Dianne Holliday Fish LPC Back to last page

Professional Counselor , supervised by Karen Finley Breeding Professional Counselor (LPC)

Location

Austin Serenity Counseling & Wellness
4131 Spicewood Springs Rd
Bldg I-6
Austin, Texas 78759

Contact

Phone: (512) 636-7500
Website: austinserenityc...

How can yoga help my anxiety?

I feel stressed and anxious. How can yoga help?

You can take charge of reducing your anxiety and stress by making a range of changes to your lifestyle including practice of certain exercises, breathing and body movements; adequate rest; increased awareness of and changes to negative thought patterns; and improved nutrition. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, rhythmic aerobic and yoga exercise programs lasting for more than 15 weeks have been found to reduce anxiety. Studies of strength or resistance training show these exercises do not seem to help anxiety.

The relaxation response is considered your body's physiological counterpart to the flight or fight response associated with hyper-arousal of many body functions and feelings of anxiousness. The relaxation response is a natural capacity of your body to self calm and has physical indicators such as slowing metabolism and heart rate, decreasing respiratory rate, and decreasing blood pressure. You generally experience this relaxation response as a calm sense of wellbeing.

Yoga and Your Body's Natural Ability to Relax

You can trigger your own relaxation response by regularly practicing mind / body techniques such as meditation, qigong, yoga, and certain forms of contemplative prayer. Yogic breathing techniques can increase a state of calm alertness by increasing the parasympathetic drive and changing the release of hormones such as cortisol which can be harmful to your body in large amounts over time.

I have found kundalini yoga (yoga of awareness) to be especially helpful to reduce anxiety and bring about a sense of centered wellbeing. Kundalini yoga uses ancient techniques called kriyas that include body movements, breath, hand positions, and sound. Kundalini yoga includes meditations that are typically more active than mindfulness or concentration forms of meditation which helps those of us who have a difficult time sitting still.

I periodically offer 2 hour workshops to experience some of these techniques and discuss lifestyle changes on topics such as: 'reducing your anxiety', 'transforming the dragon of anger', and 'blissful sleep'.

Call or email Dianne for more information.

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