Stress Awareness Month

Stress. It affects everyone and in these troubling times for some, it has hit even harder.

According to the Mental Health Foundation 74% of UK adults have felt so stressed at some point over the last year they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope.

A staggering fact.

Stress Awareness Month has been held every April since 1992 to increase public awareness about both the causes and cures of our modern stress epidemic.

For this reason, all classes held in April will focus on Stress Awareness and how we can help our bodies; mentally and physically to counteract the effects of stress.

STRESS: The Facts

Stress begins with a part of your brain called the hypothalamus. When you are stressed, the hypothalamus sends signals throughout your nervous system and to your kidneys. In turn, your kidneys release stress hormones. These include adrenaline and cortisol.

It can overburden your mind. You may be flooded with thoughts about the future and your daily to-do list. Rather than focusing on one item at a time though, these thoughts bombard your mind all at once, and it is difficult to escape them.

The physical effects of stress; your fingers may shake, and your body might feel off-balance. Sometimes dizziness can occur. These effects are linked to hormonal releases — for example, adrenaline can cause a surge of jittery energy throughout your body.

Stress can make your digestive system go haywire, causing diarrhea, stomach upset, and excessive urination.

It can affect sleep; either switching off and being able to get to sleep or waking up in the early hours plagued with negative thoughts and worries.

Yoga has long been known to be a great antidote to stress. Yoga combines many popular stress-reducing techniques, including exercise and learning to control the breath, clear the mind, and relax the body.

Establishing a consistent yoga routine is the best way to experience the difference yoga can make.

The practice of yoga stretches and squeezes all that tension from your body enabling you to feel calmer and more relaxed.

In my classes, I use a regular phrase imagine the body is a dishcloth and we are ringing out all the stress, tension, and negative energy in the body.

All classes held by YourYoga in April are focused on stress and how we can combat it.

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