Category Archives: Yoga Research

Nadi Sodhana (Alternate Nostril) Breathing to Overcome Depression

A Note from Tracy:  Research has proven that yoga is an effective tool to help overcome depression, according to  this article recently published in Harvard Health Publishing.  Effective yoga practices to combat depression are about more than movement, however.  Breath and meditation are equally, if not more, important.  In this series of articles, I will share six practices (some movement, some breath, and some meditation) from my series Overcoming Depression with Yoga.  Enjoy!

According to the yoga teachings, the nadis are energetic pathways that are similar to meridians in Chinese medicine.  The simple breath practice below balances these energy pathways, which is especially important when trying to overcome depression.  Try this breath practice, and let me know what you think!

Nadi Sodhana (Alternate Nostril) Breathing:

  1. This breath practice must be done seated. Begin by sitting comfortably on a chair or on the floor with the spine in a neutral (extended) position.
  2. Lengthen both the inhale and exhale, making them approximately equal.
  3. After several breaths, begin the alternate nostril breathing technique described below.
    • Raise your right hand, folding down your index and middle finger, as in the photo above. Seal your right nostril at the bottom of the nostril flap with your right thumb.  Partially valve the left nostril with your ring finger near the cartilage. Inhale through the partially valved left nostril.
    • At the end of the inhale, close the left nostril with the ring finger and partially valve the right nostril at the groove near the sinuses.  Exhale through the partially valved right nostril.
    • Inhale through that same valved (right) nostril.
    • Seal your right nostril at the bottom of the nostril flap with your right thumb. Partially valve the left nostril with your left finger and slowly exhale through the partially valved left nostril.
  4. For the next 12 breaths, continue this process, changing the valved nostril  with each breath.
    • Inhale through a partially valved left nostril
    • Exhale through a partially valved right nostril
    • Inhale through a partially valved right nostril
    • Exhale through a partially valved left nostril
  5. Repeat this nostril breathing technique for 5 or more minutes. Always finish by exhaling through the partially valved right nostril.
  6. Release the nostril technique and take a few lengthened breaths through both nostrils.
  7. When you feel ready, take 6 or more breaths to bring your breath back to a new natural rhythm.
  8. Notice any changes you feel after this practice. What is the new natural pattern of your breath? Notice the balance of your mind and your mental focus. try to bring this awareness of breathing to the rest of your day.

This breath practice looks funny and sounds complex, but it’s actually very simple.  Give it a try, and if you have any questions, leave them in the comments below.

Enjoy, and if you’re interested in learning more about my private yoga therapy practice and yoga teacher training, visit my website at http://svanayogaseattle.com/

Tracy Weber

My newest Downward Dog Mystery, Pre-Meditated Murder is available now  in e-book and paper back copies everywhere! Check this link for some local ideas. http://tracyweberauthor.com/buy_premeditated.html

Finding Balance: A Movement Practice to Integrate the Right and Left Hemispheres of the Brain

A Note from Tracy:  Research has proven that yoga is an effective tool to help overcome depression, according to  this article recently published in Harvard Health Publishing.  Effective yoga practices to combat depression are about more than movement, however.  Breath and meditation are equally, if not more, important.  In this series of articles, I will share six practices (some movement, some breath, and some meditation) from my series Overcoming Depression with Yoga.  Enjoy!

If you ever experience mental fog or have difficulty focusing, the 15-minute movement practice below can help. It’s great for preparing the brain to study, teaching your mind to focus, or simply clearing away the doldrums.  Enjoy!

Practice in good health! Next week I’ll share a breath practice that further integrates the right and left hemispheres of the brain.  If  you’re interested in learning more about my private yoga therapy practice and yoga teacher training, visit my website at http://svanayogaseattle.com/

Tracy Weber

My newest Downward Dog Mystery, Pre-Meditated Murder is available now  in e-book and paper back copies everywhere! Check this link for some local ideas. http://tracyweberauthor.com/buy_premeditated.html

Light In, Fog Out Meditation

A Note from Tracy:  Research has proven that yoga is an effective tool to help overcome depression, according to  this article recently published in Harvard Health Publishing.  Effective yoga practices to combat depression are about more than movement, however.  Breath and meditation are equally, if not more, important.  In this series of articles, I will share six practices (some movement, some breath, and some meditation) from my series Overcoming Depression with Yoga.  Enjoy!

