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Workplace yoga does indeed lower stress levels

4/13/2019

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Lisa Rapaport  4 MIN READ

People who get to do yoga at work may be less stressed out than their peers who don’t, a research review suggests. 
People practice Yoga on International Yoga Day in a port of Tel Aviv, Israel, June 21, 2018. REUTERS/Corinna KernAt any given time, as many as one in six working people suffer from stress and other symptoms related to mental illness, researchers note in Occupational Medicine. Yoga is one of many approaches a growing number of employers are using to combat stress and improve workers’ mental health, but research to date has offered a mixed picture of how well these efforts are working. 
For the current study, researchers examined data from 13 trials with about 1,300 participants. Some workers in these trials were randomly assigned to participate in workplace yoga programs while others were not. 
Yoga didn’t appear to influence heart health, but workplace yoga did have a positive effect on mental health and in stress reduction in particular. 
“Yoga at work could be one of the chosen programs to reduce stress levels, and usually requires low investment, with minimal equipment,” said lead study author Laura Maria Puerto Valencia of the Bavarian Health and Food and Safety Authority in Munich, Germany. 
It’s hard to say, however, how much the yoga itself is responsible rather than the workplace culture at companies that were willing to give workplace yoga a try, said Puerto Valencia said by email. 

“Usually a company that allowed or planned a randomized controlled trial of yoga at work is interested in reducing stress levels, increasing job satisfaction and productivity; in consequence, it could be a place with a lower stress environment (compared to) other companies in general,” Puerto Valencia said. 
Still, more companies are expanding their approach to occupational health to include not just efforts to avoid accidents and injuries but also services to promote mental health as well as good eating and exercise habits. And the results should encourage companies to include yoga as part of their approach to workplace wellness, the study team concludes. 
Mind-body medicine can include a range of health practices that combine efforts to focus the mind, control breathing and move the body in ways that promote relaxation. Yoga is often a component of this approach to wellness. Regular yoga practice has long been linked to better sleep, lower blood pressure, and improvements in mobility and flexibility. 
However, the study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove how yoga might directly alter stress levels. Researchers also didn’t calculate the magnitude of stress reduction caused by yoga across all of the smaller studies included in the analysis. 
“The take-home message seems to be that yoga is a good practice in the workplace as a means of reducing stress,” said Stacy Hunter, a researcher at Texas State University in San Marcos who wasn’t involved in the study. 
Workers who don’t get yoga on the job can still find a way to practice, Hunter said by email. 

“Even if yoga classes aren’t provided in the workplace, simple pranayama (yogic breathing) techniques can be practiced at a desk in a cubicle or an office,” Hunter advised. “While most studies in this review included yoga postures, slow, deep, yogic breathing has also shown to elicit a relaxation response which could contribute to a reduction in stress in the workplace.” 
SOURCE: bit.ly/2VrU8RQ Occupational Medicine, online March 14, 2019.
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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How to practice Mindfulness Meditation

4/9/2019

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How to Practice Mindfulness
Becoming more aware of where you are and what you’re doing, without becoming overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around you.
BY MINDFUL STAFF DECEMBER 12, 2018 GUIDED MEDITATION
Mindfulness is a natural quality that we all have. It’s available to us in every moment if we take the time to appreciate it. When we practice mindfulness, we’re practicing the art of creating space for ourselves—space to think, space to breathe, space between ourselves and our reactions.
When we practice mindfulness, we’re practicing the art of creating space for ourselves—space to think, space to breathe, space between ourselves and our reactions.
What You Need to Know Before Practicing Mindfulness:


You don’t need to buy anything. You can practice anywhere, there’s no need to go out and buy a special cushion or bench—all you need is to devote a little time and space to accessing your mindfulness skills every day.
There’s no way to quiet your mind. That’s not the goal here. There’s no bliss state or otherworldly communion. All you’re trying to do is pay attention to the present moment, without judgment. Sounds easy, right?
Your mind will wander. As you practice paying attention to what’s going on in your body and mind at the present moment, you’ll find that many thoughts arise. Your mind might drift to something that happened yesterday, meander to your to-do list—your mind will try to be anywhere but where you are. But the wandering mind isn’t something to fear, it’s part of human nature and it provides the magic moment for the essential piece of mindfulness practice—the piece that researchers believe leads to healthier, more agile brains: the moment when you recognize that your mind has wandered. Because if you can notice that your mind has wandered, then you can consciously bring it back to the present moment. The more you do this, the more likely you are to be able to do it again and again. And that beats walking around on autopilot any day (ie: getting to your destination without remembering the drive, finding yourself with your hand in the bottom of a chip bag you only meant to snack a little from, etc.).
Your judgy brain will try to take over. The second part of the puzzle is the “without judgment” part. We’re all guilty of listening to the critic in our heads a little more than we should. (That critic has saved us from disaster quite a few times.) But, when we practice investigating our judgments and diffusing them, we can learn to choose how we look at things and react to them. When you practice mindfulness, try not to judge yourself for whatever thoughts pop up. Notice judgments arise, make a mental note of them (some people label them “thinking”), and let them pass, recognizing the sensations they might leave in your body, and letting those pass as well.
It’s all about returning your attention again and again to the present moment. It seems like our minds are wired to get carried away in thought. That’s why mindfulness is the practice of returning, again and again, to the breath. We use the sensation of the breath as an anchor to the present moment. And every time we return to the breath, we reinforce our ability to do it again. Call it a bicep curl for your brain.
That’s it! That’s the practice. You go away, you come back, and you try to do it as kindly as possible.



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