Stress is something everyone is dealing with. What do you do when you’re under stress? Hang out with friends, switch off your phone, lock yourself in a room or avoid eating.
These are not the appropriate ways to deal with stress. Here is a blog that will make you understand how yoga can help you to release tension from your life. You must think that yoga is not for everyone, so here is a blog that will clear your misconceptions about yoga and open your gateways to a beautiful and healthy life with yoga.
So if you are stressed or want to help others deal with stress, the blog is for you. The 5-minute read will unlock your mind and will take you to the world of yoga, a stress-free world.
How Yoga Alleviates Stress
Learn how yoga step-by-step heals you from within.
1. Exercise
When doing yoga as a beginner, start with Hatha Yoga. The initial practice of Hatha yoga is slow and involves stretches. Gradually the level of Hatha yoga increases, making it a short form of workout.
Any form of yoga will help you to relieve stress. Also, stretching will aid in reducing tension. When you are under pressure, tension gets stored in your body, making your body tight and often causing pain. Yoga will help to release tensions from the problem areas like hips and shoulders and also relieves you from lower back pain. In the case of stress management yoga, you can choose any particular type of yoga that suits your level of physical fitness and personality.
2. Breath control
Yoga is all about controlling your breath. It is an essential part of your yoga practice. You will feel relaxed when you are learning, focussing, and holding your breath.
Although breathing is an involuntary act, you will feel its importance when you choose to regulate your breathing. Yoga classes will help you to learn various breathing techniques and perform them effectively. You can also follow those breathing techniques off the mat to keep yourself calm and relaxed. The results of focusing on breathing are excellent and practical. Just learn techniques, and you are good to go.
3. Clearing the mind
Our minds are like monkeys, and we keep jumping from one thought to another. Sometimes we think of working out hard and, on the other hand, making plans to eat junk on weekends; our mind knows no boundaries. Thus the juggling of thoughts makes our brain tired and stressed.
Yoga helps us to tame our minds. It helps us to be at present by focussing on our breath. Yoga involves so many different techniques and postures that need your total concentration; thus, this aid in distracting your mind and being at present. Learning and practicing yoga is like a much-needed break for our brain, bringing relaxation from within.
4. Relaxation
Relaxation is the last but the most crucial part of every yoga session. It is like a forced relaxation; initially, it becomes difficult to relax while keeping your body straight and focusing on your breath movement. Eventually, it will become the favorite part of the yoga session. A yoga session gets ends by performing a corpse pose for 5-10minutes.
Performing Yoga Nidra allows you to be in a more prolonged and more profound period of relaxation. It brings you a lot of well-being and a distressed body. The period of sleeping idle after yoga is essential to trap all the positive energies you incorporated throughout the session.
What does the research say about yoga?
There is plenty of evidence that supports yoga’s effectiveness in stress management.
According to a yoga study in 2018, women who practiced Hatha yoga four times a week experienced a significant reduction in stress, anxiety, and depression. There was also an improvement in the sleep cycle.
A study in 2020 showed that yoga stretches reduced cortisol levels and improved parasympathetic levels meant for relaxation.
Also, a study in 2021 proved that people who did Nidra meditation for continuous 30 days reduced stress levels and enhanced overall wellbeing. It also boosts mindfulness and reduces negative emotions.
Yoga helps you to learn not to concentrate on the t People who do yoga regularly deal better with personal and professional issues. They sleep better and feel less stressed about the things that are not in our control, allowing them to learn to be in the present.
It is never too late to learn yoga. So here are seven fantastic yoga poses that will help you to release stress and anxiety that are holding you back.
Learn The Seven Poses For Stress Releasing
Here are the seven best poses that will help you to release stress, making you feel free and light.
1. Standing Forward Bend
How to do It
Stand straight and inhale. Now bend forward while exhaling, bend your knees enough to be able to place your palms on the floor, with your head pressed against your legs. Try to straighten the legs for a better pose. Hold this pose for 6-8 breaths, then inhale, stretch arms outwards and raise your torso back to the standing position.
Benefits
- It releases your body pains through effective stretching.
- It also aids in treating mild depression and stress.
2. Cat-Cow Pose
How to do It
Cat Pose- Sit with your knees and palms touching the floor. Now round your back towards the ceiling and bring your navel up towards the spine. Bring back to the neutral position of spine and head aligned.
Cow Pose- Inhale and tilt your pelvis back, so your tailbone sticks up. Keep your abdominal muscles hugging your spine by drawing your navel in.
Benefits
- It is the most effective exercise for your back problems.
- It massages the spine and relieves stress.
3. Easy Pose
How to do It
Sit straight, extending your legs in front of your body. Place each foot beneath the opposite knee and cross your legs towards your torso. Place hands on your knees with palms down. Now align your head, spine, and neck with your balanced weight. Stay in this position for a minute, and then gently change the cross of your leg.
Benefits
- It Lengthens your spine.
- Eliminates anxiety
- It helps in relieving physical and mental exhaustion.
4. Hand To Knee Forward Bend
How to do It
Sit straight with the legs extended, bend your left leg and bring the sole close by touching the upper right thigh. Do not lift your knees. Put your arms on either side of the right leg and inhale. Bend towards your extended leg and exhale while folding forward. Hold for 5-6 breaths, and then repeat the same for another side.
