Unfortunately, we live in a world where our everyday lives can be a source of stress. A great way to promote relaxation, which is the natural opposite of stress, is yoga. Three things that are most often affected by stress are our body, our mind, and our breathing. Yoga can benefit all three of those aspects.
A few great yoga poses for stress relief are child’s pose, standing or seated forward fold, cat-cow, legs up the wall, sukhasana or easy pose, and savasana or corpse pose. Try incorporating these poses into your yoga practice to help you relieve stress. These poses, and others, can help lower your blood pressure, improve your lung function, and improve your heart rate.
One of the things that causes a stress response in your body is your sympathetic nervous system, which controls your fight or flight response. Any sort of stress can set it off, increasing your heart rate and quickening your breathing. Once upon a time, that was great for running away from predators, but we don’t have to worry about that so much anymore. Our bodies don’t know the difference between a tiger chasing us and having to respond to a stressful email, though.
To combat this, doing yoga promotes deep, calm breathing. Breathing calmly can reduce your sympathetic nervous system activity, while increasing your parasympathetic response, which reduces your blood pressure and your heart rate. Doing yoga and breathwork when you’re stressed can help teach your body that it doesn’t have to be in fight or flight mode, and it can calm down.
Like a lot of exercise, yoga can also help boost your endorphins, which can also help you feel calmer and happier. It can also help you manage symptoms of physical and emotional pain as well. When you’re stressed, your body produces cortisol. Yoga can help reduce that production.
The good news is that you don’t have to have an intense yoga practice to help relieve stress. Even just fifteen minutes a day, a few times a week, can make a difference. Here’s a fifteen-minute yoga flow you can try for stress relief that won’t interrupt your entire day:
- Start in child’s pose. Close your eyes, let your body melt into the ground, and focus on breathing deeply through your nose.
- Move into cat-cow. Move with your breath, lifting your chest and tailbone into cow pose on the inhale, and rounding your back and tucking your chin into cat pose on the exhale.
- From cat-cow, lift your hips into downward dog. Breathe deeply and focus on grounding into your hands and feet, feeling the earth under you.
- Step your feet forward to meet your hands in uttanasana, or forward fold. You can grab opposite elbows and let your body hang heavy, releasing all tension from your neck and head.
- Interlace your hands behind your back and stretch your arms toward the ceiling in a heart opener. Keep focusing on deep, even breaths.
- Come into tadasana, or mountain pose, with your feet hip-width apart and your arms at your sides, facing forward. Make sure your shoulders are down from your ears and your core is engaged. Ground yourself through your feet.
- In a sitting position on the floor, extend your legs out in front of you. As you inhale, lengthen your spine, and on the exhale, fold forward, reaching for your shins, ankles, or feet. Take deep breaths and release any lingering tension.
Try your best to keep your mind on your practice as you go through your yoga flow, instead of worrying about anything else. Enjoy the present moment as it is and stay as present as you can.
A few other things you can try to calm your mind are meditation, listening to music, going out in nature, journaling, or being creative. Whatever you try, make sure you’re being mindful and breathing calmly. Pay attention to the present moment without judgement. Be exactly where you are.
What are your tips and tricks for calming your mind and relieving stress?