About Iyengar Yoga

Mood-Boosting Yoga Yoga has been found to decrease anxiety and improve well-being, and now researchers have discovered a physiological connection. Three times a week for 12 weeks, subjects either spent an hour walking or doing Iyengar Yoga, both workouts that involved comparable effort and energy expenditure, according to lead study author Chris C. Streeter, professor of psychiatry and neurology at Boston University School of Medicine. Brain scans revealed that only the yoga group showed significant increases in Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid, or GABA, an important mood regulating neurotransmitter. Moreover the yoga group reported greater improvement in positive feelings and more substantial decrease in negative ones. GABA activity is reduced in people with mood and anxiety disorders, and drugs that increase GABA activity are commonly prescribed to improve mood and decrease anxiety. In previous tests experienced yoga practitioners reported more than a 25% rise in the brain’s GABA level after a one hour yoga session. This response was stronger than that of the yoga novices in the current study - so the beneficial effects may increase with commitment and long term practice, the researchers speculate. “This is important work that establishes some objectives bases for the effects that consistent practitioners of yoga throughout the world see on a daily basis. What is important now is that these findings are further investigated in long term studies to establish just how sustainable such changes can be in the search for safe non-drug treatments for depression and anxiety. "The Tree of Yoga" Written by Gurujji I highly recommend this book among others. Below is a passage from "The Tree of Yoga", it is a wonderful analogy to the path we are treading. "When you grow a plant you first dig the earth, remove the stones and weeds, and make the ground soft. Then you put the seed into the ground and surround it with the soft earth so carefully that when the seed opens it will not be damaged by the weight of the earth. Finally, you water the seed a little and wait for it to germinate and grow. After one or two days, the seed opens into a seedling and a stem grows from it. Then the stem splits into two branches and produces leaves. It steadily grows into a trunk and produces branches in various directions with many leaves. Similarly the tree of the self needs to be taken care of. The sages of old, who experienced the sight of the soul, discovered its seed in yoga… As the essence of the tree is in the fruit, so the essence of the practice of yoga is in the freedom, poise, peace and beatitude of Samadhi, where the body, the mind and the soul are united and merge with the Universal Spirit." ~ B.K.S. IYENGAR