Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Mind Body Solutions for Stress and other Maladies

Statistics has never been my favorite subject. In college it was a required course for my psychology degree, but I was never a fan. Lately however I have been paying attention to a certain group of statistics: how many people  in America are taking prescribed medication. It's hard not to pay attention!

I quote: “Aside from the dramatic rise of medications to treat ADHD over the past decade, the use of antianxiety drugs soared between 2001 and 2010. In children up to age nineteen , the use of antianxiety medication increased 45 percent in females and 37 percent in males...In 2010, the most recent data indicated that more than one in five adults was on at least one medication, up 22 percent from 10 years earlier. More than a quarter of the adult female population is on these drugs …..Eleven percent of Americans over age twelve take antidepressants...the number of women in their forties and fifties who have been prescribed antidepressants is a whopping 23 percent.”  David Perlmutter,  MD in Grain Brain.

We are in a national crisis and it seems only some seem to notice!

So what can one do besides taking a pill to relieve stress, cure  insomnia, gain control over anxiety or   diabetes and combat depression? Well both Yoga and Judaism would look to a Mind-Body solution.

Both Kaballah and Yoga see the human being in a wholistic way, mind and body  connected, one affecting the other, so movements of the body effect the mind and  thoughts and beliefs of the mind affect the health of the body.

Judaism teaches that corresponding to 248 limbs of the body, are 248 positive actions that the body was created to do in the world. Each body part has been created to help the human fulfill his or her  purpose, for example the mouth was given  to articulate prayer and blessing, the ear to hear specific holy sounds etc.

Corresponding to the  365 arteries  and veins  in the human body are 365 negative commandments, instructions  we fulfill by not doing, i.e. holding back from an action. All of these negative commandments   correspond to something that might engage our passion or instinct…. we don’t commit adultery or we hold ourselves back from stealing….these desires correspond to the blood pathways or passions and instincts of a person.

So one form of investigation regarding out of control stress or anxiety is to look at one’s actions and try to ascertain if they are in keeping with one’s higher purpose…. are we not sleeping at night because we feel unfulfilled regarding our actions during the day…. are we stressed because we feel ambivalent about the value or morality of our actions ?

Another method of engaging the body to solve issues of the emotions or the psyche is YOGA and Yoga Therapy.

By engaging the body in conscious movement and in breath work,  we can relieve  stresses and tensions we may be experiencing even if we don’t fully understand the causes of them.

Some people have spent years in conventional therapy and are simply either tired of talking about their problems or are finding that talk therapy is no longer helpful or is just not addressing the issue at hand. Yoga therapy can be a very helpful alternative.

Many clinical trials have shown and proven that Yoga and Meditation can be even more effective in treating many of the conditions mentioned above than medication.
While exerting ourselves physically and taking our mind off our problems and getting connected to our breath and movement , we release the stress and tensions that have lodged themselves into our bodies

For me personally I feel Yoga has been my own “medication of choice”. In order to combat the stresses of everyday life, Yoga  always leaves me feeling more relaxed and less stressed than when I began.

For many,  a regular yoga class may be all that one needs to get the varied benefits of Yoga, however for some suffering from more complex issues, or those contemplating taking a medication for stress, anxiety or insomnia, (just to mention a few examples) , a yoga therapy session with a qualified and dedicated Yoga Therapist may be just the thing needed!

Call for a free consultation:
917 821-0694
Bracha Meshchaninov,
RYT 500 and Certified Yoga Therapist.
For a list of all classes check :TiferetMovement.com

Thursday, October 1, 2015

The Holy Hug




 Just because I felt I wanted to add some further musings on Sukkot:

After all the "work" of cleaning out our garbage on a soul level and coming to a place where we are ok with who we are and in relation to our inner selves, our souls and with G-d....Sukkot offers us an amazing opportunity.... to be in a truly Holy Time and while sitting in the sukkah, to be in Holy Space....

If we view Sukkot as an opportunity to live the way we always wish we could;
being positive
accepting ourselves;
seeing the good in all that happens to us;
loving ourselves and loving G-d( cos we fixed all the bumps in the relationship right..)
loving others as true "sistas" and brothers...because we see their Divine spark
etc, etc,....then Sukkot becomes a little idyllic  Garden of Eden, and for just a week we practice being and staying in this ideal state.

What does living in Gan Eden feel like? It is feeling our dependence on G-d, feeling our true essence and feeling what's it's like to be nurtured and constantly in the embrace of G-d!  The holiday offers us a little time capsule, in the romantic analogy, it's the Honeymoon week ( with G-d as our Partner)  where we are free from our normal obligations to be able to focus on the goodness of everything,  and our ability to be "in flow"  as part of that picture... and all that can only happen after all the work that came before! ( No Honeymoon without a Wedding!)

Kaballah teaches us that the greenery used as a covering on top of the Sukkah is a manifestation of all our prayers and hard work of Yom Kippur... and being in the Sukkah, entering into the Divine Hug that we spoke about, is the experience of where all that hard work brought us!

It's my favorite holiday, and one of my peak experiences of it, is the Women's gathering in my Sukkah, which I do every year as I love it so! It's our chance to share, sing and learn and be together!

All of us coming together in a spirit of unity is also part of the ideal vision of how it should be all year round. On Sukkot we get this special opportunity to really create a template that hopefully can serve as an inspiration and guide  for the whole year that follows.

Our teachers compared the high holiday season and the month of Tishrei to the experience of going to the market place and stocking one's basket with all the necessities of spiritual service we will need in the year to come...
Rosh Hashanah we gather the Subservience and Commitment that will serve us for the whole year, on Yom Kippur we acquire  the experience of  intimacy and feel the ONEness with our Creator and on Sukkot we stock up on joy.  The Sukkot holiday  allows us to experience the pleasure of living and feeling what it's like to be in a perfected relationship.On Sukkot we get to feel the closeness of having dropped our  baggage, resentment or blocks that we may have experienced before the work of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. On Sukkot because we have worked to be in touch with our real true selves, we can authentically  experience the intimacy of feeling surrounded and "Hugged" by Hashem. The  sukkah is also an experience of feeling  nurtured and taken care of by Hashem as it is a  recreation of the clouds with which G-d protected us on our 40 year hike through the desert (while we were wandering towards the land of Israel).

So, before it's over, I encourage you to stock up your baskets and backpacks and really soak it all up, because there are only a few more days left  of this holy opportunity. The Sukkah itself is the ideal place to experience all of the above, but the time is auspicious too, so where ever you happen to be, connect to the holy opportunity of the moment and feel the joy, feel the harmony, be in sync with your higher selves and with G-d and just enjoy that sublime pleasure!!

Sending love and of course hugs... 
With blessings,
Bracha.