I read an interesting article in the May 2010 issue of Yoga Journal about the healing power of yoga and mediation.
Neuroscientist Sat Bir Khalsa, of Harvard University, has received a grant to study the effects and health benefits of yoga, seeking a cure for what ails America (also seeking it to be insurance reimbursable and as a prescription on a doctor’s pad). He has practiced yoga for 35 years and is convinced that early practice of yoga, starting as children or teens, prevents disease later in life.
He is currently conducting a study about teens, believing that if 40-50 year olds who struggle with insomnia had started practicing yoga and meditation in their youth, they wouldn’t be suffering sleepless nights. If people with type 2 diabetes and obesity had learned yoga in high school, their health outcomes might have been different.
“A recent study at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle found that people who practiced yoga were more likely to eat mindfully—that is, to be aware of why they ate and to stop eating when full. In fact, the increased body awareness learned through yoga had a greater effect on the participants’ weight than did the exercise aspect of the exercise.”
Khalsa did a 12-week study with high schoolers, offering yoga in place of regular P.E., with the regular PE class being the control group. One of the things they taught along with the postures was “witness consciousness”, or nonjudgmental awareness, and encouraged bringing the mind back to the present. The Yoga group reported less anger, less fatigue and more resilience than the control group. They used the yoga strategies to combat stress. They used the breathing patterns to go to sleep, used them on the athletic field (but not to sleep on the athletic field) and before a test.
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Yoga beat gym class when it came to staying fit and beating stress, Khalsa notes. “As yoga focuses on the integration of breathing, the development of mindfulness, and concentration, it far exceeds regular exercise as a full experience and a way to reduce the stress response. The effect is immediate, and the capacity to generate the feeling of relaxation on a regular basis increases after weeks and months of practice. That can’t help but benefit us as we face the challenges and health conditions that crop up in later years.”
Note to self
- He mentions nothing of the benefit of Hormel Turkey Pepperoni on the mind and body. I must contact him.
- Kudos for getting into Yoga.
- Follow the advice of bringing the mind back to the present when it wanders to places it really doesn’t need to be going.
- Yippie, this will help me become more body aware when eating. Excellent.
- You could berate yourself for not doing it regularly over the past 12 years when you quit teaching aerobics due to sports injuries.
- Don’t. Bring your mind to the present.
