Causes of Tiredness and How Yoga Can Help

Causes of tiredness can range from one single event like jet lag to lifestyle and mental health.

Everyone wants to have more energy. The first problem to solve is identifying the cause of extreme fatigue. The next step is finding a solution to the problem.

Yoga therapy can be a huge help with these 3 causes of excessive tiredness: (1) Lifestyle, (2) Insomnia and (3) Depression.

Lifestyle

Stress can act as agent to wear the mind and body down. As you become more run down, what increases is a garden variety of health conditions and more tiredness. What lifestyle pattern is creating stress for you? Can you make a decision to change it?

To manage symptoms the solution is clear. Yoga has been used around the globe. While many people are tapping into yoga as a form of exercise, it can be used as wellness in holistic ways because of the balancing effect. It stimulates as well as relaxes the entire body mind.

Yoga therapy (much more than yoga as exercise) is one of the purest forms of holistic healing since its concepts and practices go deeper than managing symptoms. They get to the root of stress. Yoga is able to alleviate symptoms from virtually anything the body is enduring. And the good news is anyone has the ability to use yoga as therapy, regardless of what shape the body is in.

Insomnia

If you're tired during the day, have trouble falling asleep and/or staying asleep, try these strategies before bedtime for an insomnia cure. Have a warm bath with a few drops of lavender. Soothing music adds to the ambiance. Avoid TV and electronic gadgets 2 hours before sleep. Practice yogic breathing, that's deep breathing. Read a book; not a suspense thriller, a book on the boring side.

Regarding deep breathing, if your breath tends to be chronically short you have to correct this. Place one or both hands on your abdomen and tune in to the wave-like movement of your breath. Spend 5 to 10 minutes like this. It can help to deepen your breathing.

Depression

If you are dealing with depression one challenge is to get moving; to exercise when you don't feel like moving. If you are using conventional therapies, for sure continue to do so and practice yoga if you like yoga.

Standing poses with movement in arms and legs reduce that stuck feeling and encourage a feeling of ease and flow. Play your favorite music to energize and make your spirit rise. And when it's time for relaxation at the end, the tense and release technique might prove to give both stimulation and relaxation.

Have you found it difficult to develop a regular yoga practice? Why not start with small bite size pieces. Establish a short daily practice; no more than 30 minutes and as little as 10 minutes. The important thing is you start.

Yoga therapy is a cure for excessive tiredness caused by lifestyle, insomnia and depression. But you have to practice.

How Yoga Can Help You Lose Weight Easily And Enjoyably

There are many reasons why yoga is so popular with people trying to lose weight - one of the main reasons is that it WORKS! Here are three ways that yoga helps you to start losing weight easily.

1. Yoga relaxes your body and mind.

Being overweight is an indicator that something is out of balance in your life. Excess stress is a big factor that contributes to weight gain.

Yoga is an easy way to help you relax. When you practice yoga, you bring a deep sense of relaxation to your body and your mind. As you relax, you begin to ease the stress in your life, and weight loss will begin to happen naturally.

2. Yoga assists detoxification.

Being overweight is a sign that your body is high in toxicity. Detoxifying your body can help you to lose weight for good.

When your body is toxic, it means that your detoxification organs (such as your liver and kidneys) may not be working effectively. When these organs aren't working optimally your body will tend to hold on to excess weight.

Doing yoga is an excellent place to start detoxifying your body. Yoga tones up the inner organs and helps them to work optimally again. Breathing deeply during yoga is an important part of detoxification.

There are specific poses in yoga that assist detoxification, such as yoga twists. Self massage in yoga is highly recognized in the East as a powerful tool for detoxification.

3. Yoga helps release stuck emotions.

What most weight loss experts won't tell you is that being overweight almost always has an emotional component.

In everyday life, we often address negative feelings with food or other addictions. Used in this way, food is used to numb or suppress feelings. Left unaddressed, these "pent-up" feelings can become stuck in the body.

Yoga is one tool that you can use to access and release these stuck emotions. Many people describe walking out of yoga class with an incredible feeling of lightness.

