Health And Wellness Blogs

How are your New Year's Resolutions going?  Do any of you have one that revolves around feeling less stressed? I know a lot of you do.  But like credit cards late fees, stress is a reality of life.  With stress often comes reverting to our comfort food that may or may not be supportive to our health.  While you will never banish stress from your life permanently, you can try techniques that will help relieve it without eating a jumbo bag of Swedish Fish!  

Circle breathing is one simple way to relieve stress fast and fits will into any busy routine.  When you are anxious, off center, or feel like you will explode if you don't have your Frappuccino, do a round of circle breathing for 5-10 breaths.  Here's how:

1.  Inhale and stretch your arms over your head.  Exhale, giving a sigh of relief as you lower your arms.  Relax and keep your arms at your side for the rest of the exercise.
2. Now imagine you are inhaling a stream of peaceful energy into a spot a few inches below your navel.
3. Continue inhaling, imagining the energy travelling to the base of your spine, then up your back to the top of your head.
4. Exhale and mentally follow the breath back down to the front of your body where you began.  Your breath has now made a full circle.
5. Do 5-10 circle breaths and you will find yourself much calmer and have a clearer mind.

Good bye treadmill, hello dance party!  The American Council on Exercise hooked up dance participants to heart rate monitors.  Guess what they found?  A dance class functions a lot like interval training, with its mix of low and high intensity moves.  That means you could burn more calories shaking your booty than doing a steady-state exercise like jogging.  In addition-and this is key-if your workout feels like a treat, you are way more likely to repeat it again another day! That is the pleasure principle that Nia adopts!  Check out class times in your area and start burning those Christmas calories!

Your brain on dance is so very agile! Because dancing requires constant learning, decision making, and creativity, it helps you build new neural connections that keep your brain nimble.  It also appears to strenghen the networks in the brain that help us focus.  In addition a New England Journal of Medicine study found that dancing on a regular basis reduced the risk of dementia among older adults.  More proof that Nia is good for the mind!  Come dance with me!!!