In order to maintain my status as a Registered Dietitian, I have to complete 75 continuing education credits every 5 years. The latest seminar I attended was addressing 6 forms of anxiety. The presenter addressed PTSD, OCD, Generalized Anxiety, Panic Disorders, Social Anxiety and Anxiety that is accompanied by Depression. Phew!! I don’t know about you, but I have heard more about anxiety in the last couple of years than I ever have, so it was a very valuable seminar. I feel like I gathered a lot of tools to help family, friends, BL peeps, as well as myself to deal with or just get a better understanding of different aspects of anxiety. After a 6 hour seminar though there was one main take home. There was one thing that surfaced as the most effective tool in managing all types of anxiety and that was Cognitive Behavior Modification (CBM). Here’s a simple translation: CBM is Yoga. It’s the practice of letting go of how things “should” be and accepting how things just are. It’s learning how to be less reactive to sensations in the body and softening around them. Yoga allows us an opportunity to practice being in the moment instead of being concerned about what might happen tomorrow. All of this practicing leads to new behavior (consciously modifying our behavior) so that this new way of dealing with challenges starts to permeate off our mats and into our lives. We become more mindful, less reactive and our anxiety begins to dissipate. In fact, research has supported that this 5000 year old system we call yoga is more effective than any anti-anxiety drug we can buy on the market. It lessens our anxiety more and for a longer period of time than any pill we can pop. There are a lot of physical, mental and emotional reasons to practice yoga but maybe you didn’t realize what a powerful tool yoga can be in lessening our anxiety.
Trusting this message will nudge us all to spend a little more time on the “dark side” of BL!!
Hope to see you on your mat!!