Being on the yoga mat gives you the opportunity to notice your feelings. Not only does yoga help you to notice how you're really feeling, it also helps you connect with your personal power so that you have the courage and confidence to express how you feel.

Yoga is a powerful healing tool as it aids relaxation, promotes detoxification and helps release stuck emotions. Based on my own experience, I can personally recommend yoga as a path to losing weight naturally and keeping it off for good!

Benefits of Yoga For You

Learning the benefits of yoga will make you understand that yoga is not just about the poses- it is really about how you are breathing, the mind and body connection that you feel and how it can be tailored to your specific health situation. You will look at yoga in a whole new light. Yoga helps managed your mood. Whether you are experiencing depression, menopause or just not feeling your usual self yoga can help.

Yoga is an exercise that relaxes the mind, calm the nerve and soothe the senses. It challenges your physical body in the same manner as it challenges your mental state. After a class of yoga practice, you should feel a great sense of being, being present, knowing that you took some time to get to know you again.

The Benefits of Yoga:

You might want to know that yoga really does benefit you both mind an soul.The list to all the health benefits of yoga is very extensive. The ancient practice of yoga is not just for the new age yuppies but now even medical doctors are beginning to see the benefits and are prescribing yoga for patients that might be suffering from:

• Traumatic experiences
• Insomnia
• Stress relation issues - whether it be marital relations or job related stress
• Anxiety
• Persons who cannot tolerate psychiatric medication
• Severe mood swings

And the beauty of yoga is that you go at your own pace. You do yoga for you. You are not in a class or a private session to please anyone but yourself. You listen to your body and you let it lead.

You learn to relax and let go and as you do this your practice become easier and you feel a sense of self connection when you are done. Before you know it you will become a regular yogis, practicing regular.

And once you begin to see the changes that occur in your life, whether you stop feeling so stress or you begin to sleep better or you realize just how much better your relationships have gotten, you will be hooked.

The practice of yoga balances out your moods and create a calmer version of you. You begin to notice your change and soon others around you begin to notice the change too.

By practicing each day, you soon will begin to see the benefits of yoga and how it changes your life in a very gradual and subtle way.

Kids Yoga Stories Can Benefit Your Child Immensely

They say bringing up a child is like moulding soft clay with our own hands. As a parent you therefore have to be careful about what you are teaching your child. Children are impressionable and eager to learn and if you give them the right kind of education and environment they will grow up to be strong, self-reliant individuals. Education is far from imparting bookish knowledge today, it has to be holistic in the true sense of its word and yet be simple enough for little children to enjoy the process of learning.

A great educational tool to teach kids

One such great educational tool parents can use is yoga stories. Your children need exercise and there yet has to be a child who does not love stories, so why not combine the benefits of both? Yoga stories will not only help your kids improve their health and flexibility it will spark their eager imagination senses as well. There are a lot of certified yoga trainers today who specialize in kids' yoga who say that such stories are immensely beneficial for children between the ages of two to eight.

Yoga stories are constructed in a manner to engage and encourage the children to get moving while having fun and learning all the way. Yoga stories can be practiced in a number of creative ways. Let's illustrate with an example that can be used on toddlers or young children between the ages of 3-5. Find a big bag and put in all sorts of stuffed toy animals in them. You can then ask each child to speak about a visit to a zoo and weave it in a story format.

Each child gets to pick toy animal and mimic its pose. A yoga expert who has to supervise this activity will see that the child does each pose correctly. Before you know it you will find that the kids are having a whale of time acting out the story and letting their imaginations go wild! There are several such yoga places that conduct special programs like the ones mentioned above. Such stories teach young minds not just about animals, but about different people, places and cultures.

Develops physical and creative capabilities of a child

Learning yoga in a creative way like this will help the kids develop an awareness about their bodies and improve their motor skills. The focus of this innovative way of learning is not to teach children about the perfect yogic postures, it is about promoting an attitude of kindness and gratitude. Through such programs children learn the benefits of sharing, cooperation and acceptance.

