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YOGA
Old-fashioned stretching may loosen tight muscles, but yoga delivers something even better: relief from mental tension and stress. "Yoga is about being able to listen to your body again," says expert Rodney Yee.
The pleasant surprise is how little listening it takes to start feeling like a brand-new, laid-back, blissful you. It could take as little as one session.
Six years ago an Oxford University psychologist named Clive Wood divided a group of 71 men and women of all ages into three sections. Over two sessions one group practiced simple relaxation techniques, one actively visualized feeling less tense, and one did a half-hour yoga routine, which they were taught as they went through it. Afterward, the relaxers reported feeling calm but sluggish. The visualizers were sapped and even frustrated. Only the yoga novices felt great. They said they were less nervous, more energetic, almost eerily content.
By relaxing muscles, yoga is said to break the cycle in which distressing messages are being shuttled in the nervous system to the brain and back again. Stress hormones recede, and an elevated heart rate returns to normal.
The bottom line:
Practicing for 30 minutes once a week appears to be an effective vaccine against stress. There's even some evidence it can ease the pain of carpal tunnel syndrome.
Experts recommend that novices enroll in a class to learn the basic poses. Pregnant women and people with sciatica, glaucoma, or high blood pressure should ask their teacher which poses to avoid, and everyone should be careful about positions that put weight on the neck.
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