Sam Harris: Mindfulness is Powerful, But Keep Religion Out of It

Sam Harris is the author of :  Waking Up

"Meditation is interrupting the continuous conversation we are having with ourselves."

What is the Breath? 

By: Vidyamala Burch and Danny Penman

"In many cultures breath possesses a sacred significance. The Greeks called it psyche ‘pneuma’, meaning ‘breath’, ‘soul’, ‘air’ or ‘spirit’. In Latin ‘anima spiritus’ means ‘breath’ and ‘soul’, while in Japanese, ‘ki’ means air or spirit; and in the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit, ‘prana’ is the life force coursing within us that ceases at the moment of death. In Chinese, the character for breath (hsi) contains three characters meaning ‘of the conscious self or heart’, suggesting the breath that enables you to be alive and conscious also brings mental and emotional vitality."

Yoga and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

An Interview with Bessel van der Kolk, MD and  Integral Yoga Magazine

IYM: How did you get interested in Yoga for the treatment of PTSD?

Bessel van der Kolk : I began my own practice six years ago.  I was looking for a way for people to regulate the core arousal system in the brain and feel safe inside their bodies. My interest came from doing research that discovered how trauma affects the brain. Yoga turned out to be a way to get people to safely feel their physical sensations and to develop a quiet place of stillness. 

Lots of yoga cites claimed that yoga could change basic brain functions, but that was based on intuition, not scientific investigation.  So I decided to see if Yoga can positively affect the core regulatory mechanism in the brain.  Some trauma-sensitive people can feel frightfully unsafe experiencing the sensations that are evoked by certain asanas.  What most people don't realize is that trauma is not the story of something that awful that happened in the past, but the residue of imprints left behind in people's sensory and hormonal systems. Traumatized people often are terrified of the sensations in their own bodies.  Most trauma-sensitive people need some form of body-oriented psychotherapy of bodywork to regain a sense of safety in their bodies.  More from the interview here.

A Systems Perspective on Chronic Pain By: Todd Hargrove

"Our healthcare system is amazingly good at dealing with acute injuries.  It has a long way to go in treating the global, systemic and complex problems that are currently the biggest health problems we face -- obesity, diabetes, chronic pain, etc.

We can understand the essence of these problems betters with the systems perspective, and hopefully this will allow us to see that these problems will not be solved by highly specific interventions like pills, gogi berries, or foam rollers.  They will require blunt, nonspecific, but effective instruments for regulating systemic health -- diet, exercise, sleep, and stress regulation.  These are the fundamentals that get ignored in favor of magic bullets and quick fixes."

Who Owns Yoga? w/ Bhanu Bhatnagar

Reporter Bhanu Bhatnagar  investigates Who Owns Yoga? through interviews in the west + east. Yoga Dork recaps it here.

Make Your Soul Grow - Kurt Vonnegut

"What I had to say to you, moreover, would not take long, to wit: Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow."

(Kurt Vonnegut responds to high school children at Xavier High School in this letter. This is an excerpt from that letter.)

Conversation with Judith Hanson Lasater

It's all yoga baby : Judith Hanson Lasater's Holiday Survival Tips

NY Times: Less Talk, More Therapy By: Jessica Wolf

"When Ann E. presses into fascia that has become gummed up like glue, holding parts of our insides where they don't rightly belong, her touch somehow "dissolves" the gooeyness and allows the fascia to revert to its original light, fluffy nature. With each of these releases, the "necklace tangle" loosens and our bodies can start to sort out the mess that has been accumulating for so many years.

As I discovered on the first day, she rarely works where the pain is. She says that the body provides here a map of where it's really hurting, pulling, stagnant, frozen, and she starts there, unfurling one little piece of the necklace ball, so that the body can begin its own organic process of unwinding itself back to health."

Bessel Van Der Kolk: Restoring the Body: Yoga, EMDR, and Treating Trauma

Book:The Body Keeps the Score

Krista Tippet's conversation with Bessel Van Der Kolk Onbeing.org  

Photo Credit: Dr. Kenneth Hansraj/Surgical Technology International 

CBS News: Texting your way to back pain

"The average adult head weighs 10 to 12 pounds when it's in the upright or neutral position. However, because of that pesky thing called physics -- gravitational pull -- the cranium becomes heavier the more you bend your neck. Several times heavier, according to research from Dr. Kenneth Hansraj, chief of spine surgery at New York Spine Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine, which will be published in Surgical Technology International."

