How to Feel Good: Yoga, Steam Therapy and Living Well

Here are highlights. We hope they inspire you to relax and feel good with steam and beyond. 

Feel Good With Yoga 

When we think relaxation, one of the first words that comes to mind is Yoga. Yoga, according to the American Yoga Association, has been practiced for over 5,000 years. It is a "system of physical and mental exercise which ... brings the body and mind together into one harmonious experience... [It] is built on three main structures: exercise, breathing, and mediation." 

Furthermore, in the U.S. in the 1960s, Yoga "gained acceptance and respect as a valuable method for helping in the management of stress and improving health and well-being."

Interestingly, Yoga has nothing to do with religion. Rather, it is "a system of techniques that can be used for a number of goals, from simply managing stress better, learning to relax, and increasing limberness all the way to becoming more self-aware and acquiring the deepest knowledge of one's own self."

5 Things Every Yogi Needs to Know in the Huffington Post Healthy Living section highlights what makes Yoga such a powerful system for relaxation, feeling good and healthy living.

• Yoga is more than a series of poses.

• Yoga forces you to focus on the present.

• Yoga isn't about performing for others. Rather, it is about how the physical and mental exercises feel to you.

• Practicing Yoga makes applying Yoga to real life situations more effective.

• How you deal with Yoga challenges reflects how you take on life's challenges.

Feel Good with Steam Therapy 

Author Emily Anderson, of the blog Good with style, makes a profound observation in Find your Om at Home after bypassing the steam room at the gym:

"So after I didn’t go into the steam room, I started thinking about how seldom it is that I take a pause... We really need to integrate quiet moments into our day, into our lives, our homes. Why not create a spa at home. ...That should be a part of my everyday."

Emily intends to bring that om moment to her life with a steam shower and regular steam therapy.

How often do you take a pause? When you do, how do you integrate it into your day, your life and your home?

By the way, Emily's blog article is part of series in which she explores "ways we can use design to integrate the principles of Yoga into our daily lives."

Feel Good with Ancient Healing Techniques

Another Huffington Post article titled Ancient Healing Techniques That Can Improve Your Modern Life detailed several "thousand-year-old healing methods" to help treat "the ailments of modern life -- which can be exacerbated by chronic stress and a relentlessly fast-paces life."

Those techniques include:

• Tai Chi - "originally developed as a type of Chinese martial art and a moving meditation, with a focus on attention, breath and mindful movement."

• Acupuncture - which "seeks to balance the flow of qi in the body by inserting needles into certain pathways, or meridians, throughout the body."

• Reiki - where "the power of touch is able to heal a variety of different physical ailments and relieve stress."

• Ayurveda - "the 5,000-plus-year-old Indian "science of life" that deals with healing through food, lifestyle and herbal supplements"

• Reflexology - "By applying pressure to specific parts of the hands, feet and ears, reflexology is thought to improve health by using "body mapping," a system that links these pressure points with various organs and systems throughout the body."

What ties all of these ancient relaxation techniques together? They all emphasize healing from within. "As the early Greek physician Hippocrates said, “The natural healing force within each of us is the greatest force in getting well.”

Feel Good By Living Well

Perhaps we should pay more attention to the Greek. According to What Greek Wisdom Can Teach The Rest Of The World About Living Well, if we did we might live longer, be more relaxed and considerably happier.

Here's how...

Eat a healthy Mediterranean diet. Take naps. Walk regularly. Ask philosophical questions. Take hospitality and generosity seriously. Include lots of quiet moments to savor life's pleasures. Tell stories. Spend time outdoors. Break bread with others. Find happiness within yourself.

Add to that what we learned in the series Steam Bathing: A Journey throught the Ages and specifically Steam Bathing History with the Ancient Greeks and Romans about the importance of cleanliness to both the Romans and Greeks,

"The Greeks and Romans recognized that cleanliness was essential to health. Bathing, caring for the body and keeping it in optimal shape were all ways to pay tribute to the gods. Hippocrates recommended daily bathing and massage with fragrant oils." 

Not to mention the communal aspect of steam bathing.

"Bathing became a way of life for the Greeks, an art form celebrated in beautiful buildings. Greek baths were built adjacent to the gymnasia, not only to cleanse the body, but as communal gathering places."

{BlogTour London blogger Corey Klassen touches on this in How to Succeed with Steam where he encourages a return to a communal bathing ritual in our modern society.

"Friends should have benefits when it comes to steam showers and I believe that an old fashioned steam helps connect us all in a much higher level. Would it not be great if we could still go to the public baths for a proper bath?"}

Are you ready to feel good and completely relax?

Let us know whether you prefer Yoga, Steam Therapy or simply living well for relaxation. Or, perhaps all three together!

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