GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) supplementation has long been used to treat anxiety and mood disorders, but a 12-week study lead by Chris C. Streeter of the Boston University School of Medicine and colleagues has demonstrated significant increases in thalamus GABA levels in subjects after doing Yoga, as well as decreases in anxiety and improvements in mood. GABA has long been regarded as one of the primary "feel-good" chemicals in our brains.
The study compared similar metabolically matched 60 minute sessions of either walking or yoga, 3 times a week, with the subjects performing yoga reporting better moods and more reduced anxiety levels than their walking counterparts. The findings were corroborated by magnetic resonance spectroscopy scans.
This is the first mainline study proving a direct correlation between yoga and increased GABA levels, and is huge leap forward towards validating claims of therapeutic intervention via mind-body methods like yoga.
Source:
Chris C. Streeter, Theodore H. Whitfield, Liz Owen, Tasha Rein, Surya K.
Karri, Aleksandra Yakhkind, Ruth Perlmutter, Andrew Prescot, Perry F.
Renshaw, Domenic A. Ciraulo, and J. Eric Jensen. The Journal of
Alternative and Complementary Medicine.
November 2010,
16(11): 1145-1152.
doi:10.1089/acm.2010.0007.
The arms serve as an anchor to hold
open the portal of the heart you opened drinking in the horizon. You will extend
your presence along the horizontal dimension now, carrying or expressing into
the world (through your arms), the energy flowing through the heart and central
vertical channel (through the spine, head and legs).
There is a release of energy when
the wave moves through the thoracic spine, making space between vertebrae. When
you drink in the energy through your arms, the space in the armpits opens,
floating the arms freely in space. As you channel it down through the elbows,
wrists and fingers, the energy will flow unobstructed through both the
horizontal and vertical channels. The arms will elongate, opening the joints,
lengthening the muscles. Thus, the arms will hang more like pendulums rather
than at foreshortened angles due to habitual tension.
Without this unobstructed flow, the
space between the vertebrae that emerged in the wave of elongation will
collapse back in on itself. It is this collapsing of the energy that densifies
the structure. When the energy is able to flow unobstructed, the structure
sheds its density.
Instructions: Right Arm
On the wave of your next breath,
extend your presence through your right arm as described above. As the
elongation moves down your arm, maintain the space in the armpit. Savor this
for several breaths.
What did you notice as a result of
this practice?
Does your right arm feel different
than your left? What about the throat? Can you sense a difference between the
right and left sides? If you make an open throated sound like an “A,” do you
sense a difference in vibration from one side to another? Does your right eye
and ear feel more open than your left? Does it feel lit up, like a monitor came
on?
Left Arm: Repeat channeling the
wave through the left arm. Then integrate both arms.
What did you notice as a result of
this practice?
Do you will feel more openness in
your chest? less density in your upper back? more energy flowing through your
arms and hands?
Variation: Using Weights
Instruction: Placing a light weight
(1–3 lbs) in each hand, repeat the elongation. The weight can vivify the
anchoring through the hands, to help you sense the elongation along the entire
length of the arm. If you have ever seen a salt-water taffy machine, you may
remember how the weight at the bottom lengthens the taffy.
Now without the weights, repeat the
elongation imagining invisible weights in your hands.
This series' was excerpted fromthe book, Awakening Somatic Intelligence by Dr. Risa Kaparo. (North Atlantic Books, 2012).
Quick Spinal Release Part Two
Breathing & Spinal Elongation
Practice Suggestions: Begin with Calling
through the Horizon Practices. (See last
week’s video post – Part One)
To find Neutral Position in Standing please
see standing practices in chapter 9 of Awakening Somatic Intelligence. (Amazon.com)
Instructions: Leave the mouth
closed with the jaw relaxed. Imagine for a moment that you had a bellows
extending from the floor of your pelvis to the base of your skull.
Exhalation: Now empty the bellows without
tensing the muscles of your back, especially activating the pelvic diaphragm at
the floor of the pelvis. Do not strain to push all the air out using pressure—just
let the bellows empty as fully as possible without straining.
Inhalation: Then slowly relax and
feel how the bellows fills up with air on its own- without straining to suck
air in through your nostrils. Gradually relax the diaphragms and any muscular
tension that you find to receive the breath more fully. Repeat several times-
emptying the bellows and letting the breath come to you without effort.
Now place your hands over your
kidneys at the base of your rib cage in back. As you exhale follow the movement
of the bellows closing with your hands, empting out from your sides at the
level of your kidneys. Again, when you come to be empty, relax and slowly let
the breath come to you. Do this several times until you feel your lungs empty
smoothly and gently from the base all the way to the top.
Now combine both the vertical and
horizontal flows to feel yourself rhythmically emptying from all directions and
filling out into all directions effortlessly. Allow the exhalation to be more
active and the inhalation to be more passive.
How can you assess your practice?
Do you feel more freedom and
aliveness?
e.g. is your breathing fuller or
deeper?
Does more of your structure move
with your breath?
Do you feel more relaxed and more
alert at the same time?
Is your mind quieting down?
Quick Spinal Release: Standing
This is an extension of the spinal
elongation that utilizes the flexing of the knees to amplify the
omnidirectional wave going through the spine. We will anchor the wave through
the arms as well.
Quick reference: take a moment to
bend your knees slightly as you regularly would to have as a baseline for later
comparison. As always, make sure you do not strain yourself. Do not overdo.
(Bigger is not better!)
Notice: where does your weight fall
in your foot? How much weight is in your knees? Does your body go down when you
bend and up when you straighten your knees?
Instructions:
From a neutral standing position,
imagine that you are being held up from a string attached to the top of your
head that does not let your head go down as your knees bend. Your spine will
elongate to make the extra space needed to bend the knees.
