Inside Yoga 108 (19/5/14)

Last week the BBC ran a special Day of the Body Clock 24-hour exploration of our body’s rhythm through the course of 24 hours. I was interested in this because the practice of yoga helps us to become more aware of our rhythms and those of the world around us.

The exercise revealed several things about our lifestyles, including: If you need an alarm clock, you need more sleep; Olympic swimmers don’t like mornings; when you take drugs matters; late meals make you fat; and blue light is keeping you awake.

The first one is self-explanatory – burning the candle at both ends leaves us tired, the second, abut Olympians is a reference to athletes prefer to compete in the afternoon, when their muscles are stronger; and the latter one is something of a time-bomb, as we become addicted to a little smart phone screens, the iPod, the computer and TV screen, apparently this disrupts our body’s ability to sleep.

This all relates to yoga because its practice is all about being in touch with our body, including its body clock, but also, yoga is teaches us to be in touch with the natural rhythms of the planet we inhabit, from the daily cycle to the seasonal cycle.

To see the BBC article, click on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27406987  and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27161671

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