YOGA RX: Ease Your Anxiety and Depression

with Liz Owen, E-RYT
ALL LEVELS, minimum 6 months yoga experience required
This workshop will include both active and restorative asana and pranayama sequences.
Liz Owen helped design and implement the NIH funded study entitled Effects of Yoga Versus Walking on Mood,  Anxiety, and Brain GABA levels: A Randomized Controlled MRS Study* conducted at Boston University Medical Center.People who suffer from anxiety and depression often have low levels of the neurotransmitter GABA. Antidepressants may be proscribed in order to increase these levels.The study proved through MRI technology that the group that practiced yoga had significant increases in  GABA levels.The participants also felt better.This confirms what yoga practitioners commonly experience:yoga calms the fight-or-flight reaction of the sympathetic nervous system and stimulates the relaxation response of the parasympathetic nervous system. What results is a state of wholeness and emotional balance.
*published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, November 2011
Liz Owen, E-RYT, held Iyengar Yoga Certification from1995 to 2010 and was on the faculty of the B.K.S. Iyengar Yoga Center of Greater Boston for thirteen years.She currently teaches at the Arlington Center for Movement, Meditation, and Wellness, and is on thefaculty at Wellesley College. She has presented workshops throughout New England including the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health.