Diaphragmatic Breathing When we are stressed, our bodies go into “fight or flight” mode; heart rates increase, respiration speeds up, blood pressure increases, and we involuntarily prepare ourselves to deal with whatever is stimulating the nervous system. This is an effective system in the short term, but ourbodies are not meant to be here for long. Time in a sympathetic state should be properly balanced with time out of it. Unfortunately, given the amount of stressful stimuli we en...

Seven Cool Facts About Sleep  We are a society full of under-slept individuals. The purpose of sleep is to facilitate an optimal level of waking function, so why are we so consistently short-changing our own daily potential?  Below is a list of seven facts that may make you rethink what you know about sleep:  1.) We can, indeed, “pay back” our sleep. Sleep has been shown to work like a bank; if your individual ideal is eight hours, you owe that number of hours to yo...

How to Change Your Habits As we approach the end of our second month of social distancing, the urge to get out and start engaging in life again is strong for most of us. However, the return to anything resembling normal activity will likely be gradual and will take place over a matter of months. For many people, routines that include regular exercise at a gym, yoga studio, or YMCA have been disrupted during the Covid 19 pandemic. This has led in some cases to a decline in physical and mental he...

Design vs. Function “We need to understand there is a difference between what our bodies are designed to do and what we are doing with our bodies.” Whoa. Do you ever hear something that makes you rethink everything that you know about anything? We live in a world much different and more intelligently designed than what our bodies - at their most basic functions - are naturally made to do. We walk less and drive more; gather less and shop more; lounge more and move less. We lay on ...

Yes, you read that correctly - straight from the horse’s mouth. Before I elaborate, I should put out a disclaimer that this is not meant to be used as an excuse to do nothing. I also don’t mean to sound contradictory, but hear me out. All of us are most likely facing some sort of personal and/or societal stress right now, and we are all dealing with it in different ways. As much as exercise can be cathartic and stress-relieving, it can also be interpreted by the body as another phy...