Practicing Appreciation During Yoga Month
The human mind loves to focus on the negative. In fact, there is something called the negativity bias or negativity effect which basically states that the negative influences our cognition and behavior more deeply than the positive. But don’t take it personally, it is a human condition resulting from evolution and our inherent survival instinct. [...]
How to Navigate Winter Darkness
As the light shifts to lower intensity and the weather begins to ebb and flow, we are invited to more skillfully engage with daily life. In the past, human beings were much more attuned to the rhythm and patterns of the natural world, whereas today, while we are still affected by these same natural currents, [...]
Adapting with Change During Yoga Month
Did you know that the Earth has experienced five mass extinctions in its living history? One of these mass extinctions (End-Permian) took out 96% of all the species on the planet and guess what? Life managed to bounce back. If this isn’t amazing I am not sure what is. Four percent of life came back [...]
Practicing Acceptance During Yoga Month
Today we kick off UW Yoga Month with an article by Danny Arguetty discussing how we can practice more acceptance in our everyday lives and with yoga to tackle life’s many curveballs. If you have not already signed up for UW Yoga Month, be sure to do so here! We have a month full of [...]
Meditation in a Time of Stress
In a time of so much uncertainty and turmoil, we turn to our UW experts for guidance on exercise, nutrition, finances, and resilience. One practice with many benefits is meditation. While it can be intimidating to those with little to no experience, meditation has no set rules and is a simple practice that can overtime [...]
Dare to Pause: Begin Again in 2020
Welcome to Week 1 of The Whole U’s six-week Dare to Do New Year’s challenge! This week, thousands from across the University of Washington community will Dare to Pause, reflect on the past year, and set goals for the year ahead. For each successive week of the challenge, we’ll be focusing on a different area [...]
Practicing Acceptance to Find Contentment
This week, as part of our ongoing Dare to Do challenge, we’re focusing on strategies for and benefits of accepting oneself. Danny Arguetty, manager of UW Recreation’s Mindfulness Program, took time to reflect on ways to welcome acceptance into your life and the positive growth and outcomes that come about when you do. Human beings are wonderfully [...]
Yoga Month: Chakras Part Two
In the past three weeks of UW’s Yoga Month, we have been learning more about what benefits yoga can have on the body, mind, and soul. Last week we presented the first four chakras – foundation, fluidity, empowerment and heart. This week, we’ll be diving into the last three chakras – expression, insight, and connection. 5) [...]
Yoga Month: Chakras Part One
In the past two weeks we have learned that yoga is a practice with many physical and mental health benefits, including reduced low back pain, increased levels of particular neurotransmitters, and greater resilience to stress. While all the science behind yoga’s benefits is valuable, in general, most people practice because they simply feel better with [...]
Yoga Month: Sound Mental Health
One of the hallmarks of the practice of yoga is its ability to combine conscious body movements, intentional breath, and awareness of sensations, thoughts, and emotions. The various techniques utilized in each one of these segments of the practice hone and tone our mindfulness muscle. When this mindfulness muscle is more robust, we may experience [...]
The Power of Self-Care
In the last 150 years the human experience has become faster-paced, more stimulated, and much more scheduled. If we zoom back and digest this in the context of how long human beings have been around (about 60,000 years), it is clear that our human instrument is grappling to adapt to a very different lifestyle. While [...]
“How you do anything is how you do everything”
Faculty Friday will return next week to conclude January’s Dare to Move segment of our 90-day Dare to Do New Year’s challenge. Join us in continuing to celebrate the benefits of being active on February 10 at a day-long Yoga Retreat led by Danny Arguetty, manager of the UW Mindfulness Program. Below, Arguetty shares his own story [...]