Yoga Tools to Boost Your Immunity

By Rose Kress Posted in Anxiety, Research Newsletter

Are you worried about Covid-19, the Coronavirus? You are right to be concerned, but that worry might make you more susceptible to getting sick. Instead, take appropriate care, while supporting yourself so that you do not get sick.

Stress may be the largest factor in determining if you get sick. When you become stressed, our immune system becomes less able to protect you. The stress hormone, corticosteroid, decreases, even suppresses the immune system by lowering the number of lymphocytes (white blood cells needed to fight off disease) in your system.

Stress, worry, anxiety, etc. lowers the immune system by raising your blood pressure, heart rate, breath rate, and decreases your digestion. If you remain in a state of stress for too long and your brain begins to rewires itself to a state of stress, known as chronic stress.

Protect Yourself

Wash Your Hands! Use soap and warm water. Soap is one of the best defenses we have against getting sick.

Deep Breathing. The longer you exhale, the more signals your brain receives to initiate the parasympathetic nervous system, the Calm Brain response. When the Calm Brain is turned on, the Stress Response is turned off. This causes the heart rate and blood pressure to lower. There are a couple of ways to turn on the Calm Brain through the breath:

  • 4:6 Count Breath – inhale for a count of four and exhale for a count of six
  • Om on the Exhale – try it. The mantra Om is the primordial sound, said to be the sound of everything at once. In addition to the length of the exhale when you use a sound, Om may deactivate the limbic brain.
  • So-Ham with Peace – place your hands on your heart, invite a connection with peace (a feeling, image, memory, etc.), and as you exhale, use the soothing sounds of so-ham (pronounced so-humm).

Rest! Sleep and rest cannot be underestimated. When you sleep, your immune system releases proteins that help you sleep and fight infections. Not enough sleep and your ability to fight disease and recover from illness is reduced. One of the best ways to get rest is through the practice of Yoga Nidra. It is the perfect middle of the day respite.

Meditation. Manage and deregulate the stress response through the practice of meditation. The hardest part of meditation is learning how to sit for meditation. The mind wanders and gets stuck on worries and to-do lists. That is what the LifeForce Yoga Chakra Clearing Meditation is for! It gives the mind a bone, providing space for you to connect with your innate wholeness.

About the Author

Rose Kress

Rose Kress ERYT-500, C-IAYT, YACEP, Owner/Director of the LifeForce Yoga Healing Institute, and author of Awakening Your Inner Radiance with LifeForce Yoga. She directs retreats and training programs on using LifeForce Yoga to manage your mood.

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“I integrate strategies like mantra tones and pranayama, but above all I invite myself and those I teach to cultivate svadhyaya, to practice self-observation without judgment.” — Barbara Sherman, RYT 200, LFYP, Tucson, AZ
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“I gained tools for working with my own depression and with my clients’ depressions.” — Robert Sgona, LCSW, RYT, psychotherapist, Yoga teacher, Camden, ME.
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“Giving my clients a strategy and permission to quiet their minds and rebalance the sympathetic nervous system has been very beneficial to them and in our work together.” — Sue Dilsworth, PhD, RYT 200, LFYP, Allendale, MI
“I have found the pranayama (breathing practices) especially easy to introduce in a clinical setting. Some people have benefited quickly in unexpected and transformative ways.” — Liz Brenner, LICSW, LFYP, Watertown, MA
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“My life is already changed! I will use the tools I learned in my own practice and in my work. I feel safe and seen.” — Susan Andrea Weiner, MA, teacher/expressive arts facilitator, El Cerrito, CA.
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I absolutely love this stuff! I have been using it with my clients and I am just finding it to be so incredibly helpful. There seriously something for everything. Although I am not as skilled as I hope to be someday, even at my level of training I’m finding that I am beginning to figure out what to do. It just blows my mind! - Christine Brudnicki, MS, LPC
“I came hoping to learn to move past some of the obstacles blocking my creativity. Over the course of this weekend, I feel I’ve gained a certain measure of faith in myself and in my ability to change. I also had some realizations that I believe will be very helpful to me. I feel encouraged. Both the content and presentation of this program were so well-thought out that I can’t think of any way to improve it.” — Andrea Gollin, writer & editor, Miami, FL
“I began a fantasy during the meditation exercise... almost as if I’d been there. It’s now an on-going work of fiction.” — Serian Strauss, Tanzania
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