8 Yoga Moves for a Happier Mood

Firm flabby thighs and get the toned legs you&#39;ve always wanted with this simple yoga routine.

8 Yoga Poses for Strong, Sexy Legs

8 Yoga Poses for a Stronger Core

Try these basic yoga poses for a healthier, calmer you.&nbsp;

21 Easy Yoga Poses

Find out the truth about some of the most common yoga misconceptions.

5 Yoga Myths Debunked

Relax and breathe easier with these calming yoga postures.

7 Best Yoga Poses for Stress Relief

These simple moves can keep you flexible when you travel.

7 Yoga Poses You Can Do on an Airplane

Learn the correct moves for doing a simple Sun Salutation.

Yoga Poses in 12 Easy Steps

Strengthen your muscles, improve your mood and turn your love life up a notch.

Simple Yoga Moves for Better Sex

A guide to common styles, including Ashtanga, Bikram, Iyengar and Vinyasa.

Which Yoga Is Right for You?

Have you ever found yourself driving mindlessly home and when you arrive home you can&rsquo;t recall how you got there? You were so wrapped up in your thoughts that one part of the mind acted out of habit to get you home safely without your awareness of what path you took. Our habits are pretty strong that way.

When the mind is left to itself, it will follow a habit like a groove that it keeps returning to. This can be really wonderful if the habit is a helpful one, but what happens when the habit is something that is not helpful &ndash; and maybe even hurtful? It&rsquo;s our habits that can both support and limit us. A good habit can ensure our health and well-being while a bad habit can turn us away from the things that help us thrive and grow.

Training the mind and body 
Yoga training can help us create new habits. Yoga is much more than just fitness. The practices of yoga help to train the mind. There has been a lot of research to show how yoga can <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28384004" target="_blank">reduce stress, lower blood pressure</a>&nbsp;and it can&nbsp;even <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4428135/" target="_blank">change the brain</a> and the grey matter in the brain. Yoga also teaches concentration and adaptability, which can help us to turn away from what isn&rsquo;t healthy and turn toward what is nourishing and helpful. With the help of yoga, we can create new habits and form new grooves in the mind. Changing the mind is similar to a making a path in the woods. The new path takes a while to take shape by repeatedly walking over the same area until the clearing emerges. It requires a reshaping and retraining of our habitual pathways to make changes.

Changing the repetitive path 
For a long time, I used to like to snack at night. When I realized that it was not helping me sleep, I made a conscious effort to change the habit. The minute I would sit down in the evenings, just the act of sitting on the couch would trigger my &ldquo;I want a snack&rdquo; response. If I wasn&rsquo;t mindful, I would unconsciously walk into the kitchen and get something. The mind is tricky. If we let it lead us without consciously shifting, it will take us down the same path over and over.

I had to remember my intention to want to sleep better and then enlist a new pathway by replacing the old pattern with something new. So instead I would add lemon and honey to some hot water and do a short breathing practice. In time my craving for a snack disappeared and was replaced with lemon/honey water and some breathing, a much more supportive way to move into sleep at night.

Training the mind to be able to shift off what is not good for us and turn on what is good for us takes a lot of practice. When we practice yoga and meditation, we are sharpening our ability to change our minds. We are also improving neuroplasticity which makes us more adaptable to the changes in our lives.

Three yoga practices to change habits and improve neuroplasticity 
1. Postures or gentle movements 
Practicing yoga movements helps us to both become aware of our movement patterns and to shift habits when needed. When you work with your yoga postures, start to notice which side you start the movement on. If you always start a movement on the right, try to start a movement on the left. If you always use a certain order, once in a while mix up the order. This will help you create new neural pathways in the brain.

2. Breathing 
Our breath rhythms can vary widely. Some of us use more of the lower lungs when we breathe and some use the upper range. Notice what your pattern is. See if you can practice the three-part breath to encourage the different areas of the lungs to expand and contract.

