Allergies and Stress: Who knew?

Signs of allergy season began for me this past month but to the extreme. Sinus pressure and headaches were more distracting and disconcerting than ever before, and this past week my chest has felt tight.

Perhaps the ragweed count in Kansas City is at record levels. Had a suspicion it was something to do with me. So what's going on? I asked myself.

Stress!

After researching yoga poses for allergies and asthma due to the tightness in my chest, I found the online Yoga Journal article "Allergy Antidote." It correlates asthma and allergies to stress and how having a more calming yoga practice can help alleviate symptoms.

"Through relaxation, the nervous system basically tells the immune system to hold its fire. Once the immune system backs off, the inflammation and mucus decrease, and symptoms diminish.

Migdow suggests you make de-stressing your immune system a priority by modifying your yoga practice to be less vigorous and much more calming. "For example, avoid Bikram Yoga or Ashtanga Yoga where there is already heat. Instead, practice asanas in a smooth and relaxing way with lots of slow breathing."'

Must admit, I have been giving the pressures in life more power than they deserved, but to have my body reacting to it as allergies. Who knew?

After returning to the Midwest four years ago, I visited an allergist upon having allergy symptoms for the first time in my life. A few tests later only revealed mild allergies and a slight athletic asthma. Took the prescriptions for a while. Once they ran out, I switched to the more holistic nasal rinsing since soon after I became pregnant.


Although now nasal rinsing didn't seem to help as much. Nor did taking several Claritin and Sudafed generics per day.

Next step: relaxation.

The same article mentions these asanas or postures to induce calming and to help reduce allergies and asthma by massaging "various parts of the spine and the thoracic cage and condition the lungs"

• standing poses
• forward bends
• backward bends
• twists
• inversions (shoulderstand and plow) - help "clear the upper respiratory tract and drain secretions from the nose, allowing freshly oxygenated blood to flow into the oral cavity."

What's your vibe?

"The child is thinking and receiving vibrational thought from you on the day that he enters your environment. That is the reason that beliefs are transmitted so easily from parent to child, from parent to child, from parent to child. The child is vibrationally receiving your fears, your beliefs, even without your spoken word... If you want to do that which is of greatest value for your child, give thought only to that which you want, and your child will receive only those wanted thoughts."

~Excerpted from a workshop in “The Law of Attraction, The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham” on July 1, 2006

Daily I receive e-mails from Abraham - you can sign up too. I've been saving the quote above, and today seems ideal to post it because I have been feeling a lot of fear about the future. About being a new mother, my husband finding a job (he lost his after Christmas), our ability to afford and take care of our new baby, and any other related stress. Throughout my pregnancy and since my husband's layoff, I've stayed fairly calm (doing yoga definitely helps), but today I woke up with an overwhelming amount of fear. Then I reread Abraham's quote above, which reminded me not only is my F.E.A.R. (False Evidence Appearing Real) hindering my growth but my unborn child's. What good is my fear going to do for either one of us but create more negativity?

If you read the teachings of Abraham, you see that "life is supposed to be fun." We're supposed to reach for a higher feeling thought and "the purpose of life is joy." We "create our reality with our thoughts" and what we focus on is what comes into our life, intentional or not. So if I'm focusing on fear and all the negatives, I will create just that. Therefore, I need to focus on the positives in my life: a healthy baby, a wonderful marriage, my supportive family and friends, my great job, etc. And also concentrate on a form of income for my husband that pays him well and appreciates his talents and creative ability.

As Abraham says, "Relax into your natural Well-being. All is well. The essence of all that you appreciate is constantly flowing into your reality. As you find more things to appreciate, your state of appreciation opens more avenues to more to feel appreciation for. (As you think you vibrate. As you vibrate you attract.)"

Find some Breathing Space or OM

One the eve of Christmas Eve, I'm reminded how stress can take over and make me forget what the holiday season is all about. If you're feeling like you need a time out, I have a few suggestions. Go online and visit Breathing Space, a Web site by PregnancyWeekly for the pregnant yogini. It's a fairly simple site and there are three areas of focus: mind, body and spirit. Doesn't appear to get updated often - maybe weekly if not longer - but check it out and utilize some of the ideas for relaxing and letting go.

Daily OM is another site for everyone , not just yogis or pregnant people, that I think is better than the first suggestion, since it's updated more frequently. You may sign up for daily reminders of calm to arrive in your inbox as well.

If anything, I find repeating this affirmation helps me in times of stress (from the book and CD "I Can Do It"): "All is well. Everything is working out for my highest good. Only goodness and abundance will come out of this, and I am safe." - Louise L. Hay

Too cold (or pregnant) to decorate...

Am I an awful person for not putting out any Christmas decorations yet? I definitely haven't hit the nesting phase of pregnancy because I am just avoiding decorating for the holidays. Plus, all of it is tucked away in boxes located in our icky basement, and I need help carrying them. I keep telling my husband he needs to bring them up, but he doesn't seem to care - and yes, I'm pushing the buck off on him! HA!

I think decorating is the one holiday item really stressing me out. Granted I don't have my gifts all purchased yet, but I know I'll get it done. Who cares if people receive cards from us or not? Although I guess it would be a good way to communicate we're expecting, even though I would think most would know already. We already did a cookie exchange so we have plenty of cookies, although they're already half gone... again, it must be my husband who is eating ALL of them.;)

I guess the decorations will happen when they happen (or better yet IF they happen!).

I better go do some yoga and try to rid myself of this stress.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!