Geeky wellbeing favourites: July 2022
The benefits, and joys, of movement, plus the usual yoga science highlights
A couple of months ago, I got a radio. That might seem weird in the day of Spotify and streaming services, but I realised that I barely ever listened to music, and that was just sad because I love music. Plus, 20-year-old Rachel (who lived and breathed music) would be incredibly disappointed in her future self. I think I just needed someone to make the music choice for me (ideally someone with similar music tastes).
Sometimes in the evenings, when I’m making dinner or just after we’ve finished, a song I like will come on and I start dancing without really caring that our kitchen window faces the street and literally anyone who passes by can see me. I dance and I remember how much I love dancing, and try and imprint that memory to remind myself to do it more often. I dance and I really feel like I’m in my body, maybe even more so than yoga (shock, horror!).
There’s something about movement that is magical, whether that’s dancing, yoga, swimming, walking, running. It gets us out of our heads, connects us to our bodies and really helps us feel alive.
So, this month, maybe try something new. Or try something you love to do but never do (dancing) or something you loved to do when you were younger and haven’t done in year (rollerskating anyone?).
Here’s to movement!
Ps. Want even more content? I wrote about this last year too, so check out the post for additional resources and insights.
Enjoying the content? Do you have a friend who might like it too?
Read
I was thoroughly inspired by “Move: the new science of body over mind” by Caroline Williams – so much so that the book was the catalyst for this post. Within it, she covers a variety of ways in which movement helps us feel better mentally, including the emotional benefits of dancing, how stretching resolves inflammation, and the creative sparks that are unleashed through walking.
If you want a little preview of the content, she also wrote a (presumably promotional) article for New Scientist around the same time the book was published, although you will need a subscription to read the full thing.
Listen
I was in two mind about whether to recommend this podcast episode by the Huberman lab with movement specialist Ido Portal, as it’s looong (2.5 hours!), and pretty heavy-going and confusing at times. However, there are some really interesting gems on the mind–body connection, the importance of diversity in movement, the emotional (and more) benefits of movement practices in community, and some very relevant comments on human contact and permission.
It’s also available as a YouTube video, with timestamps to different areas of interest so you can scroll into areas of interest if you wish.
Listen a bit more
The Zoe podcast has an interesting discussion on exercise vs diet for weight loss. While this takes movement to a slightly different place to where I was intending, it does discuss how movement is vital for health and wellbeing, regardless of what it is.
Practice
Speaking of dancing, I totally recommend going to an ecstatic dance event if you’ve never tried it before. It’s a strange experience – no alcohol, no shoes, just (unfamiliar) music that guides the body to move. It’s basically a dry rave (and I believe that’s where it came from). This is the one I’ve been to before, there’s a few more in London and hopefully where you are.
But, as ever, here’s a lovely yoga nidra for sleep practice inspired by summer, freshly recorded by Jennie. Enjoy!
Yoga science highlights
Not enough evidence in IBS – A Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis has some evidence that physical activity, including yoga, can reduce symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) but not quality of life. The reviewers highlight that they have little confidence in the results as the studies they reviewed were small and not of great quality. Basically, as usual, we can’t draw that many conclusions because the research is a bit crap. But it doesn’t mean that yoga and other physical activity does not help with IBS.
Finding an ‘active control’ for yoga studies – Speaking of shit research, one of the issues with yoga research studies is that they either have no control group (ie they don’t compare yoga with something) or they don’t compare yoga with an active control (ie they compare yoga with doing nothing). Clearly, others are equally frustrated by this, so they’ve tested a low-intensity exercise regime as an active control for Hatha yoga.
Yoga for rehab in MS – Another systematic review, this time in the context of multiple sclerosis (MS). Here, the reviewers found that yoga was superior to conventional rehab at improving balance, and aquatic exercise was the most effective at improving walking ability.
From the blog
Hard to pick movement highlights from the blog, as most posts are about the health benefits of yoga, but here are four posts that align with the content of the Move book.
Can handstands make me happy(ier)? – Strength training has emotional benefits, so does this extend to yoga acrobatics?
Adventures in fascia – and how stretching may resolve inflammation – Uncovering the immune system benefits of stretching in a rat model
What do depression, inflammation and yoga have in common? – If depression is linked to inflammation, and if yoga helps to resolve inflammation, could this be how yoga helps with depression?
5 reasons why you should start a breathing practice today – Pause and breathe consciously every day, because it’s amazing (and there’s science to prove it)