The meditation below helps you invite in positive energy while releasing all that doesn’t serve you.  Enjoy!

Light in, Fog Out Meditation:

  1. Sit comfortably, with your spine erect and the crown of your head floating up to the ceiling.
  2. Allow your eyes to close and notice your breath—without intentionally trying to change it. Bring your attention to the sensation of movement in your belly as you breathe in and out.
  3. After 2 – 3 minutes or whenever you are ready, begin imagining the breath as energy.
  4. Breathe in, and imagine that all of the positive energy of the universe enters your body with the breath. Visualize this energy as a pure, white light that pervades every cell and fiber of your being.
  5. Breathe out, and imagine that all your negative energies—sadness, tiredness, mistakes and misunderstandings—leave your body with the breath. Visualize these negative energies as either a black smoke or a vaporous fog that leaves with your exhale, goes out into space, and completely dissolves and disappears.
  6. When your mind is distracted by other thoughts, simply notice them. Then with your next inhale, breathe in the pure, white, positive energy and begin the meditation again.
  7. Continue this meditation for 10 minutes or longer if you’d like.

Next week I’ll share a movement practice that helps build focus and integrates the right and left hemispheres of the brain.  If you’re interested in learning more about my private yoga therapy practice and yoga teacher training, visit my website at http://svanayogaseattle.com/

Thanks!

Tracy Weber

My newest Downward Dog Mystery, Pre-Meditated Murder is available now  in e-book and paper back copies everywhere! Check this link for some local ideas. http://tracyweberauthor.com/buy_premeditated.html

Full Torso Breathing to Combat Depression

A Note from Tracy:  Research has proven that yoga is an effective tool to help overcome depression, according to  this article recently published in Harvard Health Publishing.  Effective yoga practices to combat depression are about more than movement, however.  Breath and meditation are equally, if not more, important.  In this series of articles, I will share six practices (some movement, some breath, and some meditation) from my series Overcoming Depression with Yoga.  Enjoy!

The simple breath practice below can be done seated or lying.  Doing it seated will provide a subtly more energizing effect. The practice is balanced enough that it can be done any time of day.  If you practice it regularly, you will create greater balance in your life.  (And who doesn’t want more of that?)

Full Torso Breathing

  1. Come to a comfortable seated or lying position. Place one hand on your belly below your navel and the other on your chest near your collar bones.
  2. Notice the natural pattern of your breath.   How long or short is your breath?  How full or shallow?  How smooth or rough?  Notice which hand moves first. The top or the bottom?  Do you feel more expansion in the chest or the belly?
  3. Now, modify your natural breath pattern. Imagine that you inhale into your top hand first, then then expand your belly as if you could breathe into your bottom hand. With each exhale, pull in your belly and feel your bottom hand move toward your spine.
  4. Gradually, over several breaths, lengthen both your inhale and exhale.  Continue to imagine that you can breathe into your entire torso, including the collar bones, ribs and belly.   If your inhale is longer than your exhale, shorten it until both are equal.  The inhale should not be longer than the exhale and at no time should you strain your breath.
  5. Once you reach a lengthened breath, breathe at this rate for approximately 5 minutes. With each inhale, imagine that you breathe into the top hand first, then the bottom.  With each exhale, pull in your abdominal muscles.
  6. After about 5 minutes, gradually return your breath to a natural rhythm.
  7. Notice the new natural pattern of your breath.   What differences do you feel from the beginning of practice?  How long or short is your breath now?  How full or shallow?  How smooth or rough? Do you feel more expansion in the chest or the belly than you did at the beginning of the practice?    Relish this new breath rhythm and carry this awareness of breathing to the rest of your day.

I hope you find this practice useful.  Next week I’ll share one of my favorite meditations for conquering depression.  If you’d like to learn more about  private yoga therapy  and yoga teacher training, visit my website at http://svanayogaseattle.com/

Tracy Weber

My newest Downward Dog Mystery, Pre-Meditated Murder is available now  in e-book and paper back copies everywhere! Check this link for some local ideas. http://tracyweberauthor.com/buy_premeditated.html

Gentle Movement Practice to Overcome the Blues

A Note from Tracy:  Research has proven that yoga is an effective tool to help overcome depression, according to  this article recently published in Harvard Health Publishing.  Effective yoga practices to combat depression are about more than movement, however.  Breath and meditation are equally, if not more, important.  In this series of articles, I will share six practices (some movement, some breath, and some meditation) from my series Overcoming Depression with Yoga.  Enjoy!

