Day 257: Yoga and jet lag

Tags

yoga cures. legs up the wall, yoga for jet lag, yoga in an airport, yoga while travelling, yoga with toddlers

I am going away in a few days to visit my family in Holland.. and I am preparing myself for the jet lag. Of course I looked online for some “miracle yoga sequence” that cures jet lag. I didn’t find any. There are LOTS of websites saying this posture or that posture helps.. but as far as I can tell there isn’t really any consistency in the postures.

So here is my yogic cure for jet lag:

• Don’t eat…or only eat small amounts of very light foods (soup, salad) while in transit
• Drink lots.. water, not booze silly!
• Chase a two year old all over the airport to keep your circulation active
• Chase a two year old all over the plane to keep your circulation active
• Once you are off the plane find ten or fifteen minutes to do some yoga.. whatever yoga you can do with the energy you have left (hint, probably legs up the wall and some forward folds will be the most active thing you have energy for)
• Hold off sleeping until its night time where you are
• Once day two sets in return to a regular yoga practice in the morning
• Go outside and play

Day 256: Doing less isn’t very popular…

Tags

doing nothing, healing by taking time off, nothing, relieving stress, restorative yoga, slowing down, stress and yoga, Yin Yoga, Zen life

Although I love a good active yoga practice I seem to have ended up being a yoga teacher of the quieter styles. (Yin and Restorative Yoga). It just sort of happened. I suspect a big part of it was because I had a knee injury when I was becoming a teacher. I tend to struggle with stress too so I have lots of personal reasons to practice in a quiet way. Because of this I also have a ton of personal experience to pull on when it comes to teaching.

What I have noticed is that these styles really aren’t as popular. I think I am better at teaching them than I am at teaching a regular hatha class (maybe I am wrong about this though). However my more active yoga classes always seem to have more students in them. I think both types of yoga have great benefit… but I also believe learning to relax in a healthy way is a bit of a lost art in our culture. It is far easier to crack open a beer and sit on the couch watching some t.v. than it is to get to a yoga class… but this isn’t really relaxing. Screen viewing interferes with our melatonin production, which can in turn cause insomnia and restlessness. Plus TV/Screen life can cause a ton of other health issues. As for alcohol, the long term use of drinking to relieve stress actually changes the way your brain works, leaving you more susceptible to suffer from depression and/or insomnia. 

I truly believe that as a culture we need to relearn how to be still and quiet. It is a natural part of our biology. It nourishes us and gives us time to process and heal. Taking time to do nothing can be a huge part of being a productive happy human being.