Essential Guide to Yoga for stress management
4 Jan 2020 HYN Himalayan Yoga Academy
Stress in the modern world:
Today, our bodies still secrete cortisol when confronted with stress, just as they did thousands of years ago, but there are more stressors in our lives. We’re dealing not only with physical challenges but with emotional stressors, too.So further for Essential Guide to Yoga For Stress Management
Financial pressures, the demands of the workplace, and hectic schedules — all of these can contribute to increasing our stress levels. All kinds of worries can trigger the body’s flight or fight response: anxiety over a presentation at work; workplace bullying; or concern about whether you’ll be able to pay all your monthly bills on time.
These regular doses of cortisol aren’t good for us. They can weaken our immune systems, injure brain cells, and lead to heart disease. Additionally, cortisol affects us at the cellular level, too, by aging us faster.
Stress levels:
- Moderate: It can improve our performance and efficiency and also drive into positive way.
- Too little: it can result in boredom and tension.
- Too much: It can cause an unproductive anxiety level and whole-body disorders.
Yoga for stress management and health:
In a study conducted by The American Council on Exercise (ACE), it was conclusively proved that yoga helps beginners to counter stress. After eight weeks of observing Yoga practitioners, they observed there was a fundamental improvement in their physical and mental health.
Participants self-reported:
- Boosted mood
- Higher ability to concentrate
- Less emotional instability
- Improved flexibility by 13% to 35%
- Improved muscular strength
- Improved endurance
Yoga to relieve tension:
Yoga is a mind-body exercise that includes physical poses, controlled breathing, and meditation. As I stated above, when you make Yoga a part of your life, it enhances your physical, mental, intellectual, and spiritual health. The best part of Yoga is that it has many ways of doing it. From complex moves for experts to basic poses for beginners, it suits everyone. Hatha pose is one of the most common forms of stress-relieving Yoga for beginners because of its slow pace and simple movements. But Yoga isn’t limited to Hatha, you can start with any pose that suits your preferences.
Having said that, let’s see what the 3 core components of Yoga are:
Asanas (poses):
An asana is a body posture, originally and still a general term for a sitting meditation pose, and later extended in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise, to any type of pose or position, adding reclining, standing, inverted, twisting, and balancing poses.
Breathing:
Yoga breathing, or Pranayamas,is the science of Prana (vital energy) which is referred as a source of all life in all living beings in this universe. It consists of a series of breathing exercises especially intended to meet the body’s needs and keep it in vibrant health.
Other than for increasing vital reserves in the body, Pranayamas are mainly practiced for stilling the mind and thought process – as the prana and thoughts are no different. According to Yogis, we can control our thoughts by the breath, and breathing is a tool to harmonize the body, mind, and consciousness.
Meditation:
Begin your yoga journey with seated meditation, which will help ease you into a meditative state before practicing the postures in this book. Finding a restful, meditative state is as easy as following a few steps – with the goal being to gradually lengthen the spaces between thoughts.