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As we all well know at the moment that Coronavirus is spreading like wildfire and there is a huge panic over buying essentials for the home. We know that Italy is on lock down (poor Italians, I really feel for them) and that we are advised to travel with caution etc.
So with all this in mind, this can make you feel stressed and anxious and start to panic. When you start to feel like this, your immune system then starts to fade which in turn may makes you have a cold or flu like symptoms. So the key here is to not let your immune system down and practice Yoga breathing techniques or do a few gentle stretches. Click the links below for a gentle 10 minute yoga flow using a blanket to beat this coronavirus scare.
As soon as you start to feel anxious or let your mind get to you and let it start to chatter negative thoughts, use this yoga video to help you calm down and bring a state of calmness back into your mind. Don't let the chatter beat you.
I came to yoga in 2007 while backpacking around the world with my husband. We were in Thailand and I saw a group of people practising yoga on the beach. To me this looked idyllic. They were all different shapes and sizes, all different abilities and they were all having fun and really benefiting from their practice right there and then. I never thought I'd be into it as I was always the sporty type but I fell in love with it.
I brought a book (The Idiots Guide To Yoga) when we got to Malaysia and then brought a mat when we got to New Zealand. From then I was hooked. Its not about how bendy you are or how you can get into advanced poses. It's all about the mind. How you perceive things and how you deal with different situations in your life. Coronavirus being one of them. Maybe I am a bit to laid back about it. I'm not panic buying supplies, or worrying about it. I'm just going about my normal day to day things.
Maybe yoga has taught me to slow down (even though I can't sit still for 5 minutes) and just live in the moment. We don't have to get stressed about every little detail, we don't have to worry about if someone sneezes next to us. Just let it be.
I try to do a few breathing exercises everyday and I think this really helps have a positive mindset. You should try it. Watch the videos to see.
We are trying to keep our autonomic nervous system at bay. This is the control centre for breathing.
Off from this are two branches, the Sympathetic Nervous system (SNS) and the Parasympathetic Nervous system (PNS). The SNS is responsible for Fight or Flight and the PNS is responsible for the digestion and resting part of the body. When our SNS gets activated, we are always on high alert. We need to bring this back down to normal by using the PNS. We can do this by breathing correctly through using our lungs, diaphragm and abdomen. The more tense and alert we are the less we breath as, we tend to shallow breath. The best form of breath work for this is called Ujjayi Breathing or Ocean Breath. This calms the mind and allows you to be calm, sending calm signals to the brain and abdomen. Click on the video for a tutorial on this.
Another way is to use your breath in pranayama breathing. This is where we fully inflate and deflate our lungs using a simple breath technique, square breathing. Click the above link for a tutorial on this.
So what I'm trying to say is that yes coronavirus is around and yes we may all be spreading it uncontrollably but just take 5 minutes out of your day to unwind, stretch and bring some calmness into your life.
I hope you find this post helpful.
Let me know!
Have a blessed day!