Use yoga to help beat stress

Anger’s common cure has always been the deep breath, but some in the Wiregrass say it’s a fix for more than preventing a punch. Breathing deep is a key component of the art of yoga, which has been a go-to method of stress relief for thousands of years.

Mental and physical stress builds from the pressure any living thing places on itself by believing it has more to do that it can handle. Yoga’s answer to that pressure is forcing the mind to pay attention to the body. It’s basically distraction by regulation.

Laura Lee Stjernstrom opened Studio Y in Dothan six years ago, but has known and practiced yoga for about 17 years. She learned a style of yoga called Hatha in New York and brought it with her to the South. Laura’s advice to you, the general, stressed-out daily grinder: focus on your breath.

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“When you focus your awareness on only one thing, like your breathing, the mind settles down,” she said. “Most people take short, shallow breaths during the day. But by voluntarily breathing in a certain way you can clear the mind of distractions and repetitive thinking.”

To Laura, yoga is a discipline, and discipline requires focus. Her version of Hatha, which translates to “willful,” incorporates numerous stretches that accompany breathing and can direct the mind to each moment as it happens. By forgetting the past and future, those distractions, and thus the stress, can evaporate.

Of course, quieting the brain’s chatter for even a short time isn’t a simple task. Kim Briand, owner of Everyone’s Yoga in Enterprise, knows that much is true.

“It sounds easy but it’s not,” Kim said. “The average person can listen to his or her breathing for about one minute before their mind wanders off.”

Kim’s been licensed to teach yoga for about a year. She teaches different types but, like most others in the area, prefers Hatha. Yoga, she said, lowers heart rate and blood pressure and helps to take and reduce the production of stress hormones. Like Laura, Kim’s stress-reducing style also focuses on breath, but her descriptions are more visual. Her intent is to give the mind even more of the present to dwell on.

“I tell my students to imagine their bodies as a pitcher and the breathing is how the pitcher is emptied and filled, from the bottom up and then the top down,” she said.

Laura said through participation in yoga the body develops a shorthand method toward relaxation – the opposite of stress. To help, she teaches a position called Sivasana at the end of every class.

For the layman, here’s how it’s done: Lie on your back with legs straight, arms down and palms up. Close your eyes and focus on breathing deep. And don’t let your mind wander.

“It’s like making a child take a nap for his own good,” Laura said. “Adults need to be told to rest too.”

Kim suggests the Downward-Facing Dog position for the yoga beginner. She called it a very active pose but said it’s still considered as resting. For a simplified version, see the Wall Dog pose in the slide show below.

To Kim, Laura and many others across the region, Hatha yoga teaches that by learning to focus inward, to pay attention to your breathing, you inadvertently learn to ignore the rest of the world. But you won’t more than the first few minutes to start seeing yoga’s benefits to stress management.

Essentially, yoga’s lesson is to cut the mind’s chatter and the weight you’ve been carrying will become a little easier to manage.

Try it out with Laura Lee Stjernstrom