6 - Yoga and Stress Reduction
​with Marsha Pappas

Yoga teacher Marsha Pappas explains Yoga is for every BODY and it helps us reduce stress.  She shares easy, Yoga-based tips to reduce stress at home and at work.
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Yoga teacher Marsha Pappas explains Yoga is for every BODY and it helps us reduce stress.  She shares easy, Yoga-based tips to reduce stress at home and at work.

Yoga is about being aware, present, being conscious.  It’s a lifestyle.  It is quieting the chatter of the mind so we can discover our true nature which is peaceful, joyful, and loving.  We get out of our heads and into our hearts so we can make better choices.
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  • Marsha got into yoga as a kid because it got her into her body and found it very calming.
  • The energy of the yoga teacher creates the space in the room for participants.
  • What makes a good Yoga teacher?  Being very present and authentic.  It’s an “inside job” where you have to be really clear on who you are and what motivates you.
  • Yoga is for everybody, every body.  It’s not the physical practice or looking a certain way.  It’s about opening the energy channels in the body.
  • The physical practice is to help you develop strength and flexibility, opening up the energy channels in the body. 
  • Yoga is for everybody.  It’s beyond the physical practice.  It’s about opening the energy channels of the body.
  • Everybody holds stress and tension in their body.  Yoga helps people release that tension and stress.
  • Learning how to teach yoga helps you to know yourself more, love yourself more, and express yourself more.
  • Neuroscience is proving scientifically what Yogis have been teaching for years – that there is a brain/body connection, the brain is just not in your body.
  • Stress management = yoga because stress shows up in your body before your conscious mind even knows you are stressed.
Reduce stress:
  • Listen/pay attention to their body.
  • Sit up at your desk and scan your body, notice where there might be tension.
  • Move and walk around.
  • Breath is the key.  Inhale through the nose rather than the mouth.  Breath using the diaphragm.  Inhaling through the mouth breathes right into fight or flight.
At work:
  • Zip up the spine.  Get the curve of the back of the neck matching up with the low back is key because we all have “tech neck,” (learning forward working on a computer)
  • Moving the spine all directions can make a difference.
  • When you are squeezed forward in a slouch, you’re cutting off energy.
 
  • Yoga is meditation.  It takes the mind and focuses the mind on one thing.  You realize you are not your thoughts.
  • When checking out a Yoga class for yourself, pay attention to the energy of the teacher and the space in which the class is held.
  • Marsha has taught Yoga in the basement of a store, in a prison, in a room next to a restaurant, in corporate conference rooms.  Some people are intimidated by coming into a Yoga studio so it can be best to bring Yoga to them!
  • Meeting the other people in the room can also be a benefit to taking a Yoga class.
  • Meaningful, authentic connection with another in any circumstance is meaningful.
  • Yoga helps to ground you and is especially helpful to those who are very empathic and sensitive to other people’s energy.
  • When you get agitated, lengthen your exhale to twice as long as your inhale can calm you.

Marsha Pappas:  www.marshapappas.com  or Marsha's Yoga classes at www.cityyoga.org

Dan Johnson:  www.performancemastery.com and www.vibrationalintelligence.com

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