stress can you think of some things in
your life that create stress come on
raise your hands and this is why I’m
here to talk to things talk to you about
things that create relaxation I’ve been
teaching people to relax for the past
twelve years through teaching yoga and
most of my teaching is to people
becoming studying to become yoga
teachers as you complete our 200 hour
yoga certification course and what I’m
going to share with you in the next 200
breaths is the essence of what I teach
in the 200 hour course so although it
may seem like the path to relaxation is
by lowering stress I’d like to you to be
open to the possibility that the path to
relaxation is by doing things that
increase relaxation in a similar way
that defining health is the absence of
illness limits our ability to become
healthy or defining happiness is the
absence of sadness limits our ability to
find happiness if we define relaxation
as the absence of stress we limit our
ability to bring relaxation into our
lives there’s more to being healthy than
simply not being sick there’s more to
being happy than not being sad and
there’s more to relaxing and simply
lowering stress so instead of one system
stress system that goes up and down
there’s actually two systems that go up
and down in tandem we know these as a
sympathetic nervous system in the
parasympathetic nervous system
sympathetic nervous system often
referred to as fight or flight and this
is other accuser term energized and this
is stimulated when we find ourselves in
a stressful situation when we’re moving
towards a energized state our heart rate
goes up respiratory rate goes up and
blood pressure goes up to prepare the
body for acts
perhaps what we’re not as familiar with
though is that in order to do this the
body diverts energy away from our
digestive immune and cognitive functions
which all decrease the other system the
parasympathetic nervous system often
referred to as rest or digest
I like these term relaxation and this is
stimulated when we feel safe and
comfortable when we’re moving towards a
relaxed state the heart rate goes down
and blood pressure goes down while the
digestive immune and cognitive functions
all increase so we can stimulate this
relaxed state we can stimulate this
energized Inked we can stimulate the
parasympathetic nervous system we can
stimulate the sympathetic nervous system
we’re not taught this in school I know I
was not taught this I was taught that
the autonomic nervous system was
autonomous that it could not be
controlled well it may be literally true
we cannot tell our heart rate to go down
cannot tell my heartbeat to go faster
but I can’t influence and direct the
autonomic nervous system by choosing
activities that stimulate this
relaxation state or choosing activities
that stimulate this energized state we
do it all the time whether we’re aware
of it or not so let’s do an experiment
and see if we can stimulate this energy
State
can you feel this shift towards an
energized state right so if I’m able to
make a choice and stimulate your
energized response imagine the choices
you can make to stimulate your energized
response what are some other things that
create stress in our life that stimulate
this energized response what are some
things that may keep you up at night or
the other things that create stress in
your life perhaps it’s small things like
waking up to an alarm clock or feeling a
sense of rush or urgency as you get
ready and drive to work perhaps it’s an
extra project or – or deadline that’s
coming perhaps it’s some relationship
challenges that you have that are
causing some stress in your life it’s
great that we can have this energized
response in the body because otherwise
we’d never get anything done but it’s
not healthy to be stimulated all the
time with chronic stress in fact it’s
very very unhealthy
statistics show that 75 to 90% of
doctor’s visits are for stress-related
reasons so that’s 90% of the times that
we go to the doctor because we’re in a
stress State were stimulated and would
cause these challenges with our health
so we need some ways to stimulate this
relaxation response and bring relaxation
that’s better right relaxing music will
often stimulate this relaxation response
there’s many other things that can
stimulate this relaxation response in
the body taking a warm bath mindfulness
meditation journaling guided imagery
practicing yoga getting massage taking a
walk breathing the fresh air
drinking herbal tea hopefully well we
all have a few things in our life that
what I’d like to share with you now are
two simple breathing techniques that
stimulate this relaxation response
I call them breathing techniques but
really they’re relaxation techniques how
perhaps we could even call them
connection techniques because they allow
us to connect with the deeper part of
ourselves in those times when we start
to get pulled away from stress by stress
so if you will we could all stand up
we’re just going to be up for one or two
minutes breathing maybe 12 breaths
together it’s so simple and yet so
powerful of of all the things that I
teach in the 200 hour course this these
two minutes are the most important thing
that I share with people and that’s why
I wanted to share with you with you
today so the first thing we’re going to
do is breathe with our belly the idea is
when we breathe with our belly it
stimulates this relaxation response it
stimulates the parasympathetic nervous
system when we breathe and we breathe
with our and our chest moves it
stimulates the energized response so we
can bring our hands on our belly one or
both hands just going to take five
breaths we can inhale the belly out and
exhale the billion inhale push the belly
out and exhale the belly in
a couple more times inhale belly ow and
exhale belly in inhale belly ow exhale
so again when we breathe in our really
moves it stimulates relaxation response
the other way we can stimulate the
relaxation was response with our breath
is by exhaling so every exhale we
stimulate this parasympathetic nervous
system in every inhale we stimulate the
energized response so we’re going to do
what I call the extended exhale and
exhale for a longer period of time than
the inhale the same amount of air is
coming in and out otherwise we wouldn’t
be able to do it very long but we’re
going to exhale more slowly so we’re
going to exhale for a longer period of
time so going to inhale for a count of 3
and exhale for a count of 6 so standing
tall heart open shoulders back you can
have the hand on your belly or not
either way can close the eyes if you’d
like I’m just going to inhale 1 2 3 and
exhale 1 2 3 4 5 6
inhale 1 2 3 exhale 1 2 3 4 5 6 inhale 1
2 3 exhale 1 2 3 4 5 6 inhale 1 2 3
exhale 1 2 3 4 5 6 and one more on your
just take a moment and check in with
your state are we moving towards a
relaxation state or moving moving
towards an energized state we can all
sit down thank you so much for taking a
moment to share the breath with each of
the core teaching of yoga is that when
we quiet the mind we can act from a
place more connected to our heart not
only are we more connected to the heart
but the cognitive ability of the brain
increases when we’re in this quiet state
it’s like the mind is not concerned with
the concern of survival and we can see
connections instead of divisions and
solutions instead of problems and love
instead of fear doing this simple
relaxation technique can bring us one
step closer towards quieting the mind
when we find ourselves moving in the
other direction moving towards an
energized state remember it decreases a
cognitive ability and it increases our
primal reactions and in most of our
modern-day stress situations this is
where we get into trouble the part of
the brain responsible for self-control
is compromised our instincts go
unchecked and the rational thought
process nearly ceases we go into a state
of total reactivity where the primal
part of the brain will do just about
anything to change a situation and this
is where I believe we find ourselves at
some of the most important tipping
points in our lives we find ourselves in
challenging situations with the least
support from our brains when we need the
most creative and thoughtful solutions
we actually get the opposite we get our
instinctual survival reactions and these
reactions will often make the situation
even worse I’m sure each of you can
think of some moments in your life when
you were in this state and said things
you did not mean
and made choices you later regretted
it’s in these moments when we need a way
to change our state from a sympathetic
stress state to a parasympathetic
relaxed state because when we shift
towards a relaxed state we regain the
cognitive ability of the brain and we
regain the connection to our heart and
instead of escalating the situation we
can de-escalate the situation as we find
solutions from a place of calm from a
place of connection thank you [Applause]