 

Next week I’ll share a simple Full Torso Breathing practice to help build energy and calm the mind.

Enjoy, and if you’re interested in learning more about my private yoga therapy practice and yoga teacher training, visit my website at http://svanayogaseattle.com/

Tracy Weber

My newest Downward Dog Mystery, Pre-Meditated Murder is available now  in e-book and paper back copies everywhere! Check this link for some local ideas. http://tracyweberauthor.com/buy_premeditated.html

Research Proves It: Yoga Is Good for Your Heart!

Those of us who practice yoga know first-hand its wide-ranging benefits: from increased mindfulness, to decreased stress, to reduction in pain, to weight loss. Western medical research is finally catching up.

A review of thirty-seven studies appeared in the December 16, 2014 issue of the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. The report was co-authored by Dr. Gloria Yeh, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

The effect of yoga practice on heart disease risk factors was impressive. On average, study participants who practiced yoga:

  • Lost five pounds
  • Decreased blood pressure by 5 points
  • Lowered their LDL cholesterol levels 12 points.

Researchers also noted the benefits of breath work and meditation, two often-overlooked yoga tools. Participants varied in age and ranged from physically healthy individuals to those with significant health conditions. The styles of yoga practiced were diverse, though researchers recommend styles that allow for modification. Yoga was also found to be a powerful tool in cardiac rehabilitation programs.

More information on the study can be found the February 28, 2017 article in the Harvard Health Publications blog.

Continue practicing, and go yoga!

Tracy Weber

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All four books in the Downward Dog Mystery Series are available at booksellers everywhere!

Research Proves It: Yoga Works to Reduce Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome!

IBS Letter on Brick Wall in the Back

I love learning about new research into the benefits of a consistent yoga practice, so I was delighted when a Whole Life Yoga teacher training graduate (and practicing Medical Doctor) sent me an article from the December 1, 2016 edition Family Practice News  outlining the benefits of yoga for individuals suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).  IBS is a sometimes-incapacitating digestive disorder that impacts between twenty-five and forty-five million adults in the United States, nearly two-thirds of which are female.  IBS isn’t believed to be caused by stress, but stress can significantly worsen its symptoms.

Yoga, it would seem, is the perfect tool to help.

A review of six randomized controlled trials published in the December issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology agrees. In the 273 patients with IBS studied, practicing yoga for four to twelve weeks had a similar effect as pharmacological therapies in terms of bowel symptoms, anxiety, and quality of life. More work needs to be done, but these initial results are promising.

Go yoga!

Tracy Weber

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All four books in the Downward Dog Mystery Series are available at booksellers everywhere!

Research Proves It! Yoga Improves Bone Density

Skeleton of the man. 3D the image of a man's skeleton under a transparent skin

I became interested in methods to build bone health in my early thirties.  Not coincidentally, it was the same day my first DEXA scan showed that I already had osteoporosis, likely due to excessively low estrogen levels in spite of estrogen replacement therapy.

I’ve long believed that yoga could safely help build bones, as has my teacher, Gary Kraftsow. It makes sense. After all, yoga is a low impact, weight-bearing exercise that strengthens the muscles supporting the spine, wrist, and hip, which are at particularly high fracture risk in individuals with osteoporosis.  Anecdotally, I also know that my own bone density increased from moderate osteoporosis and osteopenia (depending on the bone) to “low normal.” The increases began after I started practicing yoga–in spite of the fact that the doctor took me off of bone-building medication.

Finally, we have some research that backs us up.

The ten-year study done by Dr. Loren M. Fishman—a physiatrist at Columbia University who specializes in rehabilitative medicine—involved Iyengar postures, but I have every reason to believe Viniyoga (which uses repetition as well as “staying” in poses to build strength) would have results that are as good, if not better.

Study practitioners performed yoga poses for twelve minutes every day (or at least every other day) for ten years. The time period is important:  Bone density builds slowly. It can take years to find measurable change. According to a December 21 New York Times article:

“The findings, as reported last month in Topics of Geriatric Rehabilitation, showed improved bone density in the spine and femur of the 227 participants who were moderately or fully compliant with the assigned yoga exercises.

