How yoga can help reduce stress |
How yoga can help reduce stress
Yoga has long been known as a major antidepressant. As yoga grows in popularity, more and more people are experiencing the benefits that this ancient practice brings to their stressful lives. Establishing a consistent yoga routine is the best way to experience the difference that yoga can make. Start with a stress-free yoga program aimed at beginners who think they do not have time for yoga.
Yoga incorporates many popular ways to reduce stress, including
1) exercise
2) learning to control breathing,
3) clear the mind, and
4) relax the body.
Exercise
Hatha Yoga is a physical practice of yoga posture. There are many different types of hatha yoga: some are slow and very focused on counseling, some are fast and exercise. If you are looking to relieve stress, there is no single top yoga style, so choose one that meets your level of fitness and personality. Any exercise will help reduce stress by keeping the body healthy and releasing endorphins, natural hormones that make you feel better. Yoga also relieves stress by stretching.1
When you are depressed, stress is stored in the body which makes you feel stronger and often causes pain.
Yoga stretching removes tension in problem areas, including the hips and shoulders. Relief of low back pain is another common benefit.
Breath Control
Pranayama, or respiratory function, is an essential part of any yoga practice and translates well into life without a mat. At the very least, yoga enhances your awareness of the spirit as a tool for relaxation. Although breathing is an automatic process (you should keep doing it to stay alive), you can choose to control the air. Just learning to breathe and realizing that this can be a quick way to cope with stressful situations is amazingly successful.2
Cleansing the Mind
Our minds are always active, running from one idea to another, exploring future situations, focusing on past events. All this mental activity is tedious and stressful.
Yoga offers several techniques for controlling the mind of a monkey. Another respiratory function, as mentioned above. Each breath is inseparably bound to the present moment; you are not breathing in the past or in the future, but in the present. Focusing on the individual's sense of smell and inhaling one's thoughts is another way of clearing the mind, and it is also a basic form of meditation. In addition, the practice of yoga poses, or asanas, also serves as a basis for meditation. Physical posture and should be done with such concentration, that all other thoughts and worries are set aside, giving your brain the much-needed break.
Relaxation
Each yoga session lasts five to ten minutes spent resting at the corpse - savasana. While this forced relaxation may be difficult at first, it eventually serves the purpose of your complete release of both body and mind. Savasana brings you back to the world of feeling refreshed and equipped with anti-stress tools in your daily life. Yoga Nidra is a practice that provides a long, deep opportunity for relaxation and an introduction to meditation, which can also greatly reduce stress.
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