The Ally Point, Low Tide by Claude Monet
My father has high blood pressure. His parents had high blood pressure. My mother has high blood pressure. Her parents had high blood pressure. So, it came as no surprise when in a 2010 annual check-up I had blood pressure readings of as high as 140/95. Instead of immediately prescribing medication, mostly because I had no other major risk factors, my doctor suggested that I purchase a home blood pressure monitor and take my blood pressure in a particular way and on a regular basis. This I did earnestly.While I am certain that the doctor’s recommendation was more aimed at gathering data, it turned out to be a prescription for awareness. Simply taking my blood pressure regularly made me more aware of this phenomenon that was always present inside me, which in my case lead to some more mindful choices. I was already a runner, yoga practitioner, and vegan. I’ve been running since I was a teenager, doing yoga since college, and eating vegan since 1995, all studied interventions for blood pressure reduction. But just doing these things in general was not enough to impede the encroaching family induced high blood pressure. What more could I do lifestyle wise?First, I scheduled a consult with a registered dietitian. She had me do another data collection/awareness exercise, a 72 hour food diary with extremely precise descriptions of each food and each meal, which I completed in great detail. While she did give me some very specific ways to change the way that I eat… the exercise itself, taking 72 hours to mindfully observe (without judging or changing anything in that 72 hour period) everything I was eating and drinking, had a profound effect on my awareness of what I was specifically consuming. (See list at the end of other non-yoga but important lifestyle changes made.)Like the changes I made to my running routine, I made similar changes to my practice of yoga. While I have had a practice for some time, there was a period when it was more haphazard and less consistent. Once I got the blood pressure warning, I started scheduling a more regular yoga practice. I have said for a long time that 80% of the benefit of doing yoga comes from just doing yoga, and that you can adjust the intensity and duration to tweak the other 20% of the benefit if you want. Philosophers, sages, thinkers and people of good common sense have had it right: “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” So, I set a routine to do a little bit of yoga 5 days per week. The standard I started with was set around my family responsibilities. At that time I needed to start prepping breakfast and lunches at 7:30 a.m. So I decided that my practice would start at whatever time it could and always end at 7:30. Some mornings I would get up and start practicing by 6:30, but most morning I would start around 7:05. Sometimes I wouldn’t be able to start until 7:26 and I would contemplate just scrapping it altogether, but then I realized that the routine mattered more than the duration. So I would practice for 3 or 4 minutes and then end at 7:30. Other times when I did end up scrapping the practice altogether for the day, I would be more irritable, moody, stressed, and inevitably my blood pressure readings would be elevated. In other words, even just 3 or 4 minutes made a dramatic impact in lowering my blood pressure! Don’t get me wrong, I am not starting a new fad “3 Minute Yoga!” There are times when a longer practice really helps and makes a bigger difference. I’m simply suggesting that an all or nothing attitude is ultimately destructive.Having said that, I did make some changes to the type of postures I practice in order to positively impact my blood pressure. For example, I started prioritizing the inclusion of more inverted postures: Headstand 1, Headstand 2, Handstand, Forearm stand, and Shoulderstand. People with excessively high blood pressure above 145/95 should avoid fully inverted postures. When one first goes upside down, cerebral blood pressure is increased. This increases the risk of stroke for those who already have extremely high blood pressure. However, after a few moments upside down, the body readjusts to the new circumstance and blood pressure lowers. This lowering effect is magnified as inverted postures are practiced longitudinally (over time). While there is a complex physiology as to why this happens, including baroreceptors and the autonomic nervous system, the main point is that by practicing inverted postures I was retraining my body to lower its own blood pressure. I also included some specific forward bends to have a similar blood pressure positive effect.Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, I made adjustments to my practices of breathing (pranayama) and meditation, like including them. While in the past sitting in meditation was an afterthought, I began front-loading a sitting practice before moving through yoga postures (asana). Meditation can be just an important a tool as physical exercise when reducing blood pressure. Sometimes I would sit with my sphygmomanometer (blood pressure monitor) going and experiment with different ways of breathing to observe which breathing practices best lowered my blood pressure. Longer inhalation as compared to exhalation increased my blood pressure and longer exhalation as compared to inhalation decreased my blood pressure. As a result of these self experiments, I started engaging a breathing pattern of elongating the exhalation with relationship to the inhalation. I also experimented with different meditation foci. While many topics of meditation/contemplation had a positive effect on lowering my blood pressure, some that seemed to lower it most and most consistently are thinking of my loved ones and how I love them, broadening my view of nature and the natural world, and whatever makes me smile.Today, as I write this, my blood pressure reading is 113/74. It is my hope that my personal example of change and self determination will be of support and inspiration to those of you who are engaged in similar struggles. You can make change, big change, and it can be made without tremendous shifts in your life. Laugh. Meditate. Breathe. Do some yoga (any yoga). Get outside. Think about what you are eating before, during, and after you eat it. Make commitments. Be consistent. Be dedicated. Be mindfully aware.
(Equally important non-yoga changes made: reduced sodium intake dramatically, changed running routine and was much more diligent about doing it regularly, no matter what, and added regular acupuncture and massage each month.)
