The recent article by NPR, Flattening The 'Mummy Tummy' With 1 Exercise, 10 Minutes A Day, starts off with a sensational, grabbing title. A click bait title that we wouldn't expect from a trusted news source like NPR. But it certainly got your attention, especially if you recently had a baby and now are feeling a little weak around the core. And since this is NPR this should be safer than something random you pull off the internet, right? Well, yes and no.
With addiction, deep fractures are drawn between our mind and our body, our needs and our habits, our emotions and our actions, and in the relationships that we have to ourselves and to others. Yoga, on the other hand, is connection.
It's a great time to pay attention to how stress is affecting you. Common stressors include work, family, money, children, illness and more. Stress can impact both your body and your mind causing symptoms such as muscular pain, irritability, fatigue, and headaches. Here's how we can help...
According to CDC data, 32% of women delivering a baby did so via C-section in 2015. Some of these are elective (planned) & others unplanned or emergent. If you are one of the 32%, what can you expect following a C-section?
Do you feel like your insurance coverage gets more confusing each year? That’s probably because it does! It seems like each year there is another rule or exception to your plan but the cost keeps going up. Here at Jade, we are often asked, “how much will this cost?” The answer isn’t as easy at it seems.
Taking a deep breath simply means inhaling by filling your lungs to capacity, and letting your diaphragm contract. On a day to day basis, deep breathing can be used as a tool for a variety of ailments such as reducing stress levels, stabilizing blood pressure, increasing lung strength, and improving oxygen levels throughout the body. Deep breathing methods have been created to undergo fantastic feats and might even be a contributing factor towards curing diseases.
In recent years, many studies have concluded the benefits to both mental and physical health by simply recognizing, verbalizing and/or demonstrating gratitude. Positive outcomes from these studies show decreased levels of anxiety and depression, better sleep, stronger relationships (romantic, workplace and familial) and better heart rate variability
Nearly everyone has had the experience of an unpleasant or disturbing emotion that persists so long we wonder or even doubt it will ever change. We can forget what it was like to be without the feeling and believe it’s just the way it is, a part of us - like a body odor. We can try to cover it up like using deodorant but perhaps we would rather discover the cause and change it. This month we dive deeper into compassion meditation and how it can help us in our every day lives.
Qigong (pronounced che-gong) is a form of gentle exercise that is a fundamental component of self-care in traditional Chinese medicine. Less acrobatic than many yoga forms and more active than most meditation practices, this movement therapy gently strengthens, calms, and supports both body and mind. It involves meditation and repeated movements that improve circulation and increase qi (energy), encouraging an overall sense of well-being.
In one pointedness meditation we begin with focus on a selected meditation object, and develop strength of mind. As this grows we maintain the focus and observe thoughts as they arise and let them go, rather than beginning to think about them. We begin to appreciate and gain insight into attachment and impermanence and our own nature.
The benefits of meditation are as infinite as we are. Google it, and you'll discover so many ways meditation helps people physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. There are almost as many ways to meditate as there are benefits from it. Taking two minutes between clients to breathe deeply is as valid a meditation form as sitting with one pointedness for hours on end. Equally valid but different in the results.
In our modern lives it seems that stress is unavoidable. A friend recently called this internal chatter her “unwelcome roommate”. This unwelcome roommate decided to move right on in and take over your mental space without asking and without being considerate of how you’ve been living. This roommate makes judgments, thrives on emotions, makes demands and imposes opinion. Sound familiar?
Sources of stress can appear endless. Our new normal state of always being available and “on-call” is stressful, but leave your phone at home and the mind goes crazy with what it could be missing or that friends, family and even work can get worried that they can’t get in touch with you right away. The truth is, stress is unavoidable.
Three yogi hermits are doing a meditative vigil in a cave. One day there's a sound outside the cave. Six months later, one of the yogis says, "That was a goat." The cave is silent once again. About a year later, another yogi says, "That wasn't a goat, that was a mule." Again, the cave falls silent. About two years later the third yogi says, "If you two don't stop arguing, I'm leaving."