It has been noticed that children who learn through yoga stories are able to build their strength and flexibility over time. These kids are much less prone to throwing tantrums and turn out to be relaxed and calm as well as develop a keen sense of confidence and self-expression.

If you are a parent who is encouraging your kids to learn through yoga stories, do not pressure your kids to learn perfect postures or to focus on things such as losing weight. You should just encourage them to have fun in the best way they can.

Yoga and Health Benefits

Most people who actually benefit from Yoga are those who practice, and continue to practice. Often times beginners try Yoga once and never again. They do not see how doing stretches or putting their body in uncomfortable poses helps their life. Here are 5 reasons why us Yoga lovers love the practice:

1. Yoga Relaxes:

When you practice yoga, your full attention is required. The practice allows you to detach from your long, hard day and turn in. For an hour or so, your practice requires you to be in the present moment. Most of the day, we are busy working, or making plans, or thinking about where we need to go, what we need to do... During this hour or so, your mind must focus and detach from all those things that you did or have to do because in order to do any pose, or listen to the instructor's direction, you need to pay attention. By leaving your work load behind or skipping through your thoughts about your "must do's," for that hour, you are clearing your mind. When your mind is clear, you can better reflect on the past, plan your future, and enjoy your present moment.

2. Yoga Strengthens the Body:

Yoga is workout - Of The Mind! There is no doubt that Yoga postures and poses strengthen your muscles and help you lose weight and manage cellulite. It also depends on how often you practice (on and off your mat). Practicing on a regular basis will strengthen those more than others. Yoga allows you to learn about your own body. Which poses can you do? Which poses do you like or dislike? It teaches you your physical limitations, physical capabilities, and physical preferences. How can you strengthen your body without first learning about your very own first? By practicing, you are able to find out if you are a back-bender, arm balancer, or both! I can tell you, I never considered myself flexible before I began to practice Yoga. Over time, I discovered that I am much more flexible than I thought (in my body and my mind)! Being flexible and open in the mind, allows you to be flexible and open in your body. Try it, you have everything to gain.

3. Yoga Strengthens the Mind:

Simple- "Healthy Body = Healthy Mind." Yoga offers us the tools that help us think clearly. You say, "How can going upside down help me clear my mind?" Well, actually, going upside down reverses your blood flow to your brain which washes out the old and pumps the new and fresh. Besides that, the practice of Yoga (asana) has everything to take with you off your mat. For example, as you practice, one goal is to keep your body engaged, yet soft. We call this Sthira-Sukha. (Sthira - Firm and Alert) and (Sukha- Ease and without Tension). Sound like a piece of cake? Think again. Our practice helps us to find this balance because by finding this balance, we can advance our practice. Otherwise, poses simply remain poses. Think about how this could benefit life outside your mat. In your workplace, employers favor those who have the ability to lead, be strong and firm, speak up, be quick (qualities that Sthira brings) BUT- they also need those who remain calm during crisis, have problem-solving abilities, are polite, communicate well with others (qualities that Sukha brings). Wouldn't having both benefit you in your work place? Absolutely.

4. Yoga Teaches you to Prevent:

Not only does Yoga help you reflect and sort out all of your issues (even the ones you did not realize you had), but it also helps you to prevent future problems in your life. Yoga enhances your thinking skills. Sometimes, we like to do things over and over again and hope or expect a different result each time (definition of insanity). I know that I am guilty of it as well! Yoga practice is that little light bulb that pops in your head and tells you, "hey, maybe I should try something different since this clearly is not working." So, you may ask, "how can doing a yoga pose possibly help me with this!?" Here is why: Since the poses teach you about your body, they also teach you how far you can go or if perhaps you have gone too far. If your body does not feel good in a pose or causes you pain, you are asked to COME OUT and try a different or modified pose that is better for your body. See the connection? A lot of times these concepts are not even noticed. We begin to say, "Yoga feels good, puts me in a better mood, changed my life.. etc" It is because as we begin to practice, we begin to recognize the things that are getting in our way and we recognize them more quickly than before, then by having a clear mind, we take action. Over time, this becomes a prevention tool.

