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Cheryl Thomas, RYT
www.cherylthomas.com yoga@cherylthomas.com 415-308-3377 |
Here's Real Health Care Reform -
Just Pet your Dog*
We know a lot of things. We just do. Most mornings we wake up with bad breath. Our urine smells after eating asparagus. Watching a child laugh makes us smile. Fox News is maddening and CNN is too. This much we just know. Here's one more thing we know. Pets are fun, especially those dogs. They make us feel good. Dogs do crazy stuff without worrying about what others think: Heh, watch me clean my privates! Wet and smelly, no problem.
More than fun and yappy, they now can help with Health Care Reform. What? Lifting their legs on all the obstructionist naysayers? Nice idea, but no. Here it is: Dog owners have better mental and physical health. Is this just woohoo BS or can this be proven? Researchers say yes. If you're a dog owner, you're probably thinking, well duh, I could have told you that.
Studies on seniors found that if they own a dog they are less likely to require medical services and they are four times less likely to develop clinical depression. How do you like that for reduction in health care cost? (Sorry Eli Lilly, Bristol Myer Squibb, and Pfizer). A Penn State study on elderly men of first heart attack found out men who owned dogs were more likely to be alive. If you pet a familiar and friendly dog, there are physiological changes. You breath slower, your heart beats more regular, your muscles relax-all signs of reduced stress. What's impressive is that as compared with pharmaceuticals that take 3-4 weeks to take effect, your stress markers drop within 60 to 70 seconds from the time you pet the dog. Almost instantaneous!
There's more. Couples who had dogs were less likely to get divorced. How can that be? Let's say you've had a bad day, your partner's had a bad day too. You come home. First thing, you pet the dog, your blood pressure goes down, you smile, your stress levels falls--no built up of tension. Fight averted. Right there. Sorry, Marriage Counselors.
And some more. Tim Tosta on With a Perspective on KQED talked about R ob and his 13-year-old border collie, both volunteers with the Zen Hospice Project at San Francisco's Laguna Honda Hospital:
"As I watched Rob and Sydney make their bedside calls, I began to see Sydney as a healer. With appropriate invitation, he would climb up on a bed and help an anxious resident relax, bring relief to another in chronic pain or evoke a moment of clarity and recall to a cognitively impaired resident"
And, yes, there's even more--another cool study. Research scientist, Karen Allen, designed a study with tasks that were stress inducing and found that participants had lower heart rates and blood pressure during the tasks when in the company of their pets than when a spouse or close friend was present. In one experiment involving mental arithmetic, participants' blood pressure increased more with a spouse present than with a pet present.
Got a dog? Go pet it. Otherwise, head to your local animal shelter and ask if you can be a "dog petter". If they look at you strange, tell them I sent you.
Source: Psychologist Stanley Coren has a great podcast on PRI, To the Best of Our Knowledge, entitled Good Dog. His latest book is "The Modern Dog: A Joyful Exploration of How We Live with Dogs Today and http://www.kqed.org/a/perspectives/R201307090735
*recycled and updated.
Want to read some of my previous articles? You can do it here. Enjoy.
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Did You Know?
P-HHYHH - It's Post-Happy Hour Happy Hour!. On Friday, July 19, a fter the Happy Hour Vinyasa class, we're going to continue the good vibe at my house for some eats and treats. This is a great opportunity to get to know our friends better "off the mat". If you can't make it to class on the 19th, but want to come anyway, email me for directions.
Yoga Teachers and Advanced Studies Student--Study in a small class setting with Tony Briggs. See below for details!
Let the summer specials begin!! New students to Westside Yoga pay $100 for 10 classes. Get 15 free days at MyYogaWorks (online classes). YogaOne Petaluma has 30 days for $49 for new students. You and a friend can share a 1 month membership for $110 at Post Wellness by Design. Whew, I need to exhale! And, Move2Change is offering a 10 class pass for $98. That's a lot of cheap yoga classes. Take advantage while you can.
International singer, Jai Uttal, is coming to Sebatopol, bringing his kirtan passion on July 18 at the Dhyana Center. I've got my tickets. Get yours at Milk & Honey in Sebastopol.
You heard it here. YogaOne in Petaluma is expanding to Santa Rosa in August. Heh, Santa Rosa! Located on Mendocino Avenue near College, Yoga One will offer a variety of classes all day long. I'll be on the schedule, yes me! I'll be offering two classes on Tuesday and Thursday around the noon hour). What a line-up! Ann Austin and Beth Robert will be on the schedule also. We're excited about offering yoga in Santa Rosa. More to come, of course.
