I love the energy and buzz of London life. But sometimes after a day at work and a tube journey,  you can feel a little  sapped of energy and goodness.

So I wasn’t surprised to read about recent research from Harvard Medical School that shows spending a few minutes on a busy city street can affect the brain’s ability to focus and to manage self-control. That makes sense, because all of the stimulus takes up a lot of the brain’s processing power.

According to an article by Scott Edwards that appeared in On The Brain:

Directed attention fatigue is a neurological symptom that occurs when our voluntary attention system, the part of the brain that allows us to concentrate in spite of distractions, becomes worn down. People suffering from directed attention fatigue can experience short-term feelings of heightened distraction, impatience, or forgetfulness. When the condition is severe enough, people can exhibit poor judgment and feel increased levels of stress.

What to do about it?

Next time I’m going to head for the streets, I think I’ll head for the hills instead. Research shows that only 20 minutes in nature is a remedy for getting the brain to recover from directed attention fatigue. So, step away from the desk and get yourself to the nearest park.

Yoga Wellbeing would love to know – When the big smoke gets too much, what do you do?

December involves shopping, decorating, traveling, and other high-energy activity. Yet instead of having fun, we often end up feeling ill or even anxious. The reason, according to Taoist philosophy and traditional Chinese medicine, is that the action-packed schedules we keep at this time of year fall out of sync with the earth’s natural cycles.

We naturally have less energy to burn during the winter. So when we engage in behaviors more appropriate for summer—staying up late and dashing around town—it’s no wonder that the forced cheer of the holiday season can wear a bit thin.

Taoist philosophy conceptualizes universal balance in terms of yin and yang, complementary forces that govern the universe. Yin characteristics are cool, wet, slow, feminine, and quiet, whereas yang is the opposite: warm, dry, fast, masculine, extroverted. Winter, the yin season, is a time for storing and conserving energy in the way a bear retains fat by hibernating, or a farmer stores food for the cold months ahead.

In agrarian cultures, people spend the shortest, darkest days indoors by the fire, eating warm, slow-cooked, nourishing food and sharing stories with their families. The incongruity between winter’s restful, introspective, yin nature and the frenetic way many people spend their Christmas can contribute to seasonal affective disorder.

To stay balanced during winter be good to yourself. Try some restorative yoga, meditation and walking are best suited for yin season, as they safeguard your energy reserves.

Eating cooked, spicy yang foods provides another good way to replenish energy. Prepare yang-strengthening soups, slow-simmered stews, beans, roasted root vegetables, and warm drinks. Add yang spices such as garlic, ginger, black pepper, cloves, and basil to increase the warming effect.

Bring balance and you will have more energy to spend with close friends and family. The important part of Christmas.

Yoga in Prisons workshops throw up the philosophical questions such as Who am I? Am I separate from what I do? They investigate basic goodness, identity, and forgiveness as well as develop listening and empathy skills. Leaders also introduce simple meditations to help prisoners learn how to calmly be with whatever emotions arise in the present moment. The boys count their breaths and do body scans to get into their bodies, relax, and find freedom from reactivity.

The idea of spending less time in solitary may lure the prisoners but once he started attending the yoga meetings they start to see the benefits. Each session offered a brief respite from isolation, a glimpse of self-awareness, and a chance to connect to others who had similar lives filled with drugs and gangs.

Thinking it over and talking with others, I was able to sort out my ideas. Using a breathing technique, which he learned in group sessions, to control his temper. My anger and other people just don’t mix. Yoga breathing techniques have helped me cope with everyday life.

I was asked by one of the yogis this week if it helped to practice yoga while trying to concieve and during pregnancy and whether it effected you if you were stressed.

Stressed-out women are 12% less likely to become pregnant during their fertile time, Oxford University scientists have said after testing the advice to women to relax when trying for a baby.

They carried out saliva tests on 274 women and analysed levels of the stress hormone cortisol and the enzyme alpha-amylase, an indicator of adrenalin levels.

All the women were aged between 18 and 40 and were trying for a baby naturally. Researchers carried out the tests on day six of each woman’s menstrual cycle for six cycles or until the woman fell pregnant. They used fertility monitors to identify ovulation and confirmed the pregnancies with testing kits.

The study, published in the journal Fertility and Sterility, found no effect from cortisol on the chances of falling pregnant. But women in the group with the highest levels of alpha-amylase had a 12% lower chance of falling pregnant for each day of their most fertile days than those with the lowest levels of alpha-amylase.

The authors concluded: “Stress significantly reduced the probability of conception each day during the fertile window.”

This is the first study to find that a biological measure of stress is associated with a woman’s chances of becoming pregnant that month. We found that those women with high levels of a marker for stress were less likely to succeed in conceiving.

“The findings support the idea that couples should aim to stay as relaxed as they can about trying for a baby. In some people’s cases, it might be relevant to look at relaxation techniques like yoga and meditation.

If you would like to book a one to one session click here.

(OORD-vah don-your-AHS-anna)
urdhva = upward
dhanu = bow

Step by Step

1. Lie supine on the floor. Bend your knees and set your feet on the floor, heels as close to the sitting bones as possible. Bend your elbows and spread your palms on the floor beside your head, forearms relatively perpendicular to the floor, fingers pointing toward your shoulders.

2. Pressing your inner feet actively into the floor, exhale and push your tailbone up toward the pubis, firming (but not hardening) the buttocks, and lift the buttocks off the floor. Keep your thighs and inner feet parallel. Take 2 or 3 breaths. Then firmly press the inner hands into the floor and your shoulder blades against the back and lift up onto the crown of your head. Keep your arms parallel. Take 2 or 3 breaths.