Improvements were seen in bone density in the hip as well, but they were not statistically significant.”

Even more encouraging, there were no fractures or significant injuries among any of the participants in the study—indicating that yoga is a safe activity even for older individuals with significant bone loss. And unlike bone-building drugs, which come with a host of gastrointestinal and other side effects, yoga gives increased strength, better posture and improved mental health.

Go forth and practice! Your body, breath, mind, and bones will thank you!

Tracy

books available

PS–all three books in my Downward Dog mystery series are now available!  Learn more at http://tracyweberauthor.com.  Thanks for reading!

Research Proves It: Meditation Strengthens Your Brain

human brain on a running machineYet another research study proves the benefits of meditation. Meditation research is hardly unusual.  This study, however, was the first to prove that meditation actually increases brain density—also known as gray matter—in as little as eight weeks!

The study appeared in the January 30th, 2011 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging and was led by senior study author Sara Lazar, who is a Harvard medical school psychology professor. Ms. Lazar and her affiliates at Massachusetts General Hospital took MRI images of study participants two weeks before and after they participated in an eight-week Mind Body Stress Reduction course. They then compared those scans to control group of non-meditators over a similar time period. The meditators self-reported spending an average of twenty-seven minutes per day on mindfulness-based activities during the study.

The results were impressive. Meditators had significant increases in gray matter density in the hippocampus—the portion of the brain associated with learning and memory. They also reported decreases in stress levels compared to the non-meditators. For more information on the study, check out this link at Harvard.edu.

And put that research to the test personally with this simple candle flame meditation.

Enjoy!

Tracy

books available

PS–all three books in my Downward Dog mystery series are now available!  Learn more at http://tracyweberauthor.com.  Thanks for reading!

 

Research on Viniyoga for Cystic Fibrosis

Woman holding tablet pc. Conept: X-ray with lungs. Isolated on white.

I co-authored a research paper!

The paper, “Yoga as a Therapy for Adolescents and Young Adults with Cystic Fibrosis: A Pilot Study,” was published in the November, 2015 issue of Global Advances in Health and Medicine.  The study was (at least as far as we know) the first to look at the safety of Yoga for individuals with Cystic Fibrosis.

The goal of this pilot study, led by Jennifer Ruddy, MD and conducted at Seattle Children’s Hospital, was to evaluate the safety and tolerability of yoga for patients with Cystic Fibrosis.

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a life-shortening genetic disease that thickens secretions in the lungs, which leads to lung infections and decreases the patient’s ability to breathe. CF secretions also limit the pancreas’s ability to release digestive enzymes. As a result, patients with CF often have difficulty digesting food. (Not unlike my German shepherd, Tasha, who has Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency.)

I was both honored and excited to design a series of sessions that would bring Viniyoga to this population of students. After all, Viniyoga’s breath-centered practice is almost uniquely designed to increase lung capacity while integrating movement with breath.

Each participant in the study completed sixteen private Viniyoga sessions taught over a two-month time period. The Viniyoga sessions were designed to be safe for individuals with mild to moderate lung disease and easily modified for the individual.

The four study instructors—Claire Ricci, Roxie Dufour, Beverly Gonyea, and Cynthia Heckman—were all Whole Life Yoga certified yoga teachers who received additional training in Cystic Fibrosis. They were given the specific yoga protocol for this study but allowed to adapt as needed for student safety. Sessions included asana (yoga poses), pranayama (breath practices), and mindful awareness.

The results are encouraging. Ten of the eleven students enrolled in the study were able to complete the two months of practice.  Out of the 160 private sessions represented by those ten students, only two adverse effects were noted that might have been related to yoga: one mild instance of calf pain and one mild headache. Even more encouraging, statistically significant improvements were seen in the CFQ-R respiratory domain score (a measure of respiratory symptoms including cough and difficulty breathing.)

More research clearly needs to be done to see the full benefits of Viniyoga for this population, but these initial results are encouraging and will hopefully pave the way for more research in the future.

One again, research shows it: Viniyoga works!

Tracy Weber

books available

PS–all three books in my Downward Dog mystery series are now available!  Learn more at http://tracyweberauthor.com.  Thanks for reading!