Hello friend!

We are full on into summer now and the sun is bright! Even if you have school vacation, there is so much to do. Seems like there is always a birthday party, parade, baby shower, picnic, band concert, or swim party happening. And on top of the daily grind, the pressure to be in it all can get a little overwhelming.

Maybe you work from home, or you drive into the office each day. Maybe your schedule is erratic and you have to constantly have to check to make sure you aren’t missing appointments or gigs.

Maybe you also have family events or responsibilities that take a lot of your energy.

Also, have you seen the news lately? It feels like disaster is always just a moment away.

What I’m trying to say is that we are stressed, ya’ll. Like, real stressed. Too stressed.

Stress is a natural human response to the challenges and threats around us. Real ones and perceived ones (we’ll talk more about that later). Stress affects us physically, emotionally, and mentally. It can be acute or sudden stress (like having a car accident happen in front of you), but it can also be chronic stress (the never ending deadlines at work that loom over you day to day).

Stress makes us tired, fatigued, and over-emotional. It puts us on edge. Stress makes us forget things and appointments and it drives us to bad habits like drinking too much alcohol or even drugs.

As I was researching for this article, I googled “what is stress?” and one of the search questions that lit up was “what pills are good for stress?” so that tells you that we are in it deep. I have strong faith in modern western medicine and it’s abilities to heal illnesses, but we have older, more effective ways to manage our stress. If we get better at managing the stress we are experiencing, we may be able to minimize its effects and avoid some illnesses.

Stress affects our hormones and our immune system, so when we are over-stressed, these systems don’t work as well as they should. That means our sleep suffers, we seem to catch the office cold more often, allergies feel more extreme, and so on.

Enough doom and gloom. The good news is that yoga is a wonderful framework to address and minimize the way stress affects you–your body, your mind, and your heart. You can become more aware of when you are stressed, and release the tension and stress more quickly so it doesn’t accumulate and become more severe.

For the next 6 weeks, we’ll be discussing the ways that yoga and self care can help you manage the stress you are experiencing in a gentle, simple, easy-going way that feels grounded and nourishing. Each week you will have the opportunity to practice along with free and premium videos that target stress and tension so that you can feel more resilient and light.

Let’s start right now with a simple morning vinyasa practice to help you feel stronger and more flexible, grounded and focused. Check it out here…

FREE VIDEO IN THE LIBRARY

Enjoy this 30-min simple everyday vinyasa class designed to ease stress and tension while connecting movement to breath. Build awareness and balance with a flow that is simple yet challenging.

Cultivate a consistent practice of getting on your mat.

Open to all levels of experience. Recommended props: 2 blocks, blanket, strap. Use what you have already.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS NOW

That’s it from me! I truly hope your week is full of ease, peace, and love.

From my heart to yours,

–Viviane Wolfe

www.vivianewolfeyoga.com

500RYT, yoga-therapist-in-training

Questions? Just email me at viviane@vivianewolfeyoga.com and I’ll right back to you.