Yoga Therapy Can Help with Stress and Anxiety

Our bodies respond to demands and threats through stress.

Stress can help us to stay focused, finish a task, or react quickly when in danger. The stress hormones produced by our bodies can be helpful in real "fight or flight" situations. A surge of cortisol and adrenaline can be life-saving when we run away from a large, aggressive dog or try to win a race. Unfortunately, our bodies have difficulties recognizing a physical danger from an emotional one. We react to an argument with a coworker in the same way as if we were in a life-or-death situation.

Many of us live in constant stress, which causes most of our systems to switch to survival mode.

Chronic stress suppresses the immune system, which makes us more susceptible to various diseases. This type of stress significantly increases our risk of stroke or heart attack. Our digestive and reproductive systems are compromised. Our muscles get tense, and stress may manifest as back pain, neck pain, headache, or jaw-clenching. Also, we get more prone to mental disorders such as anxiety or depression.

Unfortunately, often, there is not much that we can do about the things that cause stress. We have to pay the bills; we won't change the way other people behave; we won't magically cure a family member of cancer.

But, we can learn how to respond to stress more sustainably, in a way that won't hurt us. We can reprogram ourselves to recognize when the stress response can be helpful and when it can be useless and hurtful.

Yoga Therapy offers tools that can help with stress reduction and lowering anxiety. As a Yoga Therapist, I use breath, movement, and mindfulness techniques to help my clients respond to chronic stress more healthily.

Do you feel like stress and anxiety are taking over your life? If therapy or drugs don't fully solve your problem, schedule a FREE Phone Consultation with me. Yoga Therapy may be your answer.