Anxious or worried? Read on to see what may help.

Ever wonder what you could do on a daily basis to bring less anxiety or worry into your day?

Yoga is the new thing…technically not new…it’s been around for hundreds of years. You see it everywhere now. Personally, it took me until P90X and Tony Horton came out with it over a decade ago when I was finally introduced to yoga…I want to say I was around 40 years old at the time. Taking time for ourselves and honoring a peaceful practice is so important.

A recent study actually measured levels of anxiety and worry and found that the intervention of a yoga routine decreased these issues in individuals. There have been other studies prior that have found similar results. One study showed that practicing 20 minutes of yoga a day was as effective as taking an anxiety lowering medication.

In this busy world, we are continuously multi-tasking, working, and putting our bodies and brains in overdrive. This drives our hormones in a detrimental direction. Stress, lack of sleep, working long hours, eating an unbalanced diet (more processed foods, sugary foods, fast foods) causes our cortisol and insulin levels to also go in overdrive. Cortisol and insulin are fat storage hormones and lead to weight gain and difficulty losing weight not to mention increased risk for chronic inflammation. Inflammation is at the root cause of chronic disease states (hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, autoimmune disorders). Inflammation as it settles in also leads to other general symptoms of fatigue, brain fog, and joint stiffness and pain.

Our gut also plays a role in balancing our hormones. If we have a diet high in gluten (wheat, bread, rolls), low in fiber, low in greens, veggies, and low in prebiotics (eg. asparagus, onion, garlic, fermented foods) then we will have more of the bad vs. the good bacteria in our gut environment. The good bacteria play a super important role with serotonin production which is the feel good hormone that helps balance our moods. Do you know that 80% of our serotonin is produced in our gut microbiome? Estrogen, progesterone, and other hormones are also affected by our gut health.

So, one step at a time. One foot in front of the other. We know what to do. Using SMART goals can help. Small, measurable, attainable, relating to time. If you would like more information or direction toward optimizing your health, please reach out. I am here to help. Here is an example of a smart goal. "I will exercise 30 minutes every day." "I will eat a serving of blueberries with my breakfast or lunch every day". "This week, I will increase my exercise time by 10 more minutes each day until I reach 40 minutes a day."

It is my pleasure to offer everyone a yoga or fitness session. When you sign up for your next vinyasa chair yoga or chair fitness class this month, just enter FREESESSION in the discount code box. Feel free to share this email with anyone you think may be interested. The code will be good through early November.

Happy Fall Y'all!

Janet