

Co-author of the study, Professor Helen Lavretsky of the University of California added “When you have memory loss, you can get quite anxious about that and it can lead to depression. If you or your relatives are trying to improve your memory or offset the risk for developing memory loss or dementia, a regular practice of yoga and meditation could be a simple, safe and low-cost solution to improving your brain fitness.”

As a Holistic Health Therapist and Wellness Practitioner, I encourage you to add yoga to your life. Your body is the wisest person you will ever know.

Author:  Leslie A. Miller, Ph.D., is a Mind Coach, Transformational Healer, Reiki Master and the founder of Holistic Health Resource and Leslie Miller Wellness. She is in private practice in Novi, Michigan and Boca Raton, Florida. She has helped thousands of clients and facilitated hundreds of workshops. She is also a wellness therapist, professional speaker and corporate consultant.