Why Yoga for Stress Relief?
We are living at incredible times of upheaves, in which our daily lives are full of activities that leave our mind stressed.
For starters, we have hectic work routines which rarely involve any physical activity.
Our bodies have become weaken, while our minds have become overburdened – tearing the fabric of mind-body balance.
To add in salt to injury, we have to deal with emotional stresses – a breakup with a loved one, the demise of a family or friend or regretting heated debate with parents.
All of these just pile up to consume every tiny bit of energy and sanity that’s left in our mind; ultimately leaving our mind utterly stressed influencing our life-decisions and even our existence.
How to cope with stress?
Connecting with nature and our natural way of life is the best therapy to deal with stress that’s burdening our minds. Making time to talk with friends or a weekly dine-out with loved ones are a few ways we can relieve our minds of undue stress.
Increasing the physical activity like going for a morning walk or an hour at the gym are some other ways to reduce our stress levels.
And then finally there is Yoga…
Yoga is an amazing stress reliever therapy that is utterly different than most of the other activities you can perform to reduce stress levels.
Yoga promotes relaxation, it reconnects your body to reinforce body-mind balance. By following a specific pattern of breathing and movements, it helps you reclaim control over your mind.
And well… you don’t really have to wait to get stressed-out to practice yoga.
You can simply keep a little time in your busy schedule (15 minutes) for yoga to be able to better prepare your body and mind for the worldly stressed that's coming your way. Practicing yoga over time will help you build a strong mental capability to face challenges.
How to get the most out of yoga?
Yoga isn’t just about stretching and making certain poses, it’s much deeper than that. The poses of yoga are made to achieve certain breathing, focusing and physical rhythm. Thereby, to squeeze the most benefit from yoga you should:
-Try to yoke your body, mind, and breathing
The ultimate achievement of yoga poses is to reconnect your mind and body to give you better control. When posing for yoga, try to focus deeply on uniting the body, mind, and breathing; once achieved, you’ll feel the “Nostalgia”
-Stay in the moment
The ultimate aim of yoga is to relieve you out of the burdens of the past and worries of the future. Most of the stressed we put our minds through is by keeping hooked to events which we have no control over. When doing yoga, relieve your minds of all the worries and focus at the moment…
-Synchronize your Breathing
The ultimate trick to master the art of yoga is to synchronize your breathing pattern with mind and body needs. When the pose gets difficult, tune your breathing to the stretched area to get relieved. Once you are able to deal with it, you will have better control of your breathing to handle stressful situations.
And if you are looking for some more yoga poses and further guidance do check out our ultimate yoga assessment guide. As it comes with every thing, a yoga practitioner needs when practicing solo.
You can check out our YOGA ASSESSMENT GUIDE™ by clicking here!
Best Yoga Poses To Lower Your Stress
01. Child Pose.
Benefits: Child's pose is the most common yoga pose. Mostly used while resting between the sequence. A great pose which helps to stretch the hips, thighs, and ankles while reducing stress and fatigue. It gently relaxes the muscles on the front of the body while softly and passively stretching the muscles of the back torso.
Directions:
Tips: Women who are pregnant and people with a recent knee injury should avoid this pose..
02. Cat-Cow Pose.
Benefits: Basic yoga pose which is usually practiced for warm-ups. Stimulate abdominal organs like adrenal glands and kidneys. Relieve back pain, improve posture by strengthening neck and back muscles. The breathing pattern also helps you to calm down and relieve you from stress and anxiety..
Directions:
Tips: Keep your belly engage throughout the pose; make slow movement by deepening your breaths. Limit your movements in case of backaches.
03. Eagle Pose.
Benefits: One of the poses with a prime focus on balance stability and concentration. Not only this, but eagle pose is also great for strengthening calf and hamstring muscles while stretching shoulder muscles. The squeezing of arms and legs increases the blood ow and strengthen your immune system.
Directions:
Tips: Relax your shoulders, and push your elbows as far forward as possible. You should feel the stretch in your shoulder blades. If your foot does not wrap around your ankle, just rest the foot next to the ankle the same goes for the hands; if your palms don't meet, let the backs of your hand touch.
04. Head To Knees Pose.
Benefits: A great recovery pose that stretches the spine, shoulders and hamstring muscles. Stimulates abdominal organs such as stomach, liver and kidney for better digestive, endocrine and urinary systems. Clams your brain and relieves mild depression anxiety and fatigue. Great for people with high blood pressure and insomnia.
Directions:
Tips: If you cannot reach for the foot with your hand use a strap to stretch yourself towards the foot. Go slow with the stretch, go deeper on every exhale.
05. Happy Baby Pose.
Benefits: The happy baby pose is known to stretch your groin and lower back. A great recovery pose that relief the hip flexors to allow you to get back to your training. This pose also calms the mind, relieves stress and fatigue. Making it a nice choice to do before bed or at the start/end of practice.
Directions:
Tips: Try to press your lower back to the floor to deepen the stretch. In this pose try to focus on your breathing. Push your feet straight down, to achieve this engage your heel and push them up while pulling your feet back.
06. Legs Up The Wall Pose.
Benefits: A passive yet very efficient pose to relieve stress and relax your mind and body. Gently stretches your hamstring and lower back. Reduces edema in legs and feet and increases blood flow towards upper body and brain, which helps to calm down your nervous system and relieves lower back tension.
Directions:
Tips: If your hamstrings are tight, lie on your back with your hips a few inches away from the wall and your legs up the wall with both knees bent. Plant your feet on the wall. For tight hamstrings, add a yoga block or blanket under your hips to elevate them.
07. Corpse Pose.
Benefits: This yoga pose improves respiratory and cardiovascular functions. Promotes recovery from and treatment of addiction, reduces stress, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain. Improves sleep patterns, enhances overall well-being and quality of life.
Directions:
Tips: The core objective of this pose is to relax, to an extent that you lose your conscious awareness of your body. You can do any modifications to attain that while maintaining the pose. For e.g. Place a blanket under your spine, hips, neck or heels if you feeling uncomfortable.
Thanks for staying till here!
for more exercises (other than yoga) that can boost you sex life life please check out this awesome article.
By the way number of researches have confirmed that that yoga is one of the best and most sustainable form of activity to loose weight and here is why.
Take good care of yourself,
and C.Ya