In this month’s Extended Class Session, Craig will be introducing this concept of how to use your attention and your body to unleash your hidden potential.  To register for EXTENDED CLASS SERIES: ACTIVE FOCUS – PASSIVE MIND – FUNCTIONAL BODY click here.

Anxiety is a major issue in today’s world. According to a recent article written by the Kaiser Family Foundation, anxiety is on the rise for all American adults, specifically in relation to this past year.

In July 2020, a majority of U.S. adults 18 and older (53%), said that worry and stress related to coronavirus has had a negative impact on their mental health, up from 39% in May, according to a recent KFF tracking poll. Similarly, among older adults (ages 65 and older), close to half (46%) in July said that worry and stress related to coronavirus has had a negative impact on their mental health, up from 31% in May.¹

Considering that there is no stopping the external pressures in our lives, the question turns to how can we improve our mental health- even in the face of life’s inevitable challenges. Specifically, can the Kaiut Yoga Method be a primary mechanism for emotional (mental, physical, and spiritual) resiliency even when our own anxiety might be getting the best of us?

While anxiety is typically thought to be relegated to only those with a diagnosis, the fact remains that many of us deal with daily signs of anxiety:

• Feeling nervous, restless, or tense.
• Having a sense of impending danger, panic, or doom.
• Having an increased heart rate.
• Breathing rapidly (hyperventilation)
• Sweating.
• Trembling.
• Trouble concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry.²

No doubt, life can seem full of distractions and worry. It doesn’t help that our modern world has a quite limited expression for the human animal. Yes, that is correct, at the deepest seed of our being- we truly are animals. We’re literally designed to move, explore, hunt, and be hunted. Yet today’s world of sitting, driving, and telecommuting doesn’t quite match the design of our human animal. In essence, the environment around us (modern society) has evolved at a faster pace than the human animal. Due to this disproportionate progression in evolution (biology vs society), the modern human can easily get stuck in the “being hunted”, commonly known as ‘fight or flight’, mode. We must adapt or suffer the consequences. 

We can’t change how the world operates or the pace of evolution. We can, however, give our body, mind, and spirit the opportunity to discharge the consequences from living out of sync with our very nature. High levels of anxiety is only one of the byproducts of our modern environment. 

You’ve heard us mention in classes many times before, the importance of using the joints in all the angles, to promote better physiologic and even mental health. This is one of the windows that we operate from through the Kaiut method. 

While accessing the joints is particularly important to induce increased mobility and healthy blood flow, by simulating movement in the joints we have more direct and clear access to the mind/brain/body connection. Through proper joint stimulation and directing our attention, the nervous system moves deeper into a healing, or parasympathetic mode. This is modern adaptability at its highest level.  Not only can we build a balanced physical body but we can train our attention to create balanced mental health.