Easing the Stress~Day #3

Some Covid-19 days feel almost normal, while others are extremely stressful. One day was exceptionally so. Maybe it was a string of rainy days here in California, I’m sure it was because I wasn’t practicing yoga. It was before I’d come back to the mat. In hindsight, “What was I thinking skipping yoga?”

I’d forgotten that stress and anxiety are contagious, and in a household with different competing stresses: health, finances, and cabin fever, there were a couple of days that topped the charts. Somehow remembering the contagion factor helped me breathe more deeply and commit to a yoga routine.

It seems so obvious. I know the strategies for managing this stress. I teach them, but I don’t always do them. I speak and write about the ways technology contribute to anxiety and stress the nervous system. Screen apnea was first researched by Linda Stone. Yes it’s a thing and is when we hold our breath when we check a text, email or Instagram. I believe it’s one of the reasons so many teens and college students are suffering from an increase in anxiety and depression. We send our nervous system into fight, flight or freeze each time we forget to exhale. Just living in the digital age creates a low hum of anxiety for all of us, so you can imagine what’s happening now when screen time is up along with this enormity of crisis our world is facing.

But yoga is all about coming back to the beginning, and in many ways, writing these short blogs have reminded me all over again. Somehow adopting a rescue dog who needs who needs to be walked on a daily, routine basis (without a phone or a screen) has made a big difference, too.