Student Spotlight: Karen

Karen started going to BYPV in January of 2005. "My daughter Tamara had started doing yoga at BY Paradise Valley in November 2004. She would come home exhausted and tell me how wonderful Bikram Yoga was - it became her mind, body, and spiritual workout. She said it was hot yoga and you really sweat.

When I worked out - running or hiking - I already sweat more than anyone else so I figured why not give Bikram Yoga a try. Also, I did yoga at the gym and really liked the stretching and mediation." She says even though it has been 8 years, she will always remember her first class. That first class seemed to go on FOREVER but when I was done I was hooked; I have been coming ever since.

Karen says there are so many reasons why she loves Bikram Yoga. Here are just a few: It is a "practice" and not a "perfect" - just need to do my best each time, builds strength, core workout, meditation, sweat, improves flexibility (my husband likes this too), all I need to do is show up (not so hard) and set aside everything else that is going on in my life (that can be hard) for 90 minutes. I deserve 90 minutes just for me.

Karen says she loves Bikram Yoga Paradise Valley because it is a beautiful, big studio with the best teachers anywhere! Other things that keep her coming back are:my fellow yogis, support and encouragement from the teachers - I am always learning more about the postures, opportunities to take special classes (like Niki's intensive class), and guest teachers!

Karen says, "this May I will be 63 years old. By my age my mother had osteoporosis. Knowing I have a number of risk factors for osteoporosis, I have taken steps to keep my bones strong. Before I stared BY my bone density tests showed signs of osteopenia (pre-osteoporosis) but after I did yoga for 2 years my bone density tests improved and have stayed at the same level since. Prior to BY I ran 20 plus miles a week and hiked but my bone density was steadily getting worse.

In the past I never thought I could do a challenge - between family and work I had too much going on to consistently do yoga everyday. Then in October 2011 I was part of a "reduction in force" and figured if there was one good thing about not having a job it was more time to do yoga so I started my first challenge, the Olympic Challenge. As it turned out I started a new job the day after the challenge ended. I even did a few doubles (2 classes in one day), another first for me. To keep my practice consistent, I look at my work schedule each week and plan the class I will be taking.

My favorite posture - hands down - it is the half tortoise. The stretch through my shoulders feels so good (my daughter, Danielle, who is a physical therapist tells me shoulder problems are common as you get older), stretch through my back feels great, and improving the blood flow to the brain cannot hurt.

My personal goal - do Bikram Yoga when I am 72, 82, 92 and beyond. My teachers tell me it is doable; I just need to keep coming. This is one of the reasons I always do the 1-year unlimited package. One of my favorite quotes: "Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass - it is about dancing in the rain."

3 Reasons Why Yoga Is Great For Your Heart: A Cardiologist Explains

By Dr. Joel Kahn

The practice of yoga is growing in popularity but it is still rare to see yoga classes incorporated into hospital programming or office based clinics. There are obvious mental and physical benefits to the combination of physical exercises, breathing and meditation.

Recent scientific studies have documented benefits of a yoga practice on important heart functions and a wider use of yoga in therapy of heart patients should follow.

1. Yoga reduces the frequency of atrial fibrillation (AF).  

Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac rhythm disturbance and leads to frequent office and hospital visits, costing millions (if not billions) of health care dollars.

 

It's an unpredictable disorder of the heart rhythm and can interfere with work, vacations and family gatherings when out of control.

Recently patients with intermittent AF were studied for three months as a baseline and then followed for three more months while practicing yoga twice a week for 60 minutes.

During the three months of yoga practice, episodes of AF dropped in frequency and patients rated their quality of life as better.  There were also decreases in blood pressure and resting heart rate. Patients up to age 80 were studied.

2. Yoga is good for people with high blood pressure. 

High blood pressure or hypertension (HTN) effects millions of people worldwide and can result in heart disease, stroke, and kidney failure. The usual therapy is medication and dietary.  Recently 50 patients with HTN participated in a yoga practice for 15 days lasting 2 hours each session. Cardiac function was assessed before and after this training.

After practicing yoga for two weeks the resting heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressures were significantly reduced.  A comparison group that did not do the training did not experience these beneficial trends.