5. Yoga Changes Old Habits:

You know those bad habits you have and find a very hard time stepping away from them? Well, here is where Yoga can help you in that area of your life. Yoga practice makes you recognize all sorts of things about yourself that you did not know. Simply because, as mentioned before, it requires your full attention. Once you learn about yourself, you recognize your habits (the good and bad ones). As you may know, the first step in changing anything is recognizing the problem. In this case, recognizing your bad habits. Sometimes we are not fully aware of our habits. So how can we change them if we do not even know we have them? By practicing Yoga, we learn about our body, preferences, and our health. Naturally, paying close attention to ourselves is like studying our own self and seeing ourself through the eyes of the world outside of us. This is not so easy to do, especially if we are so caught up in our stressful and busy lives. As we practice over time, we become extremely sensitive to notice everything about ourselves and that is when we clearly recognize our habits. To go into more depth, we begin to recognize how we could possibly make our habits better or shift things in other areas to help balance out the things that we cannot change. For example, excessive smokers or drinkers who wish they could stop their habits may find it almost impossible to let go. Working with your body, over time teaches the concept of "letting go of that which does not serve me." Over time, with practice and most importantly commitment, change will come and it will come naturally.

Namaste.

An Insider Look at Workplace Wellness Through YOGA: How Yoga Boosts Productivity and Performance

In today's busy business world, staff and managers continue to push harder and faster in hopes of achieving more. But does more effort and constant pressure really drive better business results? Research shows the opposite, revealing that employees who are calm, centred and focused are more creative, more productive, better communicators and become better leaders. Workplace wellness is proving crucial to improving performance. Yoga has taken hold of the business world as it offers a fun, convenient and affordable way to enhance company wellness, helping staff and managers ease stress, tame their emotions, sharpen their minds, improve productivity and boost performance.

Q: Why are companies bringing in yoga?

A: Research shows that for every dollar a company invests in wellness, it saves $3. That is a 200% ROI. Nowadays more companies are realizing that constantly pushing harder and faster actually sabotages productivity and performance. What boosts results is wellness and so, a long list of companies has launched initiatives to nourish their staff's wellness. When they do, they are seeing that people make better decisions, communicate better, are more focused and more productive. Yoga is popular because it is fun, effective and affordable, it can be tailored to any skill level and it also provides helpful tools and insights staff and managers can use on their own.

Q: What's the biggest frustration companies are seeing today with their staff?

A: Managers I speak to say they are frustrated because it has become harder to keep great talent. Employees are stressed and overwhelmed. Burnout and absenteeism are on the rise. And today, if they're not happy, great employees may just quit and join the competition. What employees are looking for today is a workplace where they feel valued, and a workplace that takes care of them in which they can thrive. If the corporate atmosphere is one of stress or pressure, if work is draining, people lose motivation, they burnout, they stop showing up, or they quit. We are seeing a complete change in what people want from their work and companies are now launching initiatives to promote wellness and make their company more attractive to job seekers. It is good for employees, good for the company and good for the shareholders. Employee wellness is now a strategic corporate objective because it pays off.

Q: So why do people hire you to teach yoga in their offices?

A: My classes have become popular with Montreal companies because I distill yoga into practical tools and principles for busy business people. I take out the mumbo jumbo and "yoga talk" and make yoga into something anyone can use and understand. My classes aim to help staff and managers gain real skills that translate into better results. I have a Master's in International Communications and used to work in the corporate world, so I know precisely what it is like to be busy, stressed, struggling and need practical help that can be put into practice immediately to get more with less effort.

Q: What are the greatest benefits staff and managers receive from yoga?

A: What I hear most is that yoga allowed them to release stress and tension. They say they are calmer and more focused, and some say the corporate atmosphere actually changes when yoga classes are offered.

Companies who foster wellness see tangible benefits in employee performance, and yoga may be the most effective and affordable way to promote wellness in staff and managers. Best of all it's fun and employees love it.