Yoga has been a revelation for many people. They have found that they can improve the quality of their life with the power of yoga. Yoga combines both physical and mental activities, so it engages your whole body rather than just part of it. Some of the benefits of yoga include better breathing, easier relaxation and relief from the symptoms of asthma.

The reason that yoga can help with your asthma is that by using yoga, you will get your body back to a more natural state. Both your body and your mind will be less stressed.

Relaxation and deep breathing were made for each other. Both of them help you to calm down, clear your mind and re-energize your body. By spending a few minutes taking slow, controlled breaths and paying attention to your breathing rather than taking it for granted, you will notice that your breathing automatically becomes calmer. Rather than it’s “normal”, hyper-active state. In turn, this will bring more energy into your body and calm you down.

Try out this simple breathing relaxation exercise. Read the instructions through a couple of times and then start.

1. Sit down, making sure that your posture is good and your spine is straight as possible.

Place your feet flat on the floor and check that your knees are directly over your feet. Place your hands on top of your legs.

2. Gently close your eyes.

3. Concentrate your thoughts on your ribs and your lungs. Inhale slowly and deeply. Notice your lungs filling up and your ribs expanding outwards and upwards. Then slowly exhale, again noticing your lungs slowly releasing the air you’ve just breathed in and your ribs gradually going back in and down.

4. Repeat this routine once a day for up to 3 minutes when you first start out. Over the coming days, gradually increase up to 5 and then 10 minutes throughout the day as necessary.

Yoga breathing exercises have been shown to help sufferers of mild asthma. You may still need your medication and any other health devices, although you should notice that you need them less and less as you practice these techniques.

Mental health, not the sort of thing most people choose to talk about seriously. We’ve all heard the comments about ‘Sad Sack’, ‘Mr Grumpy’ or phrases like ‘Smile, I’ll pay for the stitches’ or ‘Stop moping around’. It saddens me every time I hear a remark like that, something insensitive or said out of plain ignorance, usually by people who have little or no contact with people who suffer from depression, and most certainly do not have a loved one or family member that suffers from depression or any other mental disorder, that can so easy get a tight grip on a sufferers life. It’s almost tabboo if you think about it.

Suffering from depression or mental health problems, is something that most people feel ashamed to admit. Who wouldn’t, with comments like those above aimed right at you. If you have suffered from major depression or have had an episode of depression that has contributed significantly to a change in your daily life, facing up to comments like those above is something that you will have to accecpt sooner or later.

What about those people who don’t suffer a major depression or severe episode, whether life-threatening or not? Those of us who definately don’t have depression and definately don’t need to see a shrink to confirm what we already know: that we are not depressed! This brings me to the core of this article: How do you recognise depression?

It is so very important to be vigilant. To be aware of the warning signs, and the earlier they are spotted, the better. Why? Because being depressed leads to behaviour that is not helpful. Behaviour that over time, is reinforced day after day, month after month. Slowly but surely getting a firm grip on your life. It is much harder to spot a change in behaviour if it occurs and develops gradually over time. But what are these signs and behaviour that we should look out for?

The most common symptom of depression and one which most people think is the only one is having a persistant empty or ‘sad’ mood. This is not what can sometimes be reffered to as feeling ‘down in the dumps’. The mood will last from several weeks at least. At which point you should see a psychiatrist or doctor. A feeling of pessimism, hopelessness or helplessness and being critical of oneself for never being good enough at anything no matter what we do. Depression can lead to a lack of interest in persuits someone usually enjoys. Feeling lethargic or having no enegry or drive, even for sex, is another symptom of depression that can slowly be re-enforced over time. Trouble with sleeping and eating is a symptom that most people would not usually associate with depression. Sleeping disorders are often dismissed as having developed a mild case of insomnia that will surely go away over time. Some people wake early in the morning and are unable to fall back asleep. Eating disturbances to, especially in women, can hide the depression, because the first thing that will come to mind is anorexia or bulimia. This is true, but we also need to place these symptoms in context, which is why it is so important to know the facts and symptoms of depression so that we can see the bigger picture.

Depression often goes hand in hand with anxiety. Anxiety can also cause sleeping disturbances, as well as a feeling of dread, increased heart rate and more severely, panic attacks. Depression and anxiety can easily knock our confidence levels as both can lead to difficulty concerntrating and remembering or making decisions. These symptoms can climax with devistating effect. Within the workplace they can lead to a complete nervous breakdown where the person no longer knows, or can’t remember how to do their job or how they even got there. Nothing makes sense and it can be very frightening when you are faced with a situation like this where you no longer know what is happening around you, or much less, why you are feeling this way. Depression can also manifest itself through persistent physical symptoms or pains that do not seem to respond to treatment. Irritable and losing ones temper are also symptoms of deppression, seen more often in males than females. Thoughts of suicide, attempts and plans are never to be taken lightly. Often, suicide attempts are a cry for help. Sometimes they are not.

A person can be diagnosed with depression if four or more of the symptoms above have been present in a two week period or more. Not everyone will have the same symptoms so it is important to be aware and look for signs of all symptoms of depression. Remember, only a doctor or psychiatrist can diagnose depression.

There is no easy way to stop problem blushing. There is no magic pill that will put an end to problem blushing. You can’t end problem blushing by writing “I will not blush” a hundred times on a piece of paper.

The problem of excessive blushing is a complicated one, but you can beat it by focusing on specific aspects of your life that contribute to problems with excessive blushing. Have you ever noticed that the more you think about not blushing, the more you are likely to blush? This fact actually is the key to putting a stop to problem blushing once and for all.

The single most important thing you can do to put an end to problem blushing is to stop resisting blushing. The more you fight blushing, the more you are going to blush. The more you tell yourself that you aren’t going to get embarrassed, the more likely you are going to be to experience embarrassment. And what does embarrassment cause for problem blushers? More blushing, of course.

When you engage in mental arguments with yourself to fight off a behaviour or a reaction, the end result is generally an intensification of the very behaviour or reaction you were trying to avoid in the first place. It is very frustrating to lose an argument with yourself, but that is in fact is what happens.

When you are telling yourself not to blush when faced with an embarrassing situation, and you feel a blush start to creep up your neck and face, you become angry and frustrated. As you wonder why you can’t control your reactions and emotions, the blush just gets worse. It is like your body is reminding you that your mind is not in control of your physiological response.

No matter what measures you take to reduce your problems with excessive blushing, you will never be successful until you stop resisting blushing. This, of course, is easier said than done.

After a lifetime of trying unsuccessfully to ward off blush after blush after blush, it is hard to retrain yourself to just relax and let yourself blush. It will be very difficult at first, but with persistence, you will experience the rewards of less trouble with blushing.

This isn’t just my idea about why resisting emotions and reactions often makes them worse. Internationally renowned psychiatrist Carl Jung, who is credited with founding analytical psychology stated many years ago, “what you resits persists”. I applied Jung’s theory to my own life and saw it make a profound difference in my troubles with problem blushing.

The more you resist an emotional or physiological response, the more prevalent it will become. The day that you decide to quit fighting blushes is the day that you will begin to win the battle against excessive blushing.