How To Relax With Yoga

With the frenetic pace of life these days, it’s extremely difficult to sit back and get some perspective on life. Why? Because there are so many thoughts going through your mind that all you can do is to deal with them as fast as they come in.

However, the problem is that with all of these other thoughts, from other avenues, coming in, you don’t get enough time to think for you. You don’t get time to nurture your spirit and give your soul what it needs.  As such, you never get time to relax and unwind; you become tired, irritable and just want to shut off from the world.

Yoga gives you a space to free your mind from all of that mental clutter and, as a bonus, the poses that you do as part of your practice (in Sanskrit, these are called asanas) help to stretch your body and relieve tension from your tightly wound-up muscles. When you start your practice, you’ll chant a mantra which focuses your mind and allows you to focus on the practice to come fully.

What Are The Best Yoga Poses For Relaxation?

Downward Dog

When you begin to practice yoga, one of the first poses that you’ll learn is downward dog.  This staple yoga asana is great for re-energising your muscles, stretching out your upper back as well as getting the blood flowing back to your brain.

To do this pose, stand up straight on your mat. Slowly roll down until your hands are flat on the floor. If you can’t reach the floor, put yoga blocks under your hands. Then step one foot out and then the other foot. Let your head hang naturally and stay in this position for five cycles of breath. When you’re ready to come up, slowly move your feet up towards your hands, one at a time. Then slowly roll up.

Standing Forward Bend

Another forward-bending pose, like downward dog, is, standing forward bend increases exhalation. When we’re stressed or excited while waiting to see if we’ve won big with betting online sports we tend to take very shallow breaths which results in a decrease of oxygen to our brains. This increases our levels of anxiety. So, by increasing exhalation, we calm ourselves down.

To begin this pose, stand up straight and then roll your torso down slowly until your hands touch the floor. If they don’t reach the floor, put two yoga blocks under your hands. In this position, use your quads to pull your kneecaps towards your hips actively.

Interlace your fingers behind your back and lift your arms away from your back. Lift your arms a distance that you feel comfortable and at which you feel a stretch. Don’t lift your arms to the point when you feel pain as, if you do this, you’ll end up hurting yourself.

Hold this position for five cycles of breath, then put the fingers of your other hand on top and repeat for another five cycles. Drop your hands towards your knees and then slowly roll up.