Benefits
- It calms your brain and relieves you from headaches and migraine.
- It treats mild depression and anxiety.
5. Bridge Pose
How to do It
Lie flat on your back and bend both knees. Now place flat feet on the floor and hips wide apart. Keep your arms at your sides with your palms facing the ground. Inhale and lift your spine off the mat. Press down into the arms and shoulders to open the chest upwards. Engage legs and buttocks to lift the hips higher. Breathe and hold for 4-8 breaths.
Benefits
- Bridge pose helps relax your legs, back, and hand muscles.
- It also aids in reducing anxiety, fatigue, and insomnia.
6. Corpse Pose
How to do It
Lie flat on your back with legs close but not touching each other. Keep your arms and palms facing up. You need to hold the position for 4-5 minutes. Try to concentrate on every part of your body by feeling every movement in your cells.
Benefits
- Facilitates relaxation of the entire body
- Clams your nervous system
- Lowers the blood pressure
- Helps in glowing skin
7. Childs Pose
How to do It
Kneel on the yoga mat with your legs and slowly sit back onto your heels. Bend forward from the hips, so your chest rests on your thighs. Let your shoulders rest and palms up. Hold the position for 5-6 minutes.
Benefits
- Child pose relaxes your mind and eases the stress
- It calms the nervous and lymphatic systems.
Begin Yoga For Stress Management: It Is Never Too Late
Let the blog clarify all the misconceptions about learning effective yoga.
Step 1 Ditch The Myths
The first step is to ditch all the myths that are keeping you far from yoga learning. Yoga is not meant for flexible people; instead, performing yoga regularly makes you flexible. So the idea is to forget what people say and that you are aging.
Your focus should be on learning yoga and letting people bark. Be determined and consistent in your yoga practice, and you will feel the difference.
Step 2 Join A Beginner’s Class
Now the next step is to find a yoga class. Though you can learn yoga at home through videos, you must look for a suitable yoga class to maintain consistency and learning effectively. You can join any yoga class according to your convenience.
Make sure you always turn up for yoga on time and try to learn basic yoga. Going to regular classes will develop interest, and soon you will feel the change.
Step 3 Relax; Things Take Time
Yoga is not about doing better or worse than someone but about how you feel when you do yoga. So just relax and practice. If you are not able to do some poses, relax! You are in the phase of learning, and things will take time.
Just work hard and be consistent. Each day you will get better.
Step 4 Listen To Your Body
The idea is to listen to your body. No one understands you better than anyone else. So when you can not do any pose, or feel you should not do it, simply do not. Do not run in a race to perform better, and you need to look after your body first and then perform yoga.
Step 5 Focus On Your Breathing
The essentials of yoga for stress management lie in controlling and observing your breath. While performing yoga, it is essential to focus on your breath. The moment you start feeling your breath, you come to the present.
Carefully feel how the breath goes through your nose and then to each cell of your body. Once you focus on breath, your mind will stick to the present. You will feel light, ignited, and stress-free.
Step 6 Ignore The Competition
It needs your courage and efforts to ignore the people performing perfect yoga poses around you. Here you do not have to discourage yourself or get demotivated as you can perform better. Instead, you need to learn and get motivated; if they can, you can also do it.
Keep that positive spirit consistently high. You are not here for the competition. Compete with yourself, and each day you will get better.
Step 7 Try And Try
In your yoga practice, remember that there is always room for trial; you just need to attempt every time to fall. Yoga postures are not done perfectly the first time. Yoga is all about hard work and patience. Just continue doing until you attain success.
You need to put your heart and soul into practice. Be determined, consistent, and loyal to your practice; you will shine with flying colors.
Tips while performing yoga for stress relieving
Release Negativity
Your Yoga sessions will not become fruitful unless you avoid the negative thoughts in your mind. At the start of learning yoga, you may face the issue of getting surrounded by negative thoughts and energies. But how many times do you feel lost in those thoughts, just bring back your mind to the present?
Be consistent and concentrated in your yoga practice; you have become a pro. You need to practice awareness, detachment, and acceptance to surpass the negative feeling and give way to positive thoughts. Once you make it a habit, your mind will eventually focus on positive reviews.
Use Stress Busters Techniques Off The Mat
Yoga is not about how you work on the mat but also how you are off the mat. An hour of yoga sessions will not help when you are living a stressful life. You need to practice several techniques off the mat.
Look at your schedule and lifestyle and see where you can make changes. You can develop a healthy eating plan, give yourself more time, spend time with nature, or even detach from social media. Though even practicing yoga, you will experience ups and downs in your life; you will learn to face them in a better way.
If you have any health condition or are under medications, you should consult a doctor before starting to learn yoga.
The Bottom Line
Whether or not you are dealing with a stressful life, learning and practicing yoga is essential. Yoga comes with an abundance of benefits that can not be overlooked. So incorporate yoga into your lifestyle, ditching all the myths as YOU ARE NEVER TOO LATE FOR LEARNING YOGA.
Yoga, meditation, and breathing exercises are beautiful ways to reduce stress, anxiety, and tensions in your life. You can not remove the causes of stress but can learn to deal with it. Enjoy the process of learning yoga and find a technique that suits to calm and relax you down.
Make yoga learning a happy process rather than a stressful one because we already have many stresses.