X-Ray Body in Motion - Yoga

Hybrid Medical Animation

Arthur Boorman - Inspirational Transformation

Arthur Boorman was a disabled veteran of the Gulf War for 15 years, and he was told by doctors that he would never be able to walk again.  He stumbled upon an article of Diamond Dallas Page doing yoga and decided to give it a try. With guidance and encouragement from Diamond Dallas he transformed his health and well-being.

How to get naked with your doctor: Dr. Pamela Wible at TEDxSalem

                      

                           

Dr. Pamela Wible shares how she changed the way she practices medicine. Pamela describes her own medical clinic with zero staff members and how she began spending more time with her patients.  Read: When Doctors Commit Suicide It's Often Hushed Up.

Yoga for Larger Bodies - Animated Documentary 

Hot or Not? Possible Benefits & Precautions of Hot Yoga 

By: Chrys Kub

The Best Commencements Speeches all in ONE PLACE via NPR! 

Plants, Lungs, Life - Blossom

Artist: Travis Bedel, Anatomical Collage

Yoga + Meditation Increase Resilence. What Does That Mean?

According to Merriam Webster
re-sil-ience
ri'zilyens
noun: resilience; plural noun: resilences

1. the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity

2. the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness

Medical Related Definition:

1.  the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress

2.  an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change < emotional resilience>

Synonyms: rebounding, quick to recover, pliable, springy, stretchy, snapping back

Ayurvedic Theory by Matthew Remski in Seven Bullet Points

1.  We consist, roughly, of two parts: a feeling part, and a conscious part.

2.  The feeling part is a unique combination of elemental qualities and movement patterns we may call "constitution". It is the basis of the conscious part.

3.  Constitution can harmonize or clash with its natural and social environment, whether by conscious choice or by circumstance.

4.  Not paying attention to sensual feedback, internal rhythms and environmental changes prematurely weakens first vitality, and then immunity.

5.  As immunity weakens, the natural strengths of structure (kapha), metabolism (pitta), and coordination (vata) express their shadows: congestion (k), inflammation (p), and disorganization (v).

6.  Good digestion is the root of feeling health and conscious health.

7.  Pleasure, transparency, and resilience are its flowers.

Onbeing.com - Krista Tippett podcast with Brene' Brown -

The Courage to Be Vulnerable

What might be holding us back from being vulnerable per Brene' Brown?

- Perfectionism

- Judgement of Self

- Wearing exhaustion as a badge of honor

- Desire to be "cool"

- Quest for certainty

- Comparison

Image by : Doug Neil

Yoga for Osteoporosis - An Interview with Loren Fishman MD and Ellen Saltonstall on Yoga U

By: Eva Norlyk Smith, Ph.D.

Excerpt:

Eva Norlyk Smith: How does yoga help counteract osteoporosis?

Loren Fishman: Well, let me count the ways. Most people have heard of Wolf’s law: The architectonic, the structural support of bone, follows the lines of force to which that bone is exposed. When bone cells get stimulated through being compressed or twisted or elongated, they produce more bone mass until that bone gets strong enough, to resist the pressure. At that point the pressure no longer distorts the bone, and the bone-making cells stop making more. What a wonderful feedback system.   In osteoporosis, the bones bend more, so pressure is more effective in stimulating the cells to make bone.

In short, like weight training, yoga works by stressing the bone.  Yoga stimulates the bone with isometric contraction at almost every conceivable angle for long periods of time.

Ellen Saltonstall: What is often overlooked in modern weight-training exercise and certainly when evaluating the effects of osteoporosis drugs, is that there is a difference between structure and density. Dexa scans will get a measurement of density, but they tell us nothing about thestructure of the bone. Dense bone mass on its own doesn’t necessarily provide protection against fractures; unless the bone fibers are laid down in a way to provide greater strength, the bone mass is not going to be very stable It’s like the difference between a pile of steel beams and the George Washington Bridge. A bridge has been planned by engineers, so the beams, when put together, create a well-organized, completely integrated structure, which can sustain huge amounts of weight—because of the strength created by the structural interconnections.