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 Study with Tony Briggs
Heh, Yoga Teachers and Advanced Yogis. The teacher's teacher, Tony Briggs, is offering to hold some "master" classes. Focus will be on advanced teaching practices and methods, safe and effective adjustments, "seeing" and being more present for your students, and offering pranayama to various student levels. This class will be in practice and workshop format.
This is a great opportunity for us all. Tony will work around our schedule. If interested, please email Tony at tony.briggs108@gmail.com and let him which times/days you prefere Monday 2-4 Tuesdays 2-4 Thursday 2-4 Want to know more about Mr. Briggs. He's got a website here and a video here. Classes will be 2 hours and held in Sebastopol. Thanks, Tony!!" |
Like Happiness, Discomfort Comes and Goes
A good reminder to be present and hang with whatever comes up, be it good or bad, leads to good mental health. This brief article appears in the Interdependence Project's blog entitled "The Good News About Feeling Bad". Read it here.
By the way, if you have some time, this is a great site to hang out with. I enjoy their blog and podcasts which I download from iTunes. Founder, Ethan Nichtern, brings classic Buddhist teachings by " bridging the gap between personal development and collective engagement in our world, combining the principles of mindfulness and interdependence with activism, arts, and media". Find it here. |
 It's Not All About the Core
" In this pose the challenge is not the position itself so much as its relationship to gravity. If it were rotated 45 degrees, it would be the work of sitting vertically in dandasana (which can certainly present its own challenges).
Ideally, the weight in this pose is distributed between the sitting bones and the tailbone. All the weight should not be borne on the sacrum. If dandasana is a challenge because of shortness in the backs of the legs, that same shortness makes it impossible to support navasana correctly with the legs straight. In this case, bending the knees so that the spine can remain neutral is a good option.
This asana is often said to work the abdominal muscles. This is true; however, the abdominal muscles do not pull the body into this pose-rather, they are keeping the upper body from falling back into gravity. The action that holds the body in this position is hip flexion, created by the psoas major and iliacus. If the psoas major and iliacus are difficult to access, it is possible to overwork the rectus femoris or tensor fasciae latae attempting to stay up.
Just as bending the knees makes this pose easier by shortening the length of the lower lever arm, extending the arms overhead makes it more difficult by lengthening the upper lever arm."
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 Hail Marraige
New research finds that people in happy marriages live less "in sickness" but enjoy more of life "in health." In a 20-year longitudinal study tracking health and marriage quality, a family life researcher found that as the quality of marriage holds up over the years, physical health holds up too. "Happy marriages have a preventative component that keeps you in good health over the years," Miller said.
Congratulations to our gay and lesbian friends and family who are now able to join the ranks of the "married"! Read all about it here.
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Daily Dharma - Tricycle Magazine
June 24, 2013
Knowing is Not Enough
If you know dharma but do not apply it, then you have more regret than if you had never learned any dharma in the first place. If you are not going to apply dharma knowledge to your life-better not to know it at all.
- - Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche, "Keys to Happiness"
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Be Happy on Friday's
Instead of shots of tequila and fried artichoke hearts, spend your Friday happy hour moving and grooving at an
most-levels vinyasa flow class.
On Friday's from 4:30 - 6:00, we'll end each week with an energetic vinyasa flow class. Through building heat from the inside, we'll strip out the stress hormones from the day. A long rest at the end of class will reset our nervous system and prepare us for our weekend.
You'll be done at 6:00!! That'll leave plenty of time for dinner with friends, a movie or a relaxing evening with your pooch. Or, maybe a Chia filled Kombucha or that 100% agave margarita!
NOTE: This class meets once a month at 5:30 - 7:00 due to teacher training. Check my calendar or Westside's.
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Get Your Girlfriends Together
It's fun to get friends together. Treat your friends to Yoga and Tea rather than Food and Booze. Inviting friends to come together for a Gentle or Restorative Yoga class is a perfect way to enjoy each other's company and do something good for yourselves. Many yoga parties end with tea or champagne and some munchies. Your friends will thank you!
Please call on me if I can help you book a private yoga class or answer any questions. I can be reached at cheryl@cherylthomas.com.
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Schedule of Upcoming Classes
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