3. It reduces stress. 

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) controls silently controls the function of the heart rate and blood pressure. A heart that is healthy demonstrates a wide swing in heart rate and blood pressure during inspiration and expiration and a disease heart shows little of this variability, a measurement called heart rate variability (HRV). HRV is influenced by the two parts of the ANS: the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system.

Scientists compared HRV in long term practitioners of yoga compared to matched controls who did not practice yoga. The HRV was increased in the yoga practitioners and they showed less sympathetic tone (stress, adrenaline) and more parasympathetic tone (relaxation, vagal) of their ANS. Their cardiac response to day-to-day stress was improved with yoga.

Yoga should be considered by patients and practitioners as another "tool" in the tool box of controlling stress, HTN, and heart rhythm disorders. As many cardiac patients are elderly, modifications such as chair yoga and predominantly pranayama breathing exercises may be necessary, but are still beneficial.

Namaste.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com

About Dr. Joel KahnDr. Kahn is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine and Medical Director of Preventive Cardiology at the Detroit Medical Center. He is a graduate Summa Cum Laude of the University of Michigan School of Medicine. He lectures widely on the cardiac benefits of vegan nutrition and mind body practices.Connect with Dr. Joel Kahn: drjkahn.comMore from Dr. Joel Kahn on MindBodyGreen

Breath: The Essence of Life & the Foundation of Yoga

By NikkiStarr Yoga is the union between the body and the mind, connected through the breath. Breathing is the most fundamental technique of Yoga. It is the essence of life. Without breath, neither exists. The first thing we do when we enter into this planet is to take our first independent breath. The last thing we do when we leave our physical bodies is to exhale out our entire existence in that one final breath. Deepak Chopra explains that:

“You inhale for the first time shortly after your umbilical cord is cut. From that moment on youtake approximately seventeen thousand breaths each day, which over a lifetime totals about500 million breaths. In your final moments on this planet, you exhale for the last time; thatbreath defines the end of your life. Your breathing supports every experience you have from thetime of your first inhalation to that of your last exhalation. Breath is life” (Chopra, Deepak TheSeven Spiritual Laws of Yoga: A Practical Guide to Healing Body, Mind, and Spirit, 99).

Think about it, approximately seventeen thousand breaths each day!! Incredible! Accordingly, it is appropriate and fundamental that each of our yoga classes begins with Pranayama Deep Breathing and ends with Kapalabhati Breathing.  Pranayama warms up the body from the inside out. It is good for the lungs and the respiratory system. Additionally, Pranayama exercises our nervous and circulatory systems. It is relaxing and grounding. Pranayama roots us in our practice, in our bodies.  Kapalabhati in Vajrasana (Blowing in Firm Pose) is detoxifying and energizing. It is good for the abdominal muscles and internal organs because it improves oxygenation of the body and increases circulation. Kapalabhati is good for the heart, high blood pressure, and respiration.

Breathing connects our minds to our bodies. It is the only autonomic function that we have conscious control over. While we hold our breath in our consciousness, we have the power to change it, to regulate it; thereby, regulating our bodies. Our involuntary nervous system functions resume control when we surrender the conscious control of our breath. The reality that we have the ability to control part of our autonomic nervous system is empowering. Because we can consciously choose to put our attention on our breath, we have the ability to give ourselves widespread health benefits, which is beautiful. We are so lucky! Through conscious breathing, we can relax our bodies and our minds. Additionally, alleviating high blood pressure, irritability, and insomnia. We can detoxify and revitalize our whole body! This humble piece is but a small acknowledgement and reminder that Conscious Breathings is, in line with Chopra, the “key to a healthy, vibrant life” (100).

We each hold our own key! We have the power to unlock our own health, happiness, and vitality. Exhale out what does not serve you and live the life you Love!

