Psy 230 Week 8 Life Lab

Yoga is a comprehensive system of mind/body techniques that is thousands of years old. Its techniques are designed to improve physical and mental health and well being, and include such practices as physical postures and stretching, breathing exercises (pranayama), focused concentration, meditation, visualization, and chanting (mantra) (Desikachar, 1999; van der Kolk, 2014).

From the obvious and widely-reported physical benefits to the researched, studied, and documented healing powers, and mental and emotional benefits. So, when we look to yoga's effects, especially on the brain, it's not exactly surprising to find that there's benefits there, too.

In the article from The Atlantic Magazine, entitled “Why One Neuroscientist Started Blasting His Core”, James Hamblin taps into the hot topic of stress relief methods; specifically through exercise, at the forefront of popular media today. To provide an avenue through which to do so, he tells the story of a neuroscientist by the name of Peter Strick. Due to the way Strick’s brain works, he was initially unable to accept the commonly made claim that activities, such as yoga, have a direct impact on an individual’s stress level without concrete facts and reasoning backing this up. While both directing his intriguing, informative material at the scientific community and the general population enveloped in the pull of the media, Hamblin leaves

Muralidoraiswamy, P. “Yoga on Our Minds: A Systematic Review of Yoga for Neuropsychiatric Disorder.” Shirleytelle Frontiers in Psychiatry, Jan. 2013. This article focuses on the physiological aspect of a yoga class. It essentially explains what happens in a person’s brain after going through a hatha yoga class. This study also talks about yoga as a long-term mental health solution, since typically yoga is a life-style. Overall, the study provides a scientific look at more personal experiences.

For many people with hectic, stressful lives, relaxation means zoning out in front of the TV at the end of the day or getting some extra sleep at the end of the weekend, but for a certain group of people relaxing does not include this. These people are called yogis; those who achieve relaxation through the art of meditation, breathing, stretching, and finding inner peace. In today’s fast paced society it is hard to find a way to fully relax because people are constantly being forced to push their minds and bodies to the limit, which can result in high levels of stress. Rather than fighting against life’s hardships, people who practice yoga value deep relaxation in order to be free of stress and live each day in peace and harmony

- Follow along videos make sure that you see how to do the yoga poses in a safe and correct way

According to the Osteopathic.org website, yoga is proven to provide physical benefits of the human body, including increased flexibility, increased muscle strength and tone, improved respiration, energy and vitality, maintaining a balanced metabolism, weight reduction, cardio and circulatory health, improved athletic performance, and protection from injury. Not only are there physical benefits to yoga, but also mental benefits such as improving a person’s mental health and is proven to increase coping skills. Furthermore, the American Osteopathic Association states, “Regular yoga practice creates mental clarity and calmness; increases body awareness; relieves chronic stress pattern; relaxes the mind; centers

While yoga intervention focuses on breathing and physical exercises that combine movement, muscle relaxation, and meditation. Furthermore, this study operationally defines anxiety as the occurrence and intensity of feelings of nervousness, increased heart rate, hyperventilation, sweating, trembling, trouble sleeping, and having an impending sense of danger and panic. Broadly, this research proposal would like to investigate the effects of music therapy and yoga on anxiety, and brain activity related with anxiety in patents with

This article shows the psychological and neuroendocrine responses to Hatha yoga and African dance. The participants were sixty-nine healthy college students ranging from ages 17-24. The students were to participate in one of the three 90-min classes: African dance (n=21), Hatha yoga (n=18), or a biology lecture (n=30). First, a 14-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was used to measure the perception of stress among the students before and after participating in the activities. Next, a Positive Affects and Negative Schedule (PANAS)

Ashtanga Yoga- This type of yoga consists of a unvarying sequence of poses. Ashtanga yoga requires strength and perseverance.

Cardiovascular disease is a global burden and by changing risk factors such as increasing physical activity and reducing stress by relaxation can lower the incidence of the disease (Hartley, Dyakova, Holmes, Clarke, Lee, Ernst, & Rees, 2014) The study had 800 participants with high risk factors of the cardiovascular disease and were recruited to 11 study trials. After eight months of this ongoing study, Hartley and Colleagues (2014) found that any form of yoga showed reduction in the systolic and diastolic blood pressure, triglycerides, and an increase in high-density lipoprotein. Since patients with the cardiovascular disease are unable to perform rigorous exercises, yoga was concluded to be an ideal choice for them. Participants, who

Yoga has been associated with stress. The larger the amount of stress a person has, the less likely that person is to feel in control of themselves and their surroundings. Yoga has also been linked to a person’s health and wellbeing. During a one week experiment, a researcher did yoga once a day at 7:00 pm for a half hour. A survey was taken twice, in hour intervals, after the yoga session was completed, at 8:30 pm and 9:30 pm. The surveys are what was used to find the data that created the results of the experiment. One type of yoga, integrated yoga, was used throughout the week. The results concluded yoga helps relieve stress for one hour after the session was completed, but was stressed again shortly after that hour was finished. Different styles of yoga classes could be offered and more times could be made available at the Elmen Center. Yoga is currently offered at 4:30 pm in the Back Alley, but more class times could be 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm. Different styles include hot yoga, iyengar yoga, or hatha yoga. To improve evaluations, a person could add questions about their level of stress before and after the yoga class. These improvements will allow researchers to see if the results are true for the majority of people.

A type of yoga that focuses primarily on the breath is viniyoga; which also uses chanting, pranayama, and asana techniques. Asana is a relaxing type of yoga that includes many resting poses and pranayama are breathing exercises. Ashtanga is a fast paced yoga and the inspiration for many power yoga classes you can find at the gym. Bikram is hot yoga, which is generally practiced in a room that is generally heated to over 100 degrees (McCall 106-113). Kripalu is different from other forms of yoga because it places importance on emotions, physical sensations, and thoughts that arise during practice. The way we think and react during practice is an example of the way we respond to people and act out in our everyday life ("Kripalu" 4-5). Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy is a practice where the instructor moves your body into a number of positions while you remain passive. There are many other types of yoga as well including; kundalini, anusara, triyoga, savasana, tantra, and gym yoga (McCall 110-113).

* Ashtanga – This yoga is for those who want a serious and physically demanding workout. “It involves synchronizing breathing with progressive and continuous series of postures-a process producing intense internal heat and a profuse, purifying sweat that detoxifies muscles and organs” (Mats, LLC, 2013). Not recommended for beginners.

The health behavior that was chosen to promote during our campaign was yoga. We encouraged students, staff, and faculty members at Knox College to partake in yoga classes offered by the school in order to reduce stress and target a particular health/illness outcome. The main physical health/illness outcome targeted in this campaign was reduced blood pressure. Yoga is also seen to improve cardiovascular health. We chose to focus on the benefits of yoga to improve blood pressure and cardiovascular health instead of just one or the other because most of the studies that we found while researching mentioned both decreased blood pressure and improved cardiovascular health occurring from practicing yoga.