Here&rsquo;s how to practice three-part breathing:

<ul>
	<li>Place the left hand on the chest and the right hand on the abdomen</li>
	<li>Inhale completely through the nose and at the end of the exhalation, pull the abdomen in</li>
	<li>Inhale again slowly, expanding the abdomen, ribs and upper-chest</li>
	<li>Exhale slowly, contracting the upper-chest, ribs and abdomen</li>
	<li>Repeat for several breaths</li>
</ul>

3. Meditation 
In meditation, we bring the attention to rest on something like the breath or a beautiful flower, prayer or mantra. We hold our attention to that for as long as we can without struggling or trying too hard. When the mind wanders and we catch it wandering, we come back. Little by little we reshape our attention. As this ability to shift our awareness gets stronger, we are able to use this new superpower to our advantage. When there is something in our lives that isn&rsquo;t helping us, we can turn our attention somewhere else and begin to create a new pathway for the mind. This can be particularly powerful when we are anxious or angry or struggling with other difficult emotions that have become habits.

Want to try yoga for the first time, but not sure you&rsquo;re body or mind is up to the task? Read <a href="https://www.ornish.com/zine/why-theres-always-a-yoga-program-just-right-you/" target="_blank">Why There&rsquo;s Always a Yoga Program Just Right For You</a>.

This content originally appeared on <a href="https://www.ornish.com/zine/how-to-change-your-habits-with-yoga/" target="_blank">Ornish Living</a>.

Medically reviewed in February 2019.

Yoga to Change Your Habits

There are many great reasons to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sharecare.com/health/yoga/article/why-theres-yoga-just-right-you">practice yoga</a>.&nbsp;But does yoga help you lose weight? The answer is: It depends. Here&rsquo;s the scoop.&nbsp;

Yoga burns calories&nbsp; 
Yoga burns more calories than, say, sitting at your computer or zoning out in front of the TV. And burning calories is key to losing weight. How many calories you burn depends in part on what kind of yoga you do. Power Yoga, for instance, gets your heart pumping to give you a cardiovascular workout, says Terrance Evans, a National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) Elite Trainer. Regular yoga practice can also help build lean muscle, which in turn revs your metabolism.&nbsp;

Yoga heightens your perception&nbsp; 
Yoga makes you more aware of your body. With this increased awareness, you may start&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sharecare.com/health/diet-nutrition/slideshow/eat-mindfully-simple-steps">paying more attention</a>&nbsp;to what you put in your mouth and how it affects your weight.&nbsp;

Yoga busts stress&nbsp; 
These days, who isn&rsquo;t stressed? Thanks to the stress hormone cortisol, chronic stress makes it harder to lose weight and easier to gain belly fat. &quot;Yoga decreases the stress response and inhibits the secretion of cortisol,&rdquo; says NASM Elite Trainer Michelle Carlson. The result? Less tension&mdash;and a better chance at weight loss.&nbsp;

Medically reviewed in May 2019. Updated in February 2021.&nbsp;

Yoga for Weight Loss

We all felt the tug at our hearts when we heard the news of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. Thousands having to flee their homes and seek shelter somewhere else. Our first reaction might be of deep sadness for the victims. After the initial sadness, we might experience other feelings such as the relief of&nbsp;I&rsquo;m so glad it wasn&rsquo;t me or my family. This feeling illustrates how hard it is to really sit in someone else&rsquo;s suffering for more than a minute.

Our discomfort with suffering urges us to exit our feelings of compassion and take a sigh of relief that it wasn&rsquo;t us. Compassion springs from a feeling of what it might be like to be in someone else&rsquo;s shoes. It arises naturally when we feel ourselves in connection with the other. When we sharpen our ability to stay with someone else&rsquo;s experience and really soak in what it must feel like to be in their life, something magical emerges. We let down our guard and join another person&rsquo;s reality; we feel a connection.

Sympathy vs. compassion 
When hearing about someone else&rsquo;s pain or suffering, we may immediately feel sympathy and want to help. But sympathy is different from compassion. Sympathy is feeling &ldquo;for&rdquo; someone and compassion is feeling &ldquo;with&rdquo; someone. Sympathy can inspire us to help others, but it may not teach us how to truly listen and hold space for the suffering of others. In order to hold space for another, we must first learn how to rest in our own suffering and discomfort. This takes practice and patience.

