Life can be stressful but with stress relief yoga it can be easier to live. First of all, there is your busy schedule: getting up very early for school, studying late into the night for exams, juggling sports, homework and meals. There is a lot to balance!
Everyday problems can also lead to emotional stress: advising a friend through a breakup, grieving a disagreement with a parent, weighing an important decision, or thinking about whether one will make the final decision for the college team. When you have a lot going on in your head, it’s easy to feel stressed. There are many different ways to deal with stress. Talking to friends, playing sports, and seeing a school counselor are just a few.
Stress relief yoga can help lower stress by encouraging relaxation, which is the natural opposite of tension. Stress relief yoga can help three areas of ourselves that are frequently impacted by stress: our body, calm mind, and breathing.
You don’t have to wait until you’re feeling stressed to do stress relief yoga, and you shouldn’t! People who practice a little yoga every day often find that they can handle things better when life gets a little crazy. By practicing stress management yoga you develop your ability to calm, concentrate, balance and relax.
Stress Relief Yoga is more than just stretching
Many people think that yoga is about stretching or twisting the body into various seemingly impossible pretzel shapes. But yoga is easier than it seems. There are simple and complicated poses, so there is something for every skill level. Yoga doesn’t require any special equipment, so you can practice it virtually anywhere.
Yoga poses are good exercise and can help relax tense muscles in the body. The most stressed areas of the body are the neck, shoulders and back. However, other regions of the body (such as the face, jaw, fingers, and wrists) can benefit from easy yoga stretches.
Stress relief yoga is far more than just a physical form of exercise. The key to getting the most out of each pose is to focus not only on your body, but also your calm mind and your breathing.
Getting the most out of yoga
Think about how you can unite your body, calm your mind and breathe in a yoga pose. Even a simple pose like Mountain Pose will relieve stress if you focus on breathing slowly and evenly and imagining yourself as solid and stable as a mountain.
Stay “in the moment”. When we are stressed, we frequently reflect on what we should do in the future or how we could have done better in the past. Instead of allowing your thoughts to wander while doing yoga, focus on your body and breathing. Consider how a specific muscle or area of the body feels. Focus on inhaling slowly as your body expands and exhaling slowly as you curl up.
Being in the moment like this helps you develop your ability to concentrate, which is helpful in all aspects of life.
Use your breathing when things get difficult. If a stress relief yoga pose feels challenging, imagine directing your breath toward the area of your body that feels stiff or tense. Help? You can also use this ability for the rest of your life. Whenever something challenges you (a difficult homework problem, an argument with a parent), try to focus on your breathing. You will be surprised at how much better you handle the situation.
When to Try Yoga
Take a weekly yoga class or watch a kapalbhati pranayama yoga video to learn some yoga poses. There are courses and videos created specifically for teenagers.
You can also integrate small yoga classes into your everyday life to help you cope with stressful moments. Here are some ideas:
Before a test. Do simple neck and shoulder rolls right at your desk to relax tight neck, shoulder and back muscles. Also, try tensing and relaxing your fingers and hands. These exercises can take as little as 30 seconds and can be repeated as many times as needed!
During studies. Try some simple yoga moves to relax areas that may have been tense while studying. Neck and shoulder rolls can relieve tension in the back and shoulders. Forward folds and twists relieve tension in the lower back. Give your face a mini massage to relax a tense jaw. Balancing poses like Tree Pose can help you focus your energy so you can focus on what you need to do.
Before going to bed. Do a few stress relief yoga poses before bed to relax, especially if you have a lot to think about. Poses that require you to bend forward, such as Child’s Pose, tend to be relaxing. They allow you to disconnect from the rest of the world and feel calm and peaceful. Stay bent forward for three or four deep, slow breaths, allowing your body and calm your mind.
When you lift weights, your muscles get stronger and grow. When you practice yoga, your brain cells develop new connections and changes occur in brain structure and function, leading to better cognitive abilities such as learning and memory. Yoga strengthens parts of the brain that play key roles in memory, attention, consciousness, thinking and language. Think of it as weightlifting for the brain.
Yoga and you
The best thing about yoga is that it helps you discover more about your calm mind, your body and your emotions. To better handle the ups and downs of life, stress relief yoga can help you become more balanced, calm, focused, and relaxed. Of course, you won’t immediately feel more positive, calmer, or more energized after doing a few yoga poses. As with all good things, the effects of yoga teachings must increase over time.
However, if you take half an hour every day to do a few yoga poses, you should notice a subtle change after a few weeks. Yoga will help you manage life’s difficulties in the future and become a natural part of your daily routine as you practice it longer.
