Campus Calm had the opportunity to speak with Bo Forbes about how yoga can be an effective treatment option for stressed-out students who may be suffering from anxiety, depression and insomnia. Forbes is a yoga teacher, clinical psychologist, forbes and integrative yoga therapist with over seventeen years of clinical experience in mind-body healing. She is the founder of Elemental Yoga and Director of the Center for Integrative Yoga Therapeutics(TM), established in 2006, which offers innovative mind-body yoga therapeutics to clients in the Boston and New York areas. She has a master’s degree in Social Sciences and a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology.

Campus Calm: How can yoga be beneficial for stressed-out students who are dealing with problems like depression, anxiety and insomnia?

Forbes: Yoga requires that you focus on your breath and on what you’re doing in a certain posture. This focus helps you take your mind off what you’re worrying about — either anxiety-wise or depression-wise. The movement of an active yoga class — the contraction and release of muscles — can help you release the muscular tension that comes with anxiety and depression, eshop development helping you to discharge stress and balance your mood. That combination of movement, plus certain things that you do in the practice, plus the breath, really makes you focus and be totally in the present. You’re not thinking about the past or worrying about the future. In addition, other forms of yoga that are non-active, such as Restorative Yoga, can also help.

Campus Calm: Some students go outside and run when they’re stressed. How is it different to learn to slow down and do yoga?

Forbes: Again, it’s that focus on the breath and what you’re actually doing which helps you achieve body awareness. It’s pretty life-changing, whereas if you’re just doing a workout, or just running, you can still zone out in that running experience or in that workout. You can be not present and run ten miles. I think a lot of people do just that. A yoga class really demands that you be present on so many levels. Other than just a workout for the physical body, it’s a mind-body workout.

Campus Calm: How can yoga help students develop a positive body image?

Forbes: Two of the central principles of yoga are contentment, and being in the moment. Yoga is about accepting yourself in the moment. The fringe benefits of yoga are that when people start to feel stronger and more flexible, they value their bodies more for what they can do rather than what they look like. That’s one major way to develop a positive body image.

Campus Calm: Isn’t it true that yoga helps you practice gratitude for your body?

Forbes: That’s a nice thought but I don’t know if that’s the goal of yoga. I think some people may say that happens. There can be a problem with yoga in America today in that, retroandclassicflixs like in other endeavors, there’s an emphasis on having that perfect, thin yoga body. We still have that to worry about. Many women who take classes will compare themselves to the size of the other women. Still, one of the guiding principles of yoga is contentment and acceptance- and gratitude can be an extension of that contentment.

Campus Calm: Can you explain what being “mindful” means and how students can live mindfully even when they have a demanding academic course load? toalla playa

Forbes: Mindfulness is really about focusing on the present, what you’re doing in the present moment rather than waiting for some time in the future when you can enjoy something. It’s about being really aware and really focused on what you’re doing in the present — no matter if you’re washing dishes, working on a paper, or sitting in class. And being present can be extremely demanding.

What goes along with that is putting a value judgment on different kinds of time. Time that you spend out with friends, for example, VPS Hosting you often value more than time that you’re spending studying. If you apply that same focus, mindfulness and real aliveness in the present that you might have with friend to your studies … you’ll feel better, more vibrant; and it will enhance your schoolwork as well.

Campus Calm: You wrote, “It’s so easy to fall into the trap of doing too much, usdtocad ignoring our own needs, and ending up in meltdown mode.” How can students avoid this and learn how to make a conscious intention to take care of themselves every day?

Forbes: I think just by carrying that intention — to practice the art of self-care — everyday is the first step. It’s important to acknowledge that self-care has a value. Many Americans believe that the harder we work, mrtmediagmbh the more productive we are.