GetHappy Wellness

Do Normal People Do Yoga? Today I want to share my personal story about yoga and how it helps my health and wellbeing. I am a normal person (mostly). I have been practicing yoga since the early 2000’s and I started out using video tapes. I remember the first ones were Crunch Fitness, with Sarah Ivanhoe ; Candlelight Yoga and Fat Burning Yoga. At the time, I’d moved out of state where I didn’t know anyone. I took refuge in these videos, and the church that was next door (talk about church in another article.) After following these tapes for over a year, it became easy and kind of second nature. So, when I had free time, I took an in person class at the community rec center. Like, most people, I had changes. I changed jobs, changed schedules, and moved a couple of times. There have been times when I fell off from practicing, but I never stopped completely. During stressful times, like when I was laid off from my job, and when I was dealing with cancer, I leaned on my routine . It gave me...

Should I do Yoga During Recovery? Yoga is for every body type. Don't worry about the weird, thin, pretzel-like people you see happily posing in advertising and social media. There is a targeted practice available for different bodies and to alleviate a variety of ailments.   When you're recovering from trauma, mental or physical, movement is essential. Not only will it make muscles feel better and more relaxed, increasing blood flow and breathing fresh oxygen heals our cells. Yoga can be gentle or rigorous, so whatever you're healing from, recovery will speed up with an appropriate routine. Yoga is slow moving and focused and doesn't require goodness of fit. While practicing, movement matches breathing, making it in synch with your natural rhythm. Yoga is an excellent inclusion to mental and physical trauma recovery.

Does Trauma Affect Social Interactions? Today I will explain how traumatic experiences affect our interactions with others and how we can improve relationships after suffering from trauma. When we experience trauma, we are changed physically and psychologically. Our brain chemicals adapt to give our minds and bodies the best chance at survival. The trauma becomes part of our memory and predispositions us to react quickly if we face a similar event. Unfortunately, since our bodies are self-reliant and instinctively self-preserving, when bad things happen to us we question our capabilities and fitness. Self-doubt tells us that we could have avoided this bad experience if we’d made different choices or acted differently. This is not true! We all experience trauma, and we don’t control outcomes. Because we are inter-connected, not only are we subject to bad outcomes from our own decisions, we also fall victim to the bad choices made by others. A few examples of “collateral damage” are; ge...

How Can The Five Senses Heal? Distractions are not a bad thing. Especially when we are spending too much time dwelling on a past or future situation, and not enough just living our lives in the here and now. Worrying and daydreaming can cause us to trip up, so we need helpful distractions to keep our paths straight. When our senses are stimulated, our brains hone in on the stimulus it is receiving.   For example, when we hear a loud noise, we turn in the direction of the sound and try to determine what it is. This reaction is the same with strong smells, a bug crawling on our skin, bright light in our eyes, or the taste of something sour in our mouth. Whatever is activating our senses gets primary attention. Our brains can’t competently focus on more than one thing at a time, so we can use this process to our advantage by intentionally engaging in activities that stimulate our senses. Using our senses, we can alleviate stress and anxiety, and even relieve pain whenever we choose.

Am I Off-Center? Being off-center is like trying to ride a see-saw with no one on the other side. All the weight is falling to one side, with nothing to balance or eventually tilt us upward toward the sky. When we are off-center, we do not feel balanced. We may feel like we are detached and isolated; as though we are watching life as a theater-goer instead of being a character in the action. What can we do to get back in the game? First, know that you are not a detached individual, but an integral part of the expansive universe. So while it may not seem that way at the time, you are connected. Reach out to a family member, or a close friend. Even your pet is connected to you. If you’re not near people, go for a walk outdoors. Put yourself in an area where people socialize, like a park. Just be near other people and absorb bits of their energy. While outdoors, soak in the natural elements and know that many of the people you see are having the same experience as you, and this a normal p...

What is Emotional Intelligence? If you don’t like your restaurant meal, throwing it on the floor may signal to the staff that it doesn’t meet expectation. Screaming as loud as possible at your partner leaves little doubt about how you feel. While these expressions may be liberating, more subtly is better for your blood pressure and less destructive of property. Emotional intelligence is just what it says, having a general understanding of - and the ability to regulate our emotions. Our emotions have a direct impact on our health and our health directly affects our quality of life. Regulating strong negative emotions like anger, fear, and sadness make us more capable of enduring displeasure and overcoming traumatic experiences. There is no cut-off age to better our emotional health and ability to manage emotions.   Setting aside time to meditate and asking ourselves how we are feeling, and what to do about it increases our overall quality of life. Mayo Clinic Health & Mindfulnes...

What is Mindfulness? Routines are great, especially for anxiety sufferers. Taking the guesswork out of our daily activities gives us a sense of order and control. We are comfortable and confident about what will happen next. However, too much order and control put us on autopilot, and we may stop paying full attention to what we are doing and what’s happening around us. When we zone out it’s usually to a time in the present or past, so we are no longer focused on the present moment. While it isnt necesssarily a bad thing, if we zone out too much , we arent fully aware of what we are doing. Someone may be talking to us and we can’t respond, or we may be reading and not absorbing any of the material. Now, this is a waste of our time and energy. It’s easy to drift in and out; so we should intentionally practice mindfullness a few minutes a day. That way, we decide when and if to zone out or fully focus, and its not merely habitual. Being mindful allows us to live fully and be our best se...