Pajamasana™

Yoga for a better bedtime

April 9, 2011
by Heidi Kyser
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Sleep tight, dear dieters

If there’s a little more of you than you love, make sure you’re getting plenty of sleep and keeping your stress level low. According to researchers from Kaiser Permanente, that may help you shed the extra pounds.

That’s what a team of physicians led by Charles Elder found in a recent study, according to the results they reported in the International Journal of Obesity.  Over the course of six months, they tracked the behavior and progress of 500 Kaiser Permenente patients in Oregon and Washingon who were trying to lose weight. The participants received diet and exercise instructions, attended weekly meetings that included weigh-ins and kept records of what they ate and how they slept and felt each day.

No surprise: Those who exercised regularly (the recommended amount was 180 minutes per week) and reduced calorie intake (recommended, 500 fewer per day) lost weight. Surprise: Those who got between six and eight hours of sleep and reported the lowest stress levels were the most likely to lose the most weight — 10 pounds or more.

Elder and his team concluded that getting the right amount of sleep and reducing stress can turbo-charge the usual diet plan.

“Some people may just need to cut back on their schedules and get to bed earlier,” he said. ” Others may find that exercise can reduce stress and help them sleep. For some people, mind/body techniques such as meditation also might be helpful.”

Participants who lost 10 pounds or more during the study moved on to phase two, where the effectiveness of alternative techniques, such as acupressure, was measured when used in combination with traditional techniques. Elder and company will be reporting the results of phase two later. They’ll also be tracking the study group for another six months to see how well participants keep the weight off.

March 17, 2011
by Heidi Kyser
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Groups call attention to sleep’s importance

A long night’s sleep may not be the favored topic of conversation in a city that makes bank keeping people up all night to dance, drink, gamble and watch shows, but two sleep-focused organizations are doing their darndest this month to get people around the world, including Las Vegans, to pay attention to the importance of good sleep.

On March 7, the National Sleep Foundation released the results of its 2011 Sleep in America Poll suggesting, among other things, that more than 40 percent of Americans don’t get enough sleep, and that using electronics such as computers and smart phones in bed may be to blame.

The foundation dubbed March 7-13 National Sleep Awareness Week, timing it, pointedly, to coincide with Daylight Savings Time. The foundation also is holding its Sleep Health & Safety conference March 17-18 at the JW Marriott in Washington, D.C. There, health care and public safety professionals will present research on topics such as the latest insomnia cures and effects of fatigue on society. You can follow the conference’s Tweets here.

Meanwhile, the more international crowd at the World Association for Sleep Medicine have named March 18 World Sleep Day. The event this year is focused on promoting healthy sleep among children.

“In children, the effects of bad sleep may become permanent and alter both physical and mental growth,” says Antonio Culebras, co-chair of World Sleep Day and a professor of neurology at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, N.Y., in a video on the event’s Web site.

The association partnered with Philips Electronics to create SimplyHealthy@Schools, a module that educators can use to teach kids the importance of good sleep. They encapsulated this in 10 Commandments of Healthy Sleep for Children, including a few pieces of advice that may surprise some parents:

  1. Make sure your child gets enough sleep by setting an age-appropriate bedtime and wake time.
  2. Set consistent bedtime and wake-up times on both weekdays and weekends.
  3. Establish a consistent bedtime routine and recommend wearing comfortable clothes in bed, including strong absorbing diapers for infants.
  4. Encourage your child to fall asleep independently.
  5. Avoid bright light at bedtime and during the night and increase light exposure in the morning.
  6. Keep all electronics, including televisions, computers and cell phones, out of the bedroom and limit use of electronics before bedtime.
  7. Maintain a regular daily schedule, including consistent mealtimes.
  8. Have an age-appropriate nap schedule.
  9. Ensure plenty of exercise and time spent outdoors during the day.
  10. Eliminate foods and beverages containing caffeine.

Prying your kid’s laptop out of his hands at 8:30 p.m. every night might be challenging, but it could be worth the battle.  The association estimates that one-quarter of children in the world suffer from poor sleep, which can cause obesity, accidental injury, problems with memory, attention and learning, and emotional issues ranging from moodiness to aggression.

March 3, 2011
by Heidi Kyser
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Athletic Kids, Teams Offered $39 Physicals

Parents with sporty kids, take note: If your insurance doesn’t cover sports physicals, you can get one quickly and cheaply at CVS.

MinuteClinic, the division of CVS Caremark that provides walk-in health care services at retail outlets, announced today that it is offering $39 sports physicals inside select CVS Pharmacies across the U.S. Several Las Vegas locations of CVS are participating in the program.

Click here to find a location.

The program was timed to coincide with the beginning of sports season for children and teenagers, whose schools and athletic program require that they pass a physical examination before participating.

