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How Yoga Stopped Me From Killing My Husband

By on June 4, 2014
How Yoga Stopped Me From Killing My Husband

By the Go Fit Gals

I have never been accused of being a woman who is tolerant. It’s not that I’m not nice, it’s just that I don’t have a lot of patience for stupidity. And there is a lot of stupidity in this world.

 

Risse is the tolerant one of the Go Fit Gals. She is the one that has the patience of Mother Teresa on a bad day (come on, nobody can top ol ‘Mother Teresa on a good day).

 

She is good cop to my bad cop, and it works. Our working relationship has been in perfect harmony since the day we meet.

 

That is until I started recently practicing yoga.

 

This Is Your Brain On Yoga

Yoga is started for many different reasons, depending on the person. Some start for the spiritual aspect, others to increase their flexibility, while some even start to meet members of the opposite sex (true story, a good friend of mine has done that). I started yoga to help me sleep and along the way I seem to have experienced another benefit of yoga – patience and calm.

 

This positive effect to my mood is nothing new to researchers. Since the 1970’s yoga has been studied for it’s mood-altering abilities. Doctor’s of both traditional and Western medicine have prescribed it as a form of treatment to help sooth anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mild forms of depression and even pain management.

 

In 2010 researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine found that yoga was far more superior to walking for anxiety and depression.

 

The study used two groups of participants. Group one performed yoga three times a week for an hour, while group two walked for the same duration.

 

At the onset researcher’s used a magnetic resonance spectroscopic (MRS) to measure each of the participant’s GABA levels in their brains. Low GABA levels are associated with depression and other anxiety problems. After 12 weeks they re-evaluated the participant’s levels again and found that both groups had increased levels of GABA, with the yoga group self-reporting the greatest improvement in mood.

 

The researchers concluded that further research should be done about yoga and mood, and that yoga should definitely be considered as a potential therapy for certain mental disorders.

 

 

Online Yoga Made Easy

For the past month I have been practicing yoga at least 5 days a week. While we have some amazing yoga studios locally I have been using the website  www.myyogaonline.com.

 

This amazing website streams high quality yoga, Pilates and meditation classes for a small monthly fee. Whether you are a beginner, or an advanced yogi, looking for relaxation poses, or poses to open the hips, or to help you sleep, this site has it all. I love it and cannot say enough great things about it.

 

Each evening I pull out my mat, bring up the website on my iPad and I strike a pose (or two).

 

Loving Husband Is Also Benefiting

In the past month I have noticed an easier ability to fall asleep (thanks to yoga), as well as the obvious, increased flexibility. What I wasn’t expecting, though, was the change in my mood.

 

I guess my GABA levels have increased. Case in point the other evening while I was cooking dinner for loving husband. He walked in and looked at the pan of food that I was stirring and commented “that looks disgusting”.

 

Now, the old non-yoga PJ would have stabbed his eyeballs out with the dull wooden spoon that I was holding. So, what did the new yoga-PJ do? She just laughed and agreed with him.

 

Uh. I think I am onto something with this yoga-thing.

 

go fit gals tight head shot white shirtsThe Go Fit Gals are your experts in fitness and nutrition for women from new mommies to menopause. They provide the coaching and the inspiration to get their members strong, healthy and confident through our unique online programs based on eating clean and training dirty.

 

 

References:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Mental_Health_Letter/2009/April/Yoga-for-anxiety-and-depression

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100819112124.htm

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24677282

 

 

Links:

Go Fit Gals

http://www.gofitgals.com/

 

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