The Hardest Part is Just Getting There

By Erin Wall

You've probably heard before the teacher starts class, "The hard part is over, you are on your mat and towel". We all know sometimes just getting to the studio is the hardest part. Whether your alarm is set for 4:45 to get out of bed or you have to come directly from work, it is so easy to talk yourself out of class and into hitting your snooze button or hitting happy hour with your friends instead. The internal battle of "Should I go take class today?" can be never-ending for some of us. I can't tell you how many times I have sat in my car (in my driveway or in front of the studio) contemplating till the last possible second if I want to take class. A lot of times I would rather stay in bed a little longer or work more or fill my day with anything but the yoga, but 99% of the time I get out of my car and walk into the studio for class. Usually the question I ask myself anytime I'm in this predicament is "Have you ever regretted taking class?", the answer is always no! No matter how much effort it takes to get there, you are always so happy you made it when the 90 minutes is over and you are enjoying your final savasana. There is no better feeling. I hear so often as our students walk into the studio, "I almost didn't come today; I am tired, I am so busy, I am having a really bad day, etc". These are all very normal feelings and thoughts, and the days where it is hard to get to class are the days you really need it. You always feel better even if you can't do as much for whatever reason. This yoga can be really hard and if you have been coming awhile you know it challenges you both mentally and physically. Sometimes that is the reason behind not wanting to do the yoga; its in your face and its pushing your own buttons and bringing up things you're trying to hide or escape from. It's not easy to face your own self everyday. You know there are days where you struggle with balance or during the floor series, or you feel like you can't breathe or focus on anything. Regardless of what you're feeling and experiencing during a certain posture or throughout class, no matter how much you can or can't do on any given day, no matter how much you are struggling; you always feel better at the end of the 90 minutes. It's so worth it. Just get there, I promise you will never regret it, I never do! :)

Are You Eating the Menu, Instead of the Food?

By Stephen Rumpp

There has never been a better time than in this moment to find your Self.  Metaphysically speaking, it is the only place Self can be found.

We’ve heard this occasionally from various wise thinkers and yet, our relationship to the present moment too often remains largely conceptual.  We develop a framework for experiencing our circumstances rather than an evolving practice of experiencing our lives in the moments we are living.  Eating the menu instead of the food, as it is said.

Yoga offers the perfect laboratory within which to practice the art of mindfulness.  Using the body to strengthen the mind.  The habit of practicing mindfulness while doing yoga asana helps us align our bodies in concert with our minds, providing access to the Self.

We are human after all and we have a lot going on.  We live lives that are incredibly complex, requiring us to be good at a host of things all at the same time in order just to survive each day.  Fair enough.  Mindfulness sometimes takes a back seat to action, but in this process we can become dissatisfied.  Bikram calls it the ‘screw loose’ brain.

How about this.  We did not start out knowing much.  We came with great tools no doubt.  Our amazing human body, brain and instincts have allowed us to learn about the world into which we have entered one step at a time.  As our years add up, we create quite a storage room of skills, talents, beliefs and habits.  Sometimes referred to as life knowledge.  All this is fine and necessary if we are to continue through time together.

But from our earliest moments it is our mindfulness that affords us the good fortune to synthesize ideas, objects, relationships into meaningful outcomes.  Just watch a baby if you don’t get what I’m saying.  As a baby’s eyes absolutely absorb the object of their moment, drool runs from their mouth, arms flail, fingers reach, toes curl, sounds emit and then rapture, the telling sign of success in their task, a wide and gleeful smile.  In the moment, being the moment, nothing but the moment.

As babies gather experience, they naturally move toward multiple achievements rather than remaining 100% focused on a unique task.  Have you observed a toddler lately?  Their skills are substantial and their world is wider with each day.  They become increasingly concerned with the stuff out  in the world at the expense of their total emersion into the singular.  Is it any wonder they are subject to mercurial mood swings?

Fast forward over years of life’s challenges and achievements, and it is not difficult to realize that we have become distanced from our native talent for mindfulness.  Yet, it remains there, underneath it all just waiting for us.  Certain life experiences demonstrate this to us.  The birth of our own child, sudden illness, and many others, call upon us to access our present moment, to access the Self.  Who we are in the present moment.

Being able to access one’s Self is a practice and a skill, the doing of which changes everything.  Yoga heals the body inside and out, yes.  But I dare say equally or more importantly, yoga connects us to our most important distinction; who we are.

Our times call for a kind of global mindfulness.  Clearly, a world of human beings all about action, mostly reruns from history, is not working.  Evidence abounds, new solutions are required.

So remember as you weigh the value of your yoga practice, its challenges and its time requirement, that quite possibly it is your Self that is calling to you.  It calls as loudly as it needs to, in hopes you will breathe life into its essence and in so doing, evolve your ability to experience life’s every moment more fully.  It is in this peaceful state of being that I believe magical things are possible.  Our planet is counting on us.  See you there.