Getting the stress out

Mike Stokes, a Wooden Center yoga instructor, has been doing
yoga for almost 20 years after breaking his neck while surfing. He
was drawn to the practice before he knew what it was all about.

And Stokes isn’t the only one. Colorful mats, breathing
exercises and gravity-defying poses have become commonplace in many
health centers and gyms throughout Los Angeles as people gather to
experience the whispered wonders of an ever-popular art.

Fifteen million Americans ““ over 7 percent of U.S. adults
““ are believed to practice yoga, according to a study
sponsored by Yoga Journal published June 2003.

Like many UCLA students who practice yoga, Kei Alegria-Flores, a
fourth-year biology student, did not know much about yoga when she
first started. And even after doing it for years, some cannot put
into words a clear-cut explanation of how it may work on the
body.

“I put a woman in a headstand once and after class she
broke down in tears,” Stokes said. “I think it was
because she broke through this fear that had been holding
her.”

As the quarter heads into finals week, UCLA students are again
faced with a certain amount of stress, and some students are using
yoga to deal with their anxiety and fatigue.

Besides the common idea of practicing yoga as a form of
exercise, the therapy is often used to supplement treatments for
cancer, lung disease, multiple sclerosis, insomnia, high blood
pressure and joint pain.

In the past 80 years, health professionals in India and the West
have conducted research studies to determine the science behind how
yoga helps the body, and though it is still not completely known,
the abstract and spiritual art is slowly being understood.

Researchers say that the effects of yoga can best be described
by its action against stress. Medical research estimates as much as
90 percent of illness and disease is stress related. So such
problems as cardio-vascular disease, depression, anxiety and
obsessive-compulsive disorder are prime instances when yoga might
be able to help.

When under stress, the body’s sympathetic nervous system,
which is responsible for the “fight or flight” reflex,
is activated: heart rate, respiration and metabolism surge.

While this process evolved in animals to accommodate escape from
predation, it is harmful to be activated for lengthy amounts of
time, according to the American Psychological Association.

Humans who are under constant taxing conditions from finals,
friends and jobs experience chronic stress, and this leads to
elevated levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that normally
regulates metabolism and blood pressure. Elevated amounts of the
hormone cause immune system suppression, loss of sex drive, and
increase in heart rate and cholesterol.

The parasympathetic nervous system acts as the complement to the
sympathetic nervous system in that it relaxes the body and returns
it to normal function.

Yoga is thought to help the parasympathetic system do its
job.

The constant bending, twisting and stretching during the
practice of yoga may help squeeze fluids through the body. The
poses also improve muscle strength, flexibility and range of
motion, all of which are very important for the healing and
prevention of musculoskeletal diseases such as arthritis and
osteoporosis, researchers say.

Practicing yoga also encourages one to lead a healthier
lifestyle, through developing the self-awareness and discipline
required for positive behavior modification, according to a Web
site on Yoga Basics.

Nevertheless, the art cannot be completely explained
scientifically, yoga practitioners say. Though yoga is not a
religion, the practice that dates back to stone carvings in the
Indus valley 5000 years ago has many spiritual aspects that are
misconceived as religious.

The term “yoga” is Sanskrit for “union.”
This union is between the participants and whatever their idea of
god is.

“To do yoga, you need to let go of your preconceptions of
what you’re capable of, you need to challenge your own
beliefs by being willing to let that quieter part of yourself guide
you,” Stokes said.

Some students get a sense of realization out of doing yoga.

Neda Dowlatshahi, a fifth-year biology and French student, said,
“You’ll be in a pose hurting, shaking and sweating, but
you know that you just have to breathe and eventually it finishes.
I’ve come to see that things are more bearable when you know
they’re going to end, like life.”

Alegria-Flores agrees that yoga is spiritual. “You almost
don’t feel the pain or you learn how to be OK with just
feeling everything,” she said as she pushed her palms
together in a popular “namaste” position. “It is
a time for me to be inside myself.”

The yoga that students practice in the Wooden Center to relieve
stress has been popular in the United States since the 1960s. The
earliest texts about yoga were compiled by a scholar named
Patanjali, who wrote some of the fundamental yoga theories in a
book he called Yoga Sutras as early as the first or second century
B.C.

The system that he wrote about, known as “Ashtanga
Yoga,” or the eight limbs of Yoga, is generally referred to
today as Classical Yoga. Three of these limbs are practiced by
people in the United States known as “hatha” yoga,
though there are many forms of yoga.

An important aspect of hatha yoga is correct breathing
technique. Westerners tend to focus on inhalation, yoga experts
say. They maintain that all good respiration begins with a slow and
complete exhalation which is composed of three parts: diaphragmatic
or abdominal breathing by lowering the diaphragm, intercostal
breathing by expanding the rib cage, and clavicular breathing from
the top of the lungs by raising the upper chest.

Inspired by Joseph Campbell, Stokes said, “Do that which
makes you feel most alive in life, no matter what it is. …
Believe that you are perfect the way you are. … Don’t try
to fix yourself.”

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