Why Yoga for Stress Relief?
Life is stressful. For one thing, there is your schedule-your very-early-morning wake-up to go to school, studying late at night for tests, sports practice, homework, and trying to eat. That’s a lot to juggle!
Everyday concerns can add up and become a source of emotional stress: counseling a friend through a breakup, regretting a fight with a parent, weighing an important decision, or stressing about whether you’ll make final cuts for the varsity team. With so much on your mind, it may be easy to feel stressed.
There are many ways of coping with stress: talking with friends, exercising, and seeing a school counsellor are just a few. Yoga is effective in reducing stress because it provides time to relax-the natural opposite of stress. In fact, yoga helps all three aspects of ourself which are most affected by stress – namely, our body, mind, and breathing.
It’s not necessary to wait until you’re stressed out and it shouldn’t be! Individuals who practice just a little yoga each day usually find they are better able to handle it when life gets a little crazy. Yoga will help develop your capability for calming, focusing, balancing, and relaxing yourself.
Cat-Cow Pose Marjaryasana to Bitilasana = This pose marries your breath into movement as you still your mind and release any tension. Allow your breath to lead each subtle movement.
Start in a tabletop position.
Place your wrists underneath yours shoulders and yours knees underneath your hips.
As you inhale, look up towards the ceiling and let your belly drop towards your mat, draping your back. This is Cow Pose.
As you exhale, draw your chin to your chest and round your spine towards the ceiling, into a catlike position. Continue to flow between these two postures for 1 minute.
Child’s Pose – Balasana
Child pose helps create an inward focus and restore energy. It also supports mental and physical relaxation.
Place a cushion under your forehead, torso, or thighs for more support.
From a kneeling position, place your knees together or slightly apart.
Sit back onto heels. Fold forward at the hips and lower the forehead to your mat. Stretch your arms out in front of you or alongside of your legs. Let your torso melt into your thighs. Breathe deeply and begin working on release. Hold up to 5 minutes.
Legs-Up-the-Wall Pose – Viparita Karani
Legs-Up-the-Wall Pose deeply relaxes the body, regulates lymph flow, and circulates the blood. Sit on the floor with your body facing a wall, as close to the wall as possible. Roll back, and place your legs up the wall with your knees extended. Place your hips close to the wall or a few inches away. Put your arms at your sides, or place one hand on your stomach and one hand on your chest. You can stay in this position for as long as 15 minutes.
Savasana – Corpse Pose
In this asana, with every deep inhalation, release all tension and let your mind relax. Then lie on your back with your feet falling slightly wider than your hips. Permit the toes to splay out to the sides. Place your arms along the body in a 45-degree angle. Align the head, neck, and shoulders with your spine. Take deep inhalation and release completely into the body. Stay in this position for 10-20 minutes.
Stick Pose: Yastikasana
Lie on your back on the floor with your legs extended and your feet together. Take your arms up over your head to rest them on the ground, arms parallel to each other. Inhaling from this position, stretch your body as long as possible, extending through the fingers and the toes, reaching toward something at either end of you. Hold for five to 10 seconds, breathing deeply. Release and repeat two to three times.
How it helps relieve stress: You know that when you’re stressed, your muscles tense up, and that can lead to all sorts of issues, including bad posture. By doing stick pose, you help relax some of the muscles leading to faulty posture; help improve circulation throughout your body, says Jain. It also improves breathing to ease stress.
Reclining Bound Angle With Bolster.
Place a bolster-you can also use several folded-up blankets, or a rolled up towel-lengthwise on your mat and lie back on the bolster/blankets so that they support your spine, neck, and head. Your tailbone and hips should be off of the bolster and resting on the floor. Bring the soles of your feet together and let your knees fall open wide. Place blocks, pillows, or rolled-up towels underneath each thigh or knees, if necessary. Reach your arms out to the sides down below shoulder height with your palms up. Close your eyes and stay here for as long as five minutes.
How it helps relieve stress: This asana stretches and relaxes the pelvic area muscles for women in menstrual discomfort. The chest opening will also allow a better breathing pattern and, thus, reduced levels of stress. You will get a nice inner thigh and hip stretch.
Legs Up the Wall Pose.
Sit with one side of your body against the wall. Lying back from the position onto your back, slide your legs up to extend them on the wall, feet together or hip-width
hips apart, ankles released. If you feel any tightness in your lower body, move your hips a few inches away from the wall. Allow your arms to drop alongside your body, palms facing up. You can stay anywhere from one to five minutes, but if at anytime you feel tingling or numbness in your feet, come out sooner, moving slowly.
How it helps relieve stress: This pose triggers relaxation by reversing the direction of circulation of the body and blood. “It also soothes the brain to a no-thought state,” Jain explains.