Exhaling—initiate the emptying from
the pelvic floor (see instruction on restoring natural deep breathing.) As the
sacrum anchors, slowly soften the knees so they bend naturally, but only
slightly.
By anchoring, I mean, extending
your presence beyond your structure as you sense gravity pull you toward the
center of the earth. Sense the anchors as portals, opening you, to an
immediately apprehendable felt/sense of your connection to both heaven and
earth, and all that is.
Notice that your weight does not go
into your knees- but transfers through them- and goes down through your heels.
Inhaling- relax everything completely and sense the breath coming to you as
your relax your diaphragms—let the bellows open on its own—as you rest with
your knees slightly bent.
Exhaling
Now slowly extend (straighten) your
knees while you sense the force of gravity anchoring you. Even though these
instructions are given sequentially ultimately you will practice them all at
once. Initially, you can try one quick spinal release (through a sequence of
two exhalations and two inhalations which constitutes one knee bend as you are
both bending and extending the knee on one exhalation each.) Focus on each of
the anchors to ground them.
1.Anchoring
of your sacrum—amplifying the wave up the spine. The anchoring of the sacrum
will pull the lower couple of lumbar vertebrae downward, while the upper two
lumbar vertebrae will ride the wave releasing the spine upwards. Thus, the
center of the omnidirectional wave occurs around the waistline. Anchor the base
of your skull (occiput and jaw)—amplifying the wave up through the head. Rather
than the head bobbing like one ball over the spine, finding the subtle anchor
of the skull, engenders movement throughout the cranium. Thus the 22 bones of
the face and skull can gently open like the petals of a lotus flower.
2.Anchor
through your heels—amplifying the wave through the legs and the base of the
spine. This enables us as bipeds to enjoy a connection to the ground through
our spine, similar to quadrupeds. All 28 bones of the foot elongate and root
into the ground like a tree. The heel sends a large taproot, while the other
bones grow a finer lace of roots, deeper and deeper into the earth.
Inhaling—relax everything
completely and sense the breath coming to you as you relax your diaphragms—let
the bellows open on their own.
Now sense the omnidirectional wave
through the spine as a whole, while you repeat the quick spinal release. While
the primary wave moves vertically, from the waist down and from the waist up,
you can sense the convergence of these waves moving omnidirectionally through
all parts.
How Can You Assess Your Practice?
At this point, you may feel your
spine elongating in both the bending and extending of your knees.
Do you feel more freedom and aliveness?
Generally when our knees are bent our lower back relaxes and extends. With this
practice, we learn how to elongate our spine, so that even in an extended knee
position—the lower back remains open.
Note: This is essentially the same
as the Quick Spinal Release from supine position that appeared in the bedtime
practices. The difference is the change in your relationship to the gravitation
field from lying to standing.
The practice vivifies the
reciprocal relationship between your knees and your lower back. If your lower
back remains open- the knees cannot lock no matter how much you extend them. Conversely,
if you compress your lower back, your knees will lock or bare weight. This is
why anchoring down from your sacrum is so important. It holds your lower back
open.
This series' was excerpted fromthe book, Awakening Somatic Intelligence by Dr. Risa Kaparo. (North Atlantic Books, 2012).
Calling through the Horizon from Standing Position
Receiving through the Eyes
Duration: Two minutes
Intention:
To feel greater freedom and aliveness by inviting
more space into our structure.
Instructions
Look through a window with an open view of the
horizon. Or you can just imagine the horizon in front of you as far as you can
see. Imagine the horizon coming to you, through your eyes and through the back
of your head. Let the horizon in front of you connect with the horizon behind
you. Keep your gaze relaxed, without trying to focus your eyes on any- thing.
The eyes act as a lens, but the seeing is occurring from the visual cortex, at
the back of the head.
If you are finding this a challenge, try it with
your eyes closed. Now open your eyes slowly as though you were opening the
shutters on a cam- era and just letting in the light.
How can you assess your practice? If you measure
yourself against an image of how you think you should look from the outside,
you will start compensationally adjusting and thereby perpetuate the violence
inherent in this disassociated orientation. It will prove more valuable to
sense from the inside.
Do you feel greater freedom, e.g., does the head
feel less fixed or held? Do you feel greater aliveness, e.g., more energy, more
flow, more connection? You may feel like your head is floating—like a
bobble-head doll. You might even notice a change in the position of your head
without trying to adjust it muscularly.
Receiving through the Navel
Bring the horizon through your center—just below
your navel and out the other side.
Try cupping a hand and placing it on your lower
back. Sense the energy overflowing your hand. Now remove your hand but keep
sensing the energy flowing through—you can invent an imaginary partner that
helps you, and their support can be as real as your imagination is vivid.
Another way to think of this exercise is to imagine an ocean in front of you,
and you are drawing it through your navel, as if drinking it in through a
straw.
Assessing your practice
Do you feel greater freedom, e.g., does the sacrum
gently release when you bring the horizon through your center? Do you feel
greater aliveness? You may feel like your pelvis is floating on top of your
legs.
You might even notice a change in the curvature of
your spine or less tension in your legs, back, neck, shoulders.
Receiving through the Heart
Drink in the horizon from as far as you can imagine
behind you as it enters through your thoracic spine (at the level of your ribs)
and over- flows through your heart and lungs, pouring out your chest wall and
kissing back the infinite. Savor the spaciousness you presence by sensing the
omni-directional convergence of inexhaustible emptiness and luminosity in
embodied mindfulness.
This series' was excerpted fromthe book, Awakening Somatic Intelligence by Dr. Risa Kaparo. (North Atlantic Books, 2012).