How to rest in your discomfort 
Meditation teaches us this skill. It&rsquo;s the practice of learning to sit with ourselves. It teaches us to be mindful in each moment and to observe the ways we try to avoid staying in the present moment. When thoughts and feelings arise, we stay still and observe our own reactions and feelings without judging or labeling. We let ourselves witness without getting lost in the storyline. We keep returning to the moment over and over again. Over time, we train our minds and hearts to be still and open to whatever arises. This is how we build our sense of tolerance.

Tolerance fuels compassion 
It&rsquo;s tolerance that fuels compassion. When we practice tolerance, even in the darkest times, it leads to compassion, and ultimately compassion leads us to love. Love is what heals us. It heals our hearts and it heals our communities. This is something that Dr. Dean Ornish, the founder of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ornish.com/undo-it/" target="_blank">Ornish Lifestyle Medicine</a>&nbsp;says over and over again. This is why Ornish Lifestyle Medicine teaches compassionate listening and meditation. These two practices support each other and lead us in the direction of love.

Try these practices to inspire compassion 
How to practice meditation:

<ul>
	<li>Sit quietly and comfortably, close your eyes and let your attention move inward.</li>
	<li>Begin to follow your breath as it comes in through your nose and as it leaves through your nose. Send your breath to any areas that may feel tense or resistant.</li>
	<li>Now, let your attention rest in your heart. Breathe as if your heart were breathing in and out.</li>
	<li>If the mind wanders, gently return your attention to the breath in your heart.</li>
	<li>Sit quietly for several minutes. Imagine your connection to everyone breathing and living as if all hearts were connected and breathing as one heart.</li>
</ul>

How to practice compassion:

<ul>
	<li>Lie down in a comfortable position and let your whole body relax, imagining your whole body breathing in and out.</li>
	<li>Begin to imagine someone you love. Begin to send them understanding, compassion and love.</li>
	<li>Repeat this practice with someone you are neutral about, a person you may not have strong feelings for either way.</li>
	<li>Repeat this now with some you have a small misunderstanding with. Someone you normally feel is a friend or you appreciate them, but you may have things that you differ on.</li>
	<li>Lastly repeat this with yourself. Let yourself linger in these feelings of love for yourself before coming out of the practice.</li>
</ul>

When you practice regularly, you will begin to transform your relationships with yourself and others. They will build tolerance, compassion and love. What better way to mend your own heart while healing your community.

Could you begin to mend the relationships with people who you struggle with by practicing compassion?

This content originally appeared on <a href="https://www.ornish.com/zine/meditation-find-compassion-love/" target="_blank">Ornish Living</a>.

A Meditation to Find Compassion and Love

Recently, while standing in the checkout line at my local Whole Foods, I glimpsed the yoga magazines for sale, each one with a cover image that was interchangeable with the next: A young woman with pale skin and pink cheeks sporting a posture that shows off her beauty and flexibility. I even caught myself thinking &ldquo;gee I wish I could do that pose.&rdquo;

And then came the reality check.

I have been teaching and practicing yoga for nearly 30 years, and I can assure you that being able to grab your foot behind your head doesn&rsquo;t define whether or not you are practicing yoga. While doing postures can be enjoyable and even improve your own strength and flexibility the goal of yoga is actually meditation. Postures have value if they help to embody your awareness, quiet the mind and improve your overall health.

Different conditions and capacities 
Everyone comes to yoga with different conditions and capacities. We all have a different set of circumstances we are working with including physical, mental, emotional and spiritual issues. Someone who is 20 may need a completely different set of postures and practices from someone who is 50. Someone who is using yoga to support healing will have a yoga routine that is different from someone who wants to lose weight or calm anxiety.

Many of the magazines and online images of yoga are appealing to the very young practitioner, often with the hope of selling the latest yoga clothes, yoga vacation or the promise of a happy life, but this kind of marketing may be speaking to a very small part of the population. It is clearly leaving out an important part of the yoga community, the older adult.