In short, density and structure both matter for bone health.  But unfortunately, we don’t have convenient ways to measure the structure of bones as of yet. We do have straightforward ways to measure the density. The osteoporosis drugs do work, they reduce the risk of fracture considerably, but the functional limitations of just building bone mass without proper structure and strength are completely ignored.

Is Your Yoga Teacher Full of It? : On Perspiration and Misinformation 

By: Richard Pallardy

Good Life Project : Conversation with Sakyong Mipham

Good Life Project

A visual study/exploration of the body in motion with a focus on yoga poses

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Found at : Hybrid Medical Animation

Yoga and the Breath  By: Doug Keller

"Breathing seems simple --you breathe in and you breathe out. But there are patterns to our breathing that are of our own creation, and these patterns are often artificial strategies for dealing with events in our lives."

5 Top Take-Aways from The Medical Yoga Symposium at The Smithsonian in Washington D.C.

Siddha Pratima Yantra Western

India, dated 1333 (Samvat 1390)

Bronze, 21.9 x 13.1 x 8.9 cm

Freer Gallery of Art, F1997.33

Linda Lang of Greater Washington curated a 2-day symposium in conjunction with the exhibition of Yoga: The Art of Transformation at the Freer & Sackler Galleries.  The symposium showcased evidence based research on the elements of yoga therapy.  Here are five major take-away points of the symposium lectures and presentations.

1.  Dean Ornish, MD delivered the keynote speech on Day 1 and shared 4 lifestyle changes that can help reverse heart disease and early stages of prostate cancer.  He discussed the following four factors:

• Plant based diet
• Exercise
• Stress Management  (Yoga + Meditation)
• Love & Support *

2.  Richard Miller's iRest program of yoga nidra is a research based transformative practice which effectively reduces : PTSD, Depression, Anxiety, Insomnia, Chronic Pain and Chemical Dependency. It is widely used with veterans, military hospitals and beyond.

3.  Sat Bir Singh Khalsa PhD, a Harvard professor and researcher presented data on  positive effects of the relaxation response.  The relaxation response enhances : energy metabolism, mitochondrial function, insulin secretion, telomere maintenance and reduces the expression of genes linked to inflammatory response and stress related pathways.

4.  Amrita McLanahan, MD, a holistic medical physician and keynote speaker of Day 2 shared that one yoga class releases oxytocin in the body. Oxytocin makes one feel : Belonging, Seen, Connected and Heard.

5. NIH and NCCAM (National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine) are conducting research on the effects of yoga on health. If you are interested in research, please contact: info@nccam.nih.gov.

Research Study Shows Weight Loss with Restorative Yoga

Maria G. Araneta, PhD, MPH, of the University of California, San Diego conducts a NIH funded study to reasearch the effects of restorative yoga on weight loss.

"Both groups lost weight, with the restorative yoga practitioners losing more, an average of 1.3 kg at 6 months compared with 0.7 kg for the stretch group. Significantly, the yoga group maintained the reduction, with the average weight loss reaching 1.7 kg at the 48-week mark, even when controlling for BMI."

"One explanation for the difference may be that restorative yoga reduces levels of cortisol, which rises during times of stress and is known to increase abdominal fat. Contacted in August, Araneta said her team is reviewing data on cortisol, and results will be released later in 2013."

Restorative Yoga Sequence by: Scott Blossom on Yoga Journal

Harvard Yoga Scientists Find Proof of Meditation Benefit

"John Denninger, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, is leading a five-year study on how the ancient practices affect genes and brain activity in the chronically stressed.  His latest work follows a study he and others published earlier this year showing how so-called mind-body techniques can switch on and off some genes linked to stress and immune function."

Yoga: The Art of Transformation

October 19, 2013–January 26, 2014

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

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Medical Yoga Symposisum January 11-12 in Washington D.C.