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Conversely, a healthy sex life can be a nice buffer against the stresses of the world, and can bring benefits that are good for health, like lowered blood pressure. The trick is to take a proactive stance--manage stress to the point that you can 'get your groove back,' and then use a healthy sex life as the enjoyable stress reliever it can potentially be!

If you're not having as much fun in the bedroom as you'd like, fear not. The following sex-and-stress resources can help you to better understand the link between stress and sex, identify how the two may be impacting each other in your life, and do what you can to reduce stress and increase your libido, maintaining a healthy, enjoyable sex life. Have fun!

The Links Between Sex and Stress
Here's some research and information on how sex works well as a stress reliever, and some of the benefits of sex for stress management. Definitely worth a read!

How Stress Can Lead to Low Libido
Stress in all areas of your life can lead to low libido, or a lack of desire for sex, which can lead to friction in a relationship and keep you from enjoying the benefits in the article linked above. Learn which types of stress are the worst, and how to avoid letting stress impact your sex drive.

How to Get In The Mood When You're Too Stressed For Sex
Sex can be a great stress reliever, but not when you're too stressed to use it. Here are some strategies for loosening up and getting 'in the mood', even when you're stressed.

Do you find that stress is harming your sex life? Or is sex your greatest stress reliever? Talk about it in the comments or on Facebook.

_{Like this post? Want to use it to start a discussion with your friends? Pass it on!}

Read More Relationship Research for Stress Relief

Sex, Stress, and Your Life: Need A Change? originally appeared on About.com Stress Management on Thursday, January 19th, 2012 at 01:38:21.

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One of the effects of last week's to-do over yoga injuries was to propel a new book entitled The Science of Yoga into the upper reaches of Amazon.com's most popular yoga books. This was no coincidence, since the fire-starting article in The New York Times ("How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body") was adapted from this forthcoming book. That's a lot of buzz for a book that hasn't even been published yet. Luckily, I was given an advance copy for review and I discovered a few surprises. Read more...

The Science of Yoga originally appeared on About.com Yoga on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 at 23:10:54.

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I'm not really great with the dates, but I know I took my first yoga class in the fall of 2001, not long after September 11th. I had only been in New York a few months and didn't have a job yet, so I couldn't afford many classes. An old resume shows that I started working for a book publisher in October, but it wasn't until a few months later that I became a regular at the yoga studio a few doors down from my office. So winter/spring 2002 was when I really became a student of yoga, meaning that I have now been practicing a full ten years, one of my longest relationships to date.

My first teachers were wonderful people. I took class with gorgeous, red-headed, down-to-earth Fiona every Tuesday evening. Her classes were always packed. She worked us hard and gave the most amazing adjustments. Then on Thursday evening, it was gorgeous, funny, generous Paula who led us in a heart-centered practice. She was the first person I heard mention inner and outer spiral, and, even a decade later, I still have to think really hard every time I hear those directions. I'm profoundly grateful for all my teachers, who all, every single one, happen to be gorgeous.

During these ten years I got married, had a baby, moved across the country, and had another baby, each life change bringing with it a corresponding change in my yoga practice. My kids roll out a yoga mat and do some poses like it's no big deal. My six-year-old explains to us at the dinner table how taking deep breaths calms you down when you are mad. My two-year-old sets up a row of Barbies doing downward dog on the kitchen table. The six-year-old forgets to take deep breaths when she discovers little sis has been playing with her Barbies. I decide to take the deep breaths instead. Yoga is part of my life so it is part of theirs.

I've learned so much but I still often feel like the new kid, which is a nice way to enter the second decade. I guess I thought I have the splits down by now. (I may never get the splits down.) On some days, I feel like I can't really touch my toes and on others, my foot slides behind my head. Sometimes the hard poses get easier and the easy poses get harder. I love asana, but I have learned that, of course, it's not about the poses. Yoga improves my quality of life, and I hope it does the same for you.

My Yogaversary - The First Decade originally appeared on About.com Yoga on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 23:34:26.

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I really enjoy some janu sirsasana, particularly as opposed to paschimottanasana. Focusing on forward bending over each leg individually allows me to feel a deeper stretch than when bending over both legs at the same time. Try to keep your extended leg active by flexing that foot the whole time.

Head to Knee Pose - Janu Sirsasana Is the Yoga Pose of the Week originally appeared on About.com Yoga on Sunday, January 22nd, 2012 at 23:22:44.