In fact, a 2016 Yoga in America study conducted by yoga alliance and yoga journal reveals that there are almost 14 million yoga practitioners over the age of 50 in the US.

Other yoga statistics compiled by Othmane Rahmouni found that 98% of practitioners consider themselves to be beginner or intermediate level practitioners.

Yoga is for a willing heart and mind 
So where are the pictures that represent what it&rsquo;s like to be a mature adult stepping onto the yoga mat? Where does the person who can&rsquo;t touch their toes or grab their foot over their head fit? Those with a willing heart and mind but sometimes not-so-willing bodies are often not represented in the media. Because of this oversight, many of us get the message that &ldquo;yoga is not for me.&rdquo;

Rahmouni also sites these five reasons why people don&rsquo;t try yoga:

<ul>
	<li>Not sure if it&rsquo;s right for me</li>
	<li>Don&rsquo;t know how to get started</li>
	<li>I don&rsquo;t exercise</li>
	<li>I feel out of place</li>
	<li>My body isn&rsquo;t right for yoga</li>
</ul>

Many of those who want to practice yoga can&rsquo;t see themselves in the photographs portrayed in the media and they shouldn&rsquo;t. By this account, yoga has been hijacked by the very young and incredibly fit. And yet yoga holds practices and techniques that can benefit everyone, and yoga has always been meant to be adapted to the individual.

Before the &ldquo;yoga industry&rdquo; 
I myself was in my teens when I began my yoga practice. I was struggling with anxiety and found myself drawn to the feeling of peace and oneness I felt when I practiced, but when I started there was no &ldquo;yoga industry.&rdquo; Don&rsquo;t get me wrong, there is something wonderful about the fact that yoga is now everywhere, but with that we have let the commercial industry define what it should look like. Even the yoga clothing industry is a billion dollar industry (2.23 billion in 2012).

Rewind 30 years and know that yoga used to be practiced in white drawstring cotton pants and with no mat at all, just the floor. No fluff and no flash. Showing off your poses was considered a lack of humility and a lack of understanding. Yes yoga has come a long way but it has also lost some of its depth and meaning. Traditionally yoga was reserved for the days when life in the world slowed down. Practitioners who had more time and fewer responsibilities with family and work set out on a spiritual journey, often spending long hours in the practice of meditation dedicated to the internal and meaningful practices of yoga.

They became the wise elders in the community, they carried on the tradition and became a beacon of light for others searching for peace and freedom from suffering. They were the keepers of the tradition.

Now yoga is accessible to everyone of all ages, from the very young to the very old. It can and should be adapted through all the phases of life. It has become part of many lifestyle change programs such as Ornish Lifestyle Medicine.

So the next time you see that beautiful image of a young flexible girl all tangled in knots, just know that you may not be doing that version of yoga, but your version is the practice that is just right for you. It&rsquo;s your practice to, explore, learn and grow and it doesn&rsquo;t need to look like anyone else&rsquo;s. Yoga looks different on everyone and best of all it belongs to you.

Want more? Have new articles from Ornish-certified clinical team members sent <a href="https://www.ornish.com/ornish-living/subscribe-to-ornish-living/" target="_blank">straight to your inbox!</a>

Medically reviewed in February 2019.

Why There’s Always a Yoga Program Just Right For You

Wouldn&#39;t it be nice if, just once, you were able to say no to those office muffins or that second slice of Friday night pizza?

Good news: <a href="https://www.sharecare.com/health/yoga/article/yoga-change-your-habits">Yoga</a> could boost that willpower. Aside from making you stronger and more flexible, yoga may help you become more mindful about your eating choices, too.

Mind over muffins 
In a 2009 study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, researchers surveyed more than 300 adults on their exercise and&nbsp;eating habits. Detailed questionnaires revealed that people who regularly practiced yoga had a different eating style than people who did other types of exercise. Yoga practitioners were more tuned into their appetites and were better able to judge when they were full. This may be why the yoga devotees also had lower body mass indexes (BMIs) on average, too.

Work your will 
Yoga requires calm and focus. The poses also require people to pay close attention to their bodies. And researchers suspect the increased <a href="https://www.sharecare.com/health/yoga/article/why-theres-yoga-just-right-you">mind-body awareness from yoga</a> is what gives people an edge against many of life&#39;s challenges.

