My weekend was spent in a Yoga Teacher Training workshop at Yoga Den. I spent 2 full days doing yoga and learning how to safely assist others in their yoga practice. After a few months of illness, I am returning to my own yoga practice and really enjoying being back on the mat.
Since my two loves are yoga and stock trading, I wanted to take a moment and let you know how these two can live in the same space. I use yoga as a way to get my body ready to sit in the chair at my desk to trade by doing a morning yoga practice and I destress from my day with meditation.
I did a little research on the benefits of yoga today. There is some great information on the Yoga Journal website.
Top 5 benefits as I feel relate to trading:
Relaxes your system.
Yoga encourages you to relax, slow your breath, and focus on the present, shifting the balance from the sympathetic nervous system (or the fight-or-flight response) to the parasympathetic nervous system. The latter is calming and restorative; it lowers breathing and heart rates, decreases blood pressure, and increases blood flow to the intestines and reproductive organs—comprising what Herbert Benson, M.D., calls the relaxation response.
Increases your blood flow.
Yoga gets your blood flowing. More specifically, the relaxation exercises you learn in yoga can help your circulation, especially in your hands and feet. Yoga also gets more oxygen to your cells, which function better as a result. Twisting poses are thought to wring out venous blood from internal organs and allow oxygenated blood to flow in once the twist is released. Inverted poses, such as Headstand, Handstand, and Shoulderstand, encourage venous blood from the legs and pelvis to flow back to the heart, where it can be pumped to the lungs to be freshly oxygenated.
Helps you focus.
An important component of yoga is focusing on the present. Studies have found that regular yoga practice improves coordination, reaction time, memory, and even IQ scores. People who practice Transcendental Meditation demonstrate the ability to solve problems and acquire and recall information better—probably because they're less distracted by their thoughts, which can play over and over like an endless tape loop.
Helps you sleep deeper.
Stimulation is good, but too much of it taxes the nervous system. Yoga can provide relief from the hustle and bustle of modern life. Restorative asana, yoga nidra (a form of guided relaxation), Savasana, pranayama, and meditation encourage pratyahara, a turning inward of the senses, which provides downtime for the nervous system. Another by-product of a regular yoga practice, studies suggest, is better sleep—which means you'll be less tired and stressed and less likely to have accidents.
Gives you peace of mind.
Yoga quells the fluctuations of the mind, according to Patanjali'sYoga Sutra. In other words, it slows down the mental loops of frustration, regret, anger, fear, and desire that can cause stress. And since stress is implicated in so many health problems—from migraines and insomnia to lupus, MS, eczema, high blood pressure, and heart attacks—if you learn to quiet your mind, you'll be likely to live longer and healthier.
My wish is to encourage you to start your own yoga practice so you can begin to live your best life on and off the mat.
Namaste and Trade Another Day!
Michelle
