Yoga is growing in popularity because of its physical and mental benefits. Practicing yoga daily will help prevent and reduce stress, which is one of the common goals among people who want positive growth in life and emphasize self-improvement.
Besides numerous physical postures, yoga also involves breathing techniques, meditation, and relaxation practices such as yoga nidra.
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How yoga helps in getting relief from stress?
Yoga boosts physical and mental relaxation, which in turn reduces stress and anxiety to a great extent. Various physical postures taught in the best yoga schools in Rishikesh enhance flexibility, release tension, and ease pain. In addition, yoga poses help release physical blockages such as muscle knots, thereby releasing tension and negative emotions. They also encourage the release of endorphins that boost your mood and positively impact how you manage stress.
While practicing yoga, if you focus on the present moment, it will enhance your mental awareness, give a boost to your concentration, and enhance focus. When you become conscious of the transient nature of body sensations, feelings, and thoughts, you might find it easy to let go of your attachments to both positive and negative experiences. You might also know how to cultivate various feelings of love and serenity by practicing yoga at the best yoga school in Rishikesh.
Healthy Body Healthy Mind Tips
Manage stress with yoga breathing methods.
Breathing exercises called pranayama teach you how to relax, properly control your breath, and take deep breaths. This assists in reducing stress and calms your mind and body. Breathing techniques also increase your sleep quality and highly encourage mindfulness.
You can practice breathing exercises while doing yoga or when you want to focus on relaxation techniques all day. All these techniques are also valuable when you experience destructive emotions or challenging situations.
Some popular kind of pranayama includes
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Alternate nostril breathing or Nadi shodhana
Alternate nostril breathing is one of the best yoga breathing exercises. It helps in easing stress and anxiety. Studies also show it is good for the brain, heart, and lungs. To do alternate nostril breathing, you should breathe slowly through one of your nostrils and keep the other shut with your fingers.
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Ujjayi breathing
Ujjayi, also called victorious breath. It has been practiced for many years to increase hatha yoga practice. Also known as Oceanic breath, the sound produced by Ujjayi helps synchronize breath with the movements at the time of yoga, making the whole yoga practice highly rhythmic.
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Breath of fire or Kapalbhati.
Kapalbhati is a breathing exercise that encourages overall good health. The meaning of kapalbhati means shining forehead. Its name is so because practicing kapalbhati enhances intellect and mental health. It is an exercise where you need to sit in a specific pose and do breathing.
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Lion’s Breath or Simhasana
Lion’s breath helps relieve tension by stretching the full face, including your tongue and jaw. When you feel like you are getting overheated, you can try this breath to blow off some steam.
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Sitali breath
It is also called cooling breath, a breathing practice in yoga that cools down your body and has a calming effect on your nervous system. Practicing Sitali breath during the summer season is beneficial to soothe the heat building up in your body.
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Humming bee breath or Brahmari
Brahmari, also called humming bee breath, is a simple breathing practice that uses sound by humming while exhaling. While exhaling, this sound assists in down-regulating the nervous system to create calmness. The humming sound produced by this humming sound mimics the “om,” which is very sacred. This is why the practitioner is connected with the entire universe by practicing this.
5 Yoga poses for stress relief
If you want to reduce your daily stress, then try these five yoga poses
Standing forward bend: A yoga pose that stretches your hamstrings, hips, and thighs and is efficient for getting relief from stress, depression, and fatigue.
How to do?
At first, reach tall and carry out exhalation in the forward direction. Then bend your knees to keep your palms on the floor with your head pressing against your legs. Be careful about your spine getting stretched in various directions while pulling your head down and in. For a deep stretch, try to make your legs straighten. Hold on to this pose for about 6- 8 breaths, then while inhaling, stretch your arms outward and raise them as your torso back to the standing posture.
Cat–cow poses: It has a massaging effect on your spine and relieves stress. Moreover, it also has a soothing effect and stretches your lower back.
How to do?
For Cat pose: Start with all your fours, then exhale, round up your back toward the ceiling, and bring your navel up toward your spine. Come back to the neutral pose.
Cow pose: With inhaling, tilt your pelvis back so that your tailbone twigs up. Now draw your navel in, and keep your abdominal muscles enfolding your spine.
Head-to-knee forward bending: A yoga pose that helps in relieving mild depression and anxiety while having a calming effect on your brain.
How to do?
Sit up straight, keeping your legs extended, bending your left leg, and bringing your foot’s sole towards the upper inside right thigh. Your left-hand side knee must rest on the floor. Then put both palms on either side of your right leg or inhale. Turn towards the direction of the extended leg and then exhale while folding in the forward direction. Hold on for about 5-6 breaths, then repeat this pose on the other side.
Bridge pose: A highly beneficial yoga pose that decreases anxiety, fatigue, and insomnia. In addition, it also offers slow stretching of the legs and back.
How to do?
Lie down on your back and bend both knees, placing your feet flat on the floor with your hip-width apart. Slide your arms inside of your body with your palms facing downward. Now slide your arms alongside your body with your palms facing downward. Now breathe in and lift your hips upward, rolling your spine off the floor. Squeeze your knees slightly together to keep your knees apart. Press down into your arms and shoulders to open your chest upwards. Engage your legs and buttocks to lift your hips to a higher position. Breathe in and hold on for about 4 – 8 breaths.
Corpse pose: A yoga pose that offers relaxation to your entire body by putting your body at ease. It slows your breathing, lowers blood pressure, and alleviates the nervous system.
How to do?
Lie flat on your back by keeping your legs close to each other but not touching each other, with your arms at the sides and palms facing upward. Allow your eyes and meet to soften, and close your eyes while you take deep breaths. By initiating at the top of your head, bring your attention to every part of your body till you reach your toes. Hold on to this position for about 4-5 minutes.
Conclusion
Yoga has a calming effect on your body; a maximum of these poses help relieve stress. The balance and the strength of the body, when combined with focus to calm the mind, get reflected in your body and mind unity. So this is why many people are turning to this alternative therapy by joining 200 hours of yoga teacher training in Rishikesh.