It&rsquo;s that kind of mindfulness that may help them whiz past the fast-food drive-through&nbsp;and head home for a healthy dinner instead.

Overeating Help: A Benefit of Yoga

Last week I marched. I marched with thousands of others who also felt it was important to raise our voices in peaceful unification. No one expected it to be so big. The women just kept coming. Together we lifted each other up and inspired and held each other. We listened to each other&rsquo;s stories and we told our own stories. We marched to stand up, to be heard, to be seen and to stand in our truth. Each with our own personal stories and convictions. We were all different but together.

The feeling of love and the spirit of community stayed with me for days. We all know that feeling of support when we stand together. When we join together we feel the strength and inspiration of others. This feeling of community and support are also an important part of the healing process. In his research, Dr. Dean Ornish found that love, support and community are key to reversing heart disease when practiced in combination with the other three pillars of&nbsp;Ornish Lifestyle Medicine: nutrition, stress management and fitness.

Your yoga practice can enhance love and connection. Swami Satchitanada, an enlightened teacher, once said &ldquo;I = illness and we =wellness&rdquo; when he was trying to demonstrate the importance of community in improving our health and wellbeing.

What is the importance of we-ness? Dr. Larry Scherwitz, a social psychologist, and his associates at the Medical Research Institute of San Francisco reviewed dozens of interview tapes of people with coronary artery disease. They were struck by the number of times coronary-prone individuals made reference to themselves, using the words &ldquo;I, me, mine, myself.&rdquo; They found that the degree of arterial narrowing and the number of previous heart attacks were both predicted by the number of self-references people made during the structured interview. The research team speculated that self-involvement underlies coronary prone behaviors. Those who use more inclusive language like &ldquo;we, ours, and us&rdquo; didn&rsquo;t show the same negative findings.

Community Yoga 
A sense of &ldquo;we&nbsp;ness&rdquo; is important when you want to stay adherent to your goals of health and healing. In yoga, we call coming together to learn and study as a group, Satsang. In Hindu,&nbsp;Sat&nbsp;means truth and&nbsp;Sang&nbsp;means community or gathering. This gathering of like-minded individuals is said to elevate our own consciousness and awareness.

Alone we often get caught up in our own thoughts, fears, judgments, and this can contract our hearts and overwhelm our minds with too much internal chatter. By connecting with others in Satsang, it opens our hearts and quiets our minds. Coming together helps to assuage our individual fears, judgments and obsessive thoughts and lean into the experience of the group, which takes us out of ourselves and helps to open our hearts.

Our ability to discriminate this higher truth is enhanced by our yoga practices, and our yoga practices are enhanced when we come together to learn in the company of other people.

How to Create Community and Satsang 
1. Invite family members or friends to join you when you practice. This may mean using an audio or video practice. If they are just starting out, you may want to invite them to join you for the relaxation and meditation portion of your practices. They will surely enjoy the calm without needing any previous yoga experience.

2. Join a gentle yoga class in the community. Take one day or more to meet up with others who are practicing together. It may be just what you need to help you find new bonds and relationships with those who share your health and wellness goals.

3. Find a Meditation Group or Class. There are all kinds of meditation groups that are forming across the country with several to choose from in bigger cities. This can give you support and encouragement from like-minded meditators. If it&rsquo;s a class, there is an opportunity to learn from those who have practiced for a long time. Asking questions and hearing about the experiences of others can elevate your own practice.

When we practice with others we give our energy and support to the group. When we are struggling the group is there to lift us up and carry us until we can land safely back on our own feet.

To learn more about enhancing our connections with others and the healing power of connection, read <a href="https://www.ornish.com/zine/the-neuroscience-of-we-how-enhancing-our-connections-can-heal-us/" target="_blank">The Neuroscience of &ldquo;We.&rdquo;</a>

This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.ornish.com/zine/yoga-to-enhance-love-connection-and-community/" target="_blank">Ornish Living</a>.

Medically reviewed in February 2019.