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Do you find yourself spending most of your life doing things you must do: things for other people, things for your job, things to keep your life running, things, things, things? How many of these things are done to bring a smile to your face and enjoyment to your life? Or, put another way, how much of your daily life is actually fun?

If you're like most people these days, you're overworked and overly stressed. People are working longer hours, and are needing to remain more focused as they deal with downsizing and an economic crunch that's being tangibly felt. And feeling overworked can take a heavy toll and lead to burnout. (Burnout can be brought on by a combination of long work hours, unpredictable job requirements, and a few other burnout risk factors that many people are experiencing with increasing frequency these days.)

Partially as a way to stave off burnout, and partially as a means to relieve general stress and make life more enjoyable and meaningful, I recommend that we all celebrate 'National Take Back Your Time Week' by culling our schedules, cutting out some unnecessary drudgery, and replacing it not with more unnecessary drudgery or reruns on t.v., but with revitalizing, life-affirming, or just plain fun activities that will soothe our souls and bring us more smiles. (See this related post for fun ideas.)

"That sounds great, Elizabeth, but where do we begin?" you may ask. This is the difficult part of the equation, of course, which often keeps people from making changes in their lives. Don't let this hurdle discourage you! Sometimes it's easy to see what time drains can be plugged--if you're watching several hours of television per night and getting no exercise, an obvious change can be made there. Sometimes time can be created by being more efficient in your everyday activities--taking shortcuts while fixing meals, or multi-tasking (but not too much).

Other times, difficult decisions must be made and certain activities must be dropped to make enough space for you to have a life-affirming hobby or maintain a healthy habit--ingredients for a stress relieving lifestyle. This can be a challenge, akin to de-cluttering your lifestyle; however, it's important to realize that when you don't make time for self-nurturing and just plain fun in your life, you're trading away the enjoyable life that you could have for a life that drains you without replenishing your emotional energy. You're choosing more stress, and perhaps the negative effects that come with chronic stress. When you think of it that way, it may be easier to cut out enough 'have to' activities in your schedule to add a few 'want to' activities.

The following articles can help you carve out some space in your schedule--to 'Take Back Your Time'!--so you can have more room for fun and stress relief in your life:

• Stress and Time: Strategies for Busy People
  Here are some tips for busy people who want to change their priorities and cut out unnecessary activities from their schedules.
• Time Management FAQ
  Here are some general time management strategies for busy, stressed people.
• Time Management Tips
  Busy moms need time management help more than most! Here are some time management ideas for moms--and everyone else!

What are your best time management tips? How might you free up 30 minutes or two hours? Put your best ideas here in the comments!

Take Back Your Time! originally appeared on About.com Stress Management on Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 at 03:49:49.

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While you're in janu sirsasana, which I'm sure you have been since I suggested it on Monday, you might as well try out the revolved version of the pose as well: parivrtta janu sirsasana. The biggest issue I often see with this pose is that people love to try to grab their big toe with the raised arm. And if the time is right, that can serve as a way to deepen the twist. But too often it actually has the opposite effect, forcing the chest to turn down instead of up. Try it both ways and honestly appraise which is more effective.

Parivrtta Janu Sirsasana originally appeared on About.com Yoga on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 at 10:35:48.

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• Organize Your Life By Cutting The Lifestyle Clutter
  Life coaches often help their clients cut out their "tolerations"--those time and energy drains we put up with in our lives that end up stressing us and draining us of motivation and energy we need for areas of our lives that really matter. Here's some free life coach advice on how to identify your tolerations and start eliminating them now!

• How To Manage Your Time
  If you feel like you're always busy and don't have enough time to do what you'd like to do, these tips can help you to weed out the less-vital time drains from what's really important.

• Unhealthy Habits To Leave Behind
  While you're uncluttering your life, you may want to work on cutting out some bad habits as well. These 5 common bad habits are things we tend to do when we're stressed. The problem is that they often cause us more stress than the initial stress we were trying to eliminate! Here are some habits to avoid, and tips on how to avoid them.

• Goal Management For Stress Relief
  Setting and maintaining the right goals can help you in every area of your life. Here are resources on how to set the right goals, reach them, and maintain them long-term.

• Ongoing Stress Management Resources
  From free newsletters, polls and free e-courses, to quizes that can help you to find resources for your personality, these stress management resources can help you to manage your stress and de-clutter your psyche.

De-Clutter Your Life This Year originally appeared on About.com Stress Management on Sunday, January 15th, 2012 at 19:31:34.

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