My Stress Management Experience Through Yoga in a Month

Methodology

Subject

I am a male aged 24, with a strong conviction to health and wellness. My recent past has predisposed me to stressful situations especially challenging family and relationship issues coupled with learning burdens. My recent visit to a doctor revealed signs of early arrhythmia. My favorite physical activity is Yoga due to its aspect of incorporating meditation and breathing to enhance mental wellbeing (Khalsa et al., 2015). I made a resolute decision to alleviate my stress through yoga as an intervention. The effectiveness of the intervention will be measured through cardiac stress test as described in the study.

Objective

To execute one or more types of relaxation techniques to alleviate the stress level.

Procedure

The type of intervention is yoga which is a physical exercise which builds strength, harmony, and awareness in the body, spirit, and soul. A cardiac stress test was conducted before the intervention. This test is meant to reveal how the heart was pumping hence revealing problems associated with blood flow within the heart (Wijeysundera et al., 2019). I was cautioned not to eat or drink before the test for efficiency. The technician placed sticky patches (electrodes) on my chest, legs, and arms. Body hair was shaved to help them stick.

I began exercising on the yoga equipment, gradually increasing the difficulty of the activity as the test progressed. I exercise until my pulse rate reaches a specific level or until I get indications and symptoms that prevent me from continuing. The intervention that was to take 45 minutes was conducted on a comfortable spot. After I stopped exercising, I was asked to stand still for several seconds and then lie down for a period of time with the monitors in place. My doctor watched for any problems as my heart rate and breathing returned to normal. When my exercise stress test is complete the heart rate was then recorded against the heart rate before starting the intervention as presented in the table below.

Results

The results of stress test before and after the yoga interventions were recorded in the table below:

Discussion

The cardiac stress test conducts a pulse rate analysis by comparing the heart rate before and after the intervention. Yoga exercise proved to be appropriate for me to alleviate stress burden as shown by the stress test. The result shows a significant change to normality by the heart rate after the intervention. The heart rate before the implementation of yoga was relatively high showing a mild stress level. However, after administering the one-hour yoga exercise, the heart rate first increased drastically as the heart pumps faster in response to the exercise but reduced to normal after the exercise is terminated. The normal pulse rate for a healthy individual is within 72 per minutes (Billard and Diday, 2014). Before the intervention, my pulse rate was 77 which is significantly higher but reduced to normal after the intervention. The facilitating health technician informed me that I had nothing to worry about since my health was devoid of myocardial infarction, coronary artery disease among others.

Reflection

The stress burden was hard on me until I deployed the yoga intervention alongside the cardiac stress test. The outcome of this intervention was wholesome health improvement due to increased relaxation and reduced stress levels as revealed by normalized pulse rate. My emotional health is restored and my skill and experience in administering yoga intervention and measuring stress level will go a long way to fully alleviate my stress and also those around me. I was also excited that my stress had not predisposed me to mental health issues and that my health and well-being were well checked. Yoga is one of the best interventions to create relaxation which entails coordinating the body soul and spirit to create a relaxed and somber psychological state (Sarkissian, 2012).

References

Billard, L., & Diday, E. (2014). Symbolic data analysis: Definition and examples.

Khalsa, M. K., Greiner‐Ferris, J. M., Hofmann, S. G., & Khalsa, S. B. S. (2015). Yoga‐enhanced cognitive behavioral therapy (Y‐CBT) for anxiety management: a pilot study. Clinical psychology & psychotherapy, 22(4), 364-371.

Sarkissian, M. S. G. (2012). Building spiritual capital: The effects of kundalini yoga on adolescent stress, emotional affect, and resilience (Doctoral dissertation, Loyola Marymount University).

Wijeysundera, D. N., Beattie, W. S., Austin, P. C., Hux, J. E., & Laupacis, A. (2019). Non-invasive cardiac stress testing before elective major non-cardiac surgery: population-based cohort study. BMJ, 340.