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This short sequence is designed for anyone who wants to get started with a short, gentle home yoga practice. This sequence is a great complement to our Low Back Care Practice and Mini Restorative Practice because it focuses on upper body flexibility, strength and balance, which are not addressed by the other sequences.
Although I originally designed this practice, Baxter reviewed it and made a modification—so it is officially Dr. Baxter Bell approved. We both hope you enjoy the practice!
Releasing tight shoulders is important for the upper back and neck health, and is an important antidote for time spent in front of computers, driving, gardening, or other activities where you are reaching forward all day. If you have limited range of motion in one shoulder, just do the best you can, even if that means, for instance, taking your hand only half way up the wall rather than all the way. To make the sequence shorter, you could skip some of stretches (and alternate on different days of practice).
This pose is a wonderful all-over stretch because as it opens your shoulders it also stretches the sides of your torso, and, if you straighten your knees, it stretches the backs of your legs as well. It’s a perfect warm-up for standing poses!
Warrior 1 and Warrior 2 are classic standing poses that improve your balance (due to their wide leg stance), build leg strength (due to the bent front knee) and increase upper body strength (due to holding arms out to the side or over head). Practicing these as mini vinyasas (moving in and out of the poses with your breath), will improve balance and agility, and are a gentle versions of these poses. (Though this is not as strengthening as holding the poses for extended periods.)
For the Warrior 1 vinyasa, if you can’t hold your arms overhead, you can keep them in Namaste (prayer position) in front of your chest or place your hands on your hips.
4. Tree pose.
Depending on your self confidence and your ability to balance, you can do this pose in any number of ways. If doing the pose in the middle of the room causes stress, stand in Tadasana (Mountain pose) with your left side near the wall. Shift your weight to the your left leg—if needed use your left fingertips on the wall to balance—and lift your right foot into any of the following positions:
toes of the right foot on the floor, rest of the foot off the floor
right foot on top of your left foot— but try not to have your right toes touch the floor
sole of the right foot pressing against your left calf
sole of your right foot pressing against your left thigh (above the knee)
This pose releases back muscles that are stiff or sore from sitting at a desk or from traveling, or from everyday activities that stress the back, such as gardening and painting, and increases the rotational mobility in your spine. Twisting also helps nourish the spine—movement of the spine helps maintain the health of the discs—and also strengthens the bones themselves as your back muscles pull on the bony insertions of the spine. And it also strengthens the oblique muscles of your core. If you have a history of low back problems, please do this pose with a block between your thighs and twist only from the navel on up.
Resting your calves on a chair with a support under your pelvis puts your body into a slightly inverted position, so the blood flows from your legs down toward your heart making this pose a very calming inversion, which is also very restful for your leg muscles. If the support under your pelvis irritates your lower back, you can simply do the same pose without it.
NOTE: If you're reading this on the day it was posted, keep your eye out for a second post that recommends a weekly routine (including this sequence) that would be beneficial for anyone with back problems or who just wants to start practicing yoga at home.
Addiction is a continued repetition of a behavior or practice or action despite adverse consequences that is beyond voluntary control. People with an addiction do not have control over what they are doing, taking or using and thus resort to an addictive behavior that interferes with daily responsibilities including family, work, relationships, or health. People with an addiction cannot control their addictive behavior; they become completely dependent or preoccupied with the substance or behavior, and may not be aware that their behavior is out of control thus causing problems for themselves and others. Examples of addictions include but are not limited to smoking, drug abuse, exercise addiction, food addiction, sexual addiction, computer addiction and gambling. The difference between addiction and habit is clear. Addiction is a psychological/physical component where the individual is unable to control the aspects of the addiction while a habit is done by choice and the individual is in a position to stop it successfully if he or she wants to. Habits do not have adverse consequences or a serious psychological/physical component as with an addiction.
Furthermore, with addictions, the body and the mind “wire in” the continuous repetitive task by incorporating it as a “normal” function. This creates the conditions of tolerance and withdrawal. When the addiction is to smoking or drug abuse, the body continually adapts to the substance and requires increasingly larger doses to achieve the distinctive effects. This is “tolerance” On the other hand, “withdrawal” refers to physical and psychological symptoms that arise when reducing or abstaining from the addictive behavior on which the body has become dependent. Withdrawal symptoms kick in due to biochemical and hormonal imbalances due to the lack of the addictive behavior. Thus, an addictive behavior may be associated with an immediate gratification but is also characterized by a delayed harmful effect (short-term reward versus long-term penalty).
The consequences of an addictive behavior on the body and brain include a large range of injuries, health problems, brain damage, and birth defects. Substance abuse and dependence trigger negative outcomes including injuries, illnesses, accidents, domestic violence, disabilities, medical problems and death. Treatment options include self-help groups, detoxification-inducing drugs to combat addiction, antibody therapy, vaccine therapy, and deep brain stimulation among others. However, true recovery is a very long journey. Some individuals will remain steadfast, some will relapse, and some will always be “chronic relapsers.”
But now there’s the good news that rehabilitation therapies that use yoga and meditation are likely to have a higher success rate when it comes to helping overcome addiction and relapse. The practice of yoga and meditation exert positive influence on addictive behaviors and helps addicts to understand their true nature. In addition, yoga and meditation helps addicts develop a detached awareness of thoughts since any attachment to them becomes the cause for suffering. Individuals with an addictive behavior and who have a regular practice of yoga and meditation have less blame and disrespect toward themselves and exhibit more respectful, caring, and loving behaviors.
Yoga and meditation also appear to be beneficial in specific type of eating disorders that constitute addiction as they change the addict’s perspective of their own disturbing personalities. In one such study, Exploring the therapeutic effects of yoga and its ability to increase quality of life, female yoga practitioners not only exhibited positive feelings and sense of well-being but they also reported less self objectification, greater satisfaction with their body images and reduced messy eating attitudes compared to non-yoga practitioners. Similarly in a recently published paper A computational hypothesis for allostasis: delineation of substance dependence, conventional therapies, and alternative treatments, a group of scientists used a computational model of addiction, a literature review and an in silico experiment to suggest that rehabilitation strategies that include yoga and meditation with drug and behavior therapies are more helpful than all other methods to help people overcome addiction. The authors argue that a combination therapy that include yoga and meditation alter the reward-anti-reward states of the addict’s neural network system, which in turn help to provide higher cessation rates and lower relapse rates. In addition to overcoming addiction, yoga and meditation also stimulate the three aspects of healthy aging namely: decreased morbidity, independence and mental equilibrium or equanimity (see Meditation: Effects on Gene Expression). What a cheap but effective method to empower ourselves. A perfect New Year’s resolution is to incorporate yoga and meditation into our lives! Don’t you agree?
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