3. Press your feet and hands into the floor, tailbone and shoulder blades against your back, and with an exhalation, lift your head off the floor and straighten your arms. Turn the upper thighs slightly inward and firm the outer thighs. Narrow the hip points and lengthen the tailbone toward the backs of the knees, lifting the pubis toward the navel.

4. Turn the upper arms outward but keep the weight on the bases of the index fingers. Spread the shoulder blades across the back and let the head hang, or lift it slightly to look down at the floor.

5. Stay in the pose anywhere from 5 to 10 seconds or more, breathing easily. Repeat anywhere from 3 to 10 times.

Benefits

Why not start your week off with a good stretch and give yourself a mini Yoga Wellbeing challenge? This stretch strengthens the legs and ankle, it stretches the backs of the leg and also improves a sense of balance.

Step by Step

1. From mountain pose, bring your left knee toward your belly.

2. Reach your left arm inside the thigh, cross it over the front ankle, and hold the outside of your left foot. If your hamstrings are tight, hold a strap looped around the left sole.

3. Firm the front thigh muscles of the standing leg, and press the outer thigh inward.

4. Inhale and extend the left leg forward. Straighten the knee as much as possible. If you’re steady, swing the leg out to the side. Breathe steadily; breathing takes concentration, but it helps you balance.

5. Hold for 30 seconds, then swing the leg back to center with an inhale, and lower the foot to the floor with an exhale. Repeat on the other side for the same length of time.

It’s the paradox of sunscreen. When you dutifully slather on the SPF 30 before heading outside on a sunny day, you’re protecting your skin 
from harmful ultraviolet rays. But you’re also preventing those rays from prompting your skin, liver, and kidneys to make an essential vitamin—vitamin D.

For more than 90 years, vitamin D has been known to play a role in bone health. But new research suggests that vitamin D may have many other health benefits. Vitamin D may play a role in reducing the risk of cancer, heart attack, and stroke. Emerging studies are examining the effects of higher doses of vitamin D on depression and autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

Vitamin D occurs naturally in a few foods, such as salmon, egg yolks, and liver, and many other foods are fortified with 
it. The Food and Nutrition Board at the Institute of Medicine deems a vitamin D intake of 2,000 international units per day to be adequate for adults aged 50 and younger; older people need more. In light of new research, those recommendations are currently under review. But many of us aren’t getting enough even by the current recommendations. By some estimates, as many as three out of every four people in the UK aren’t getting enough vitamin D. While some nutritionists recommend seeking vitamin D by going outside for 10 or 15 minutes without sunscreen on a sunny day, dermatologists argue that’s neither a safe nor reliable way to ensure adequate vitamin D levels.

What’s the yogic message today? Read the label of your multivitamin to see if it contains the daily value of vitamin D, and ask your doctor to check your vitamin D levels 
at your next physical, if you’re concerned. And don’t forget your sunscreen and hat when you head for the beach.

This is a great way to destress at the weekend. It opens up the chest and gets the energy flowing. So why not give it a try this weekend?

(oosh-TRAHS-anna)

ustra = camel

Step by Step

1. Kneel on the floor with your knees hip width and thighs perpendicular to
the floor. Rotate your thighs inward slightly, narrow your hip points,
and firm but don’t harden your buttocks. Imagine that you’re drawing
your sitting bones up, into your torso. Keep your outer hips as soft as
possible. Press your shins and the tops of your feet firmly into floor.

2. Rest your hands on the back of your pelvis, bases of the palms on the
tops of the buttocks, fingers pointing down. Use your hands to spread
the back pelvis and lengthen it down through your tail bone. Then
lightly firm the tail forward, toward the pubis. Make sure though that
your front groins don’t “puff” forward. To prevent this, press your
front thighs back, countering the forward action of your tail. Inhale
and lift your heart by pressing the shoulder blades against your back
ribs.

3. Now lean back against the firmness of the tail bone and shoulder blades.
For the time being keep your head up, chin near the sternum, and your
hands on the pelvis. Beginners probably won’t be able to drop straight
back into this pose, touching the hands to the feet simultaneously while
keeping the thighs perpendicular to the floor. If you need to, tilt the
thighs back a little from the perpendicular and minimally twist to one
side to get one hand on the same-side foot. Then press your thighs back
to perpendicular, turn your torso back to neutral, and touch the second
hand to its foot. If you’re not able to touch your feet without
compressing your lower back, turn your toes under and elevate your
heels.

4. See that your lower front ribs aren’t protruding sharply toward the
ceiling, which hardens the belly and compresses the lower back. Release
the front ribs and lift the front of the pelvis up, toward the ribs.
Then lift the lower back ribs away from the pelvis to keep the lower
spine as long as possible. Press your palms firmly against your soles
(or heels), with the bases of the palms on the heels and the fingers
pointing toward the toes. Turn your arms outwardly so the elbow creases
face forward, without squeezing the shoulder blades together. You can
keep your neck in a relatively neutral position, neither flexed nor
extended, or drop your head back. But be careful not to strain your neck
and harden your throat.

5. Stay in this pose anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute. To exit, bring
your hands onto the front of your pelvis, at the hip points. Inhale and
lift the head and torso up by pushing the hip points down, toward the
floor. If your head is back, lead with your heart to come up, not by
jutting the chin toward the ceiling and leading with your brain. Rest in
Child’s Pose for a few breaths.