Nervous system Archives

Mindfulness & Self-Care Resources

April 30, 2021 // by michele

Next week I’ll be visiting with the team at Angeline Schools & Industry to share about the importance of self-care and utilizing mindfulness as a means to practice it. I’ve presented to numerous groups on this topic and love to share resources.

Guided Meditation:

Traveling Breath

(Script from Zensational Kids Educate2Be Training Resources)

Alternate Nostril Breathing

Resources :

Podcasts to subscribe to:

Ten Percent Happier
On Being
How to be a better Human
Armchair Expert: Experts on Expert (*Language warning)
Brene Brown: Unlocking Us

Books:

Becoming Wise by Krista Tippett
How to Be Here by Rob Bell
An Alter in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor
Inward by Yung Pueblo
Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty
When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron

How to Thrive Under Stress a podcast on 10 Percent Happier.
Kristen Bell on Anxiety Part 1 (The Robcast) – great info on the physiology of anxiety, the nervous system, and tools for shifting responses.
Kristen Bell on Anxiety Part 2 (The Robcast) – a way of thinking about anxiety that doesn’t view it as a pathology.
On Being: Interview with Richard Davidson A Neuroscientist on Love & Learning
On Being: Interview with Ellen Langer Science of Mindfulness and Mindlessness
Hey, Sigmund: Articles and practices for working with anxiety in children and teens.
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear (Elizabeth Gilbert) – In the first section Liz deals with fearful living vs. allowing curiosity guide us in life.
Mind Body Health Associates – mental health practice approaching the mind/body connection with mindfulness in Findlay, Ohio. Specialties in trauma and addiction treatment.
Stop, Breath & Think app – a guided meditation app
Zensational Kids – classroom training and resources.

References:

Study: Writing about worries eases text anxiety (Chicago Tribune reports)
Writing About Testing Worries Boosts Exam Performance in the Classroom (Gerardo Ramirez, Sian L. Beilock. Science 14 Jan 2011: Vol. 331, Issue 6014, pp. 211-213 DOI: 10.1126/science.1199427)
Teacher Stress & Health: an issue brief by Penn State & the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Chair Yoga at Woven

October 12, 2020 // by michele

Yoga might not be for everybody, but it is for any body.

Our Chair Yoga classes use chairs, the walls, and other props throughout the whole class so you feel supported. Toni designs these classes with a sense of gentleness towards the wrist, shoulder, hip, knee and ankle joints: working toward flexibility and a greater range of motion mindfully and with purpose.

The class also uses chair work while gaining strength and improving balance. We use the support of the chair and the wall to find a sense of centeredness while keeping safe. With precise cuing, you’ll learn to utilize sleepy muscles to find ways of moving that feel spacious and strong.

Our standard All-Levels Flow class connects the body and the breath using a series of poses that moves from the ground to standing throughout the class. This works great for many people, but some individuals prefer to stay seated or move to the floor only once through a practice. Chair Yoga and Gentle Yoga begin seated, moves to standing, and ends with a seated, comfortable and relaxed rest pose.

Chair Yoga: Tuesdays 5 PM
Gentle Yoga: Wednesdays 4:30 PM

Just because you’re not running marathons anymore – or even though a flight of stairs might leave you out of breath – doesn’t mean you’re sentenced to a life of immobility. Science confirms the benefits of a regular yoga practice for the whole body: better sleep, lower hypertension, fewer injuries related to falling, not to mention the mental and emotional benefits related to stress, anxiety, depression and other invisible illnesses.

Yoga Benefits

“…yoga is an effective means to reduce oxidative stress and to improve antioxidant defense in elderly hypertensive individuals.” (Source: Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research)
“…yoga’s emphasis on flexibility and balance may help to reduce the risk of fall-related injuries,^17–19 which are prevalent among older adults and a leading cause of injury-related hospitalisation.³⁴ Healthy ageing does not merely correspond to longevity, but also optimising well-being.¹¹ With a holistic focus that includes physical, mental and spiritual well-being, yoga could be a suitable and appealing health maintaining activity for adults who find aerobic exercise difficult or impractical.” (Source: BMJ Medical Journal)
“Based on the available scientific literature, this review suggests that the regular practice of Yoga can be considered as an effective intervention in improving physical (reduces heart rate, blood pressure, blood glucose, oxidative damage, fatigue, weakness, fear of fall, and improve heart rate variability, baroreflex sensitivity, insulin sensitivity, physical functions, mobility, flexibility, and urinary incontinence), mental (reduces depression, anxiety), emotional (reduces anger, stress, tension and improve self-efficacy), social (improve life satisfaction), and vital (improved vitality) planes of elderly individuals, offering a better quality of sleep and quality of life.” (Source: Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies)
“…the [Yoga Intervention] group showed significant improvements in a range of subjective factors, including overall sleep quality; sleep efficiency; sleep latency and duration; self-assessed sleep quality; fatigue; general well-being; depression; anxiety; stress; tension; anger; vitality; and function in physical, emotional, and social roles.” (Source: Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine)

Ayurveda & Fall Reset

August 29, 2020 // by michele

Yoga is far more than a series of poses you perform on your mat. Yoga – yoking, linking, connecting – is a way of living.

The winds and changes of fall affect us all…

Ayurveda, the “sister science of yoga” is an ancient way of seeing the world using elements, textures, tastes, and sensory experiences. By understanding the qualities of what you eat, watch, breathe, and think, you can understand how to restore balance and make effective changes in routine that don’t require rearranging your entire existence.

