Keep Calm and Yoga On!

“Keep Calm and Yoga On!” ~~ Casey Deal

So lately, I’ve been much better at handling my stress. My husband, were he to actually peruse and read my blog, would probably disagree. He says I stress about EVERYTHING. And he is right to some degree. But really, I can tell a difference in my ability to handle stressful things lately and I have to give huge props to yoga for my achievements.

A few times these past several weeks, I’ve been hit with some stressful stuff at work and in my personal life. And though I definitely felt the all too familiar panic attack symptoms begin to set in, I noticed I was able to mentally kick things in to high gear and FOCUS, take a DEEP BREATH, and ASSESS THE SITUATION.

When I am able to do that, I usually see (like, 99.9% of the time) that it’s really not that bad. And I can even tend to find SOMETHING positive from it, even if it’s something small.

My youngest daughter noticed the magnet I have on my car, which says, “Keep Calm, Carry On”. She thought that was the cat’s meow, let me tell ya! I don’t know why, but she just kept saying it over and over, and would give me a big smile when she said it. Then yesterday, she drew the above picture for me. I had told her how much I love the flowers she’s been dreaming up lately in her art, and I asked if she could draw me a cool flower…and out came the above pic.

First, I was drawn in to the beauty of the flower…I really love the detail and the colors she decided to use. But then I noticed that she weaved in that quote from my car magnet, but changed it to how she felt it would suit ME. When I saw it, I got big ol’ smile on my face! It was perfect…just what I needed. So I took a picture of it and stored it on my phone, so that I can look at it whenever I need a reminder of what yoga does for me. And then I took the original picture and stuck it right on the wall in my cube at work, so that when the stress hits me at work, I can use it as a reminder to CALM DOWN, take a DEEP BREATH, and ASSESS THE SITUATION.

Do you use yoga to help you with your stress? I’d be curious to know how you use it. What style of yoga works the best for you when you are stressed? Do you use breathing exercises? Meditation? Chanting?

I notice I’ve been using a combination of meditation, breathing and restorative yoga when I am super stressed. That seems to really do wonders at helping to calm down the “panicky heart” sensation I usually get when the stress hits hard. But I would love to know what works for the rest of you out there…let me know…let’s share!

Namaste,

Melanie