According to the announcement, the $39 special is available seven days a week from March 1 through May 31. Certified nurse practitioners and physician assistants who specialize in family health care will conduct the exams and fill out any necessary team forms. No appointment is required.

In addition to the individual deal, a $5 discount is available for coaches, team leaders and athletic directors.


December 7, 2010
by Heidi Kyser
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Don’t Just Move; Breathe Too

One of my closest friends gave me a T-shirt for my birthday a few years ago, and I still wear it a couple times a week, every week. It says, “just breathe,” a reminder I can never get too often.

Being a yoga teacher, I’m well aware of the benefits of pranayama (breath work). Not only do I see the good it does in my own life, but I also have been privy to many student testimonials that serve as anecdotal evidence of reduced stress, lower blood pressure, better sleep and other benefits reaped from working with the breath.

Independent studies provide mounting scientific evidence to back up the observations of yoga teachers like me. Most recently, a physician at the Cleveland Clinic has been studying the effects of breath work on the heart,  brain, digestion and immune system. A story about his work aired today on the NPR program Morning Edition. For the complete story, click here.

After listening to the story, my partner Peter asked me if pranayama was “that dragon breath thing” (he huffed a few times to demonstrate). Yes, I answered, in a way, but that’s just one of the many ways we work with, or “restrain” (yama) our breath, or “life force” (prana). There are other techniques to instill balance, energy, focus, calm and many other states.

Peter has practiced a fair amount of studio yoga, on top of what he does with me, and I was dismayed to see that he knew little about pranayama. Like meditation, mudra, mantra and other lesser-known aspects of yoga, breath work is often foregone to make more time for asana, the physical postures, in many classes and styles of yoga.

“People like to sweat,” Peter sums up from our discussion of it, shrugging as if to add, “What are you gonna do?”

What I intend to do is take to heart as a teacher this reminder of the importance of pranayama. Although all good teachers integrate breath work with the physical practice (“Inhale and raise your arms overhead; exhale and fold forward at the hips”), I believe pranayama merits some of its own dedicated time. And, apparently, the Cleveland Clinic agrees.

October 2, 2010
by Heidi Kyser
3 Comments

Flowing is not Floating: Finding grace in the pool

I swim once or twice a week, and this past week, I was reminded of an essential concept (in fact, the very definition) of Anusara® yoga: flowing with the current of grace.

I’ve been trying to work my way up to swimming a continuous mile – that’s 30 laps without stopping, by using flip-turns at the end of each length. How hard this may seem is relative. Regular swimmers do that much just to warm up. Beginners like I was a few years ago, however, find it difficult to make their way through a single lap without panicking, hyperventilating or just plain stopping.

I’ve also learned that it’s relative to other factors: how well I’ve slept, what I ate for breakfast, where I am in my hormonal cycle, things that are going on in my life, and so on. All this adds up to an adage you’ve probably heard in whatever physical activities you do: Some days are better than others. Sometimes you’re strong, fast and confident; others, you’re weak, slow and cranky.

Last Monday was one of the latter type of days for me. I felt like I was swimming through corn syrup. The harder I tried, the more tired I got, the harder it was to breathe.

Around lap 15, as my frustration mounted, I considered calling it a day, but didn’t really want to. If I was to keep going, I’d have to summon my yoga skills. I slowed down and shortened the number of strokes between breaths, so I could be more aware of what was happening in my mind and body.

I quickly realized that I was tense in the neck and shoulders. Remembering what a former colleague and Olympic swimmer had told me was the No. 1 rule of good swimming, I relaxed. I stopped trying to go so fast. I focused more on my breath than my movements for a few lengths. Soon, the corn syrup turned back to water and I was in the soothing, meditative rhythm that, for me, swimming is at its very best.

The interesting part is that I’d kept swimming throughout the transition; I was balancing effort where it was needed with surrender where it was needed. I was flowing with the current, instead of against it.

It was a good illustration of flowing with grace, as I understand this Anusara concept. You see, flowing  is not floating. I recall John Friend explaining it at the 2008 Anusara Grand Gathering in Estes Park, Colo. If you step into a moving current and don’t move, he said, the water will sweep you away. If, on the other hand, you paddle too hard, you wear yourself out and get swept away anyway.

Or, as he writes in his teacher training manual, “Effort (tapas) without surrender or opening to grace (ishvara-pranidhana) creates an inner hardening and a loss of sensitivity… Conversely, openness to grace without self-effort reflects itself in a lack of action and discipline. In this case, one waits for god to do all the work.”

Yoga happens where effort and surrender strike a balance. In that space, there is unlimited potential for self-knowledge, creative movement and contentment. In that space, before you know it, you’ve gone a mile and still feel great. Isn’t that how we want to not only swim our laps, but also live our lives?