This fall at Woven Yoga we will host a 90-minute workshop on the basic premises of Ayurveda. We’ll explore the Doshas and provide a framework for understanding your unique constitution so that you can approach the changing season with grace and ease.

This workshop will be held at 6 PM on Sunday, September 13. Cost: $35.

Use your newly discovered understanding of Ayurveda to transition into fall unlike any other detox experiences.

The last half hour of the workshop will include an outline of self-care practices to engage during the fall Vata season and introduce the Fall Reset experience. This week includes changing habits related to diet, movement, and mental well-being to re-center and ground yourself in nourishment and care.

Woven Yoga will also host a guided Reset experience the week of September 14-17, following the workshop.

The guided Reset experience includes:

Outline of daily self-care practices
Most necessary ingredients for the kitchari mono-diet
Oils for abhayanga (self-massage)
Daily guided meditations
Daily pranayama (breath) practices
Priority scheduling for daily yoga practices
Community and support while processing the experience
End-of-week group reflection and personal intention-setting practice (Thursday, September 17 at 5:30 PM)

Cost: $70 | $40 for Unlimited Members

*Those on the Surviving September pass, email me for discounted pricing codes

Studio News: June 14

June 14, 2020 // by michele

Returning from Survival Mode
This week: Pose & Pour
Coming soon: New teachers + new classes!
Seasonal Special pricing: Student passes for sale

My study of yoga, along with my work with Mind Body Health Associates, has taught me a lot about stress. We have two sides of our nervous system that is used in our management of stress, the part that keeps us alert and alive (sympathetic nervous system) and the part that keeps us whole and integrated (parasympathetic nervous system).

When our stress system is triggered, humans have a myriad of ways to deal, anything from Quarantine Baking to Netflix binging. What we need to know is that survival strategies serve us for a particular reason, so say a little Thank You to your body and brain. Survival is a perfectly good way to… survive. And what we’ve endured collectively has been something we’ve survived.

When we watch tigers in the wild (or, more accurately, as Dr. Peter Levine explains in Waking the Tiger), we can note particular behavior as it comes back from stressful, life-endangering situations. It shakes and moves its entire body. It licks their wounds and tends to its body. It nourishes itself with food and water. It falls into a deep sleep.

This transition from stress to relaxation can be a slow one, and often it needs to be quite purposeful to be effective. The best tools are already within: a slow exhale, a calm mind, and moving the body.

As we slowly shift out of our survival response, many of us might find our yoga practices to be leading us there. Eventually, we will recognize we are safe and can begin to relax, rest, and synthesize this experience to make us stronger and healthier.

For me, I’m just now feeling like I’m resuming “normal” and I notice how I’m finally able to start planning again. Did anyone else notice how calendars were worthless back in April? And not just in the day-to-day monotony, but in my brain’s lack of ability to think clearly about the future. With the studio now open and new activities coming onto the calendar, that part of my mind is finally coming online, too. I’m glad to be able to share with you again the hope of new events and classes in the studio. I look forward to seeing you again soon!

Pose & Pour

Wednesday, June 17, 6:30 PM

at White Shutter Winery & Brewery

Registration is available online but not required.

Gift Card Giveway!

Our universe is constantly being created and recreated – just look out into those fields full of green sprouts. As an act of remembering, I’m doing a gift card giveway this summer. Every time we’ve got a full class in the studio, we’ll celebrate. Each person in the class will get to pull a gift card out of the pile that gets you $5-$15 from our favorite downtown Upper Sandusky small businesses.

So grab a group of friends and show up together! Fill the room (which, right now, means just 6 people!)

New Teacher + Classes!

Longtime regular yogi, Toni Daughenbaugh, is joining Woven Yoga as an instructor beginning July 1. Toni recently finished her 200-hour certification and is looking forward to teaching Gentle Yoga twice a week: Mondays at 10 AM and Wednesdays at 4:30 PM.

Seasonal Special Pricing

Students, don’t forget: we’ve got a special deal for you during the summer. Enjoy 2 classes each week for $15 with this summer pass. Sign up now and dive into the regular class schedule.

Sunrise

June 25, 2019 // by michele

This morning I arose at 5:30, while it was still night. I sat on the deck and had to read by flashlight. Yet before I knew it, there was enough light to read. The shift from night to day didn’t happen suddenly, all at once. It was gradual, but distinct.
*
The handle on the shower of our vacation house is broken. If you turn it to the left, you get scorching hot water. One temperature: burning. Take it to the right, and it’s icy cold. You say, “just put it in the middle” and I tell you this: that turns it off. I’ve spent my showers quickly jumping from hot to cold, trying to rinse in the amount of time the water switches. (This is not a pleasant way of bathing, BTW.)
*
Our body is wired to to jump into stress mode like my broken shower knob. We go from fine to chaos with a quick switch, thanks to adrenaline, cortisol, and other helpful biochemical reactions. In our earliest habitats, this kept us alive.
However, the switch doesn’t work the opposite direction. Getting into a mode of relaxation is much more like the sunrise, and happens with change over time.
*
Our culture feels wired like the shower knob, bouncing from one thing to another, trying to find comfort in the brief in-between states. But we live in bodies that need gradual shifts. My yoga practice often offers this. I’ve found it in some church worship services. It happens for me with an evening with friends – a gradual shift toward restfulness and renewal. It takes time and some awareness, but those moments of restfulness are available when we show up with the expectations of a sunrise state of mind – and body!

Nervous system