As a leader in the forefront of healthcare, UCLA’s Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center now offers its students free, specialized yoga classes that address the prevalent negative effects of chronic stress that many students experience. While stress is a normal reaction in human physiology to a demanding situation causing the body’s defenses to go into high gear in a rapid, automatic process known as the “fight, flight or freeze” reaction, or the stress response, too much stress can cause havoc on one’s physical, emotional and mental health.
Ordinarily, the stress response is the body’s way of protecting you. It helps you stay focused, energetic and alert. It is what keeps you on your toes during a presentation in class, sharpens your concentration when you’re attempting the game-winning free throw or drives you to study for an exam when you’d rather be doing something else. In emergency situations, this response can save your life by giving you extra strength to defend yourself, for example, or spurring you to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident.
However, beyond a certain point, stress stops being helpful and starts causing damage to your health, mood, productivity and quality of life. Fast-paced modern life is full of hassles, deadlines, frustrations and demands. For many, stress has become so commonplace that it is a way of life. The most dangerous thing about stress is how easily it can creep up on you. You get used to it. It starts to feel familiar, even normal. When you’re constantly running in emergency mode, your mind and body pay the price. While everyone experiences stress differently, overwhelming stress can lead to serious mental and physical health problems. It can also take a toll on your relationships at home, at work and at school.
Your best protection, then, is to find ways to manage your stress levels to reduce its harmful effects. This is where yoga enters the picture. According to yogic philosophy, the seed of stress is understood to be in the mind where thoughts and emotions occur. The yogic sages say that it is less useful to discuss what causes the stress than to know what the state of your mind is when you are stressed. Thus, they go on to define stress as a sped-up state of the mind. In modern society, we have developed the tendency to be in this state of constant stimulation or sped-up state of mind, leading to a host of stress-induced chronic ailments that reduce one’s energy, vitality and burdening the health care system. It is reported that 75 percent to 90 percent of doctor visits are due to stress-related ailments.
If stress is understood to be a sped-up state of mind, then the best solution to relieving such a condition would be a technique or approach that allows the individual to reach a slowed-down state of mind, such as cyclic meditation, also known as SMET or self-management of excessive tension. It is a carefully devised yogic relaxation technique that allows one to achieve a profound state of relaxation that can neutralize the negative effects of excessive tension and revitalize the body and mind.
In “Stress Management Through Yoga” offered at the Ashe Center, you will learn a variety of yoga-based techniques, including cyclic meditation, which will help you reduce your stress response, improve sleep, reduce anxiety and muscle tension, and improve your overall sense of well-being. Why not give it a try? The only thing you have to lose is excessive tension. Class size is limited. For more information or to sign up, please contact Parisa Rivette at 310-794-4923.
Ranan is a yoga instructor at the Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center.