How Yoga Helps Reduce Stress

Stress is bad for your heart and immune system, but there are ways you can reduce stress to live a happier and healthier life. Yoga is a great way to reduce stress by relaxing the central nervous system. Here’s how you can use yoga to cope with anxiety and reduce the stress in your life.

Attend a Yoga Class

If you’ve never done yoga before, it’s a good idea to attend a few yoga classes. Yoga books and DVDs are valuable tools that you can use to help you remember the poses and breathing exercises when you practice at home, but a yoga class is essential for absolute beginners. Attempting to learn the poses without the guidance of a qualified, professional yoga teacher could result in serious injury.

At the beginning of your first yoga class, tell your teacher about any injuries, new or old, that you may have sustained. Even if you’re currently injured, you may be able to perform some of the poses or breathing exercises with a teacher’s supervision. Be sure to tell your teacher about any chronic health problems you may have as well, so that she can adjust the practice according to your needs. There are many dozens of yoga poses and breathing exercises, and you may not be able to safely perform many of them, but that’s okay; no matter your age, state of health or fitness level, yoga can benefit you.

Establish a Home Practice

Once you’ve attended a few yoga classes, you’re ready to establish a home practice. Many students of yoga find it’s satisfying to continue attending classes once every week or two, even after they begin a daily home practice. It’s a good idea to keep taking yoga classes with a qualified professional teacher; you’ll continue to learn new things and you’ll be less likely to hurt yourself when practicing yoga at home.

For your home yoga practice, you’ll need a quiet area where you can practice undisturbed. Your yoga space will need to be big enough to allow you to move freely. You may feel that your home yoga session needs to be as long as your yoga class (most yoga classes are 60 to 90 minutes in length), but this isn’t true. Just twenty minutes of yoga each day can significantly reduce your stress.

Stick to It

Practicing yoga for stress relief requires as much dedication as any other exercise program. The more frequently you practice yoga, the more benefits you’ll feel. Don’t berate yourself, however, if you can’t find time to practice yoga every single day. Just do yoga as often as you can.

The more often you do yoga, the more adept you’ll become and the more enjoyable the experience will be. As yoga becomes a part of your daily life, you’ll find it becomes more and more easy to find the motivation to practice, and you’ll suffer less and less from the effects of stress.

Yoga: A Natural Energy Boost

If an energy boost is what you’re after, yoga just might do the trick. Practicing yoga is a natural way to increase your energy level. With a regular yoga practice, you may even find yourself resorting less and less to energy drinks and sugary snacks that add excess calories to your diet.

Deep Breathing in Yoga

One of the simplest ways that yoga boosts your energy is through deep breathing. Yoga breathing exercises reduce your stress and free your mind. Deeply inhaling and exhaling alone will go a long way in calming you and stimulating your nervous system to generate greater energy.

One of the things some people realize when doing a deep breathing exercise is just how often they hold their breath when stressed, or how short and shallow their breathing is in daily life. Making a conscious effort to breathe deeply in a yoga breathing exercise will oxygenate your entire body.

Oxygenation and Toxin Release

In ashtanga yoga and other yoga practices, you engage in warm up practices that generate heat throughout your body. When your muscles heat up and you begin to sweat, your body releases toxins and impurities. It is believed that deep breathing and toxin release work together to bring oxygen to your cells, and activate and release the energy that is lying dormant in your body.

Combining the Breath and Movement

Kundalini is one type of yoga that will really wake you up and give you an energy boost. It is different from other types of yoga in that it can require a great deal of continuous motion. In many yoga practices, you undergo a series of poses and 

postures that may feel stagnant. However, in kundalini yoga, you combine vigorous movements with a concentrated focus on the breath.

One example of an energizing kundalini movement is sitting on the floor with legs crossed in front of you, upper arms out to the side parallel to the floor and lower arms bent perpendicular to the floor. You are making an L-shape with the arms. You then move your torso to one side while inhaling and to the opposite side while exhaling. Continue to do this repeatedly at a fast pace for several minutes. This movement will stimulate your nervous system and wake up your entire upper body.

If you are going to start a yoga practice to boost your energy level, choose a teacher whose class is geared toward this goal specifically. You will want a class that combines the use of the breath with enough movement for you to feel truly energized.

Hydrate to Energize

Another important thing for those who practice yoga is to hydrate properly. Be sure to drink water before and after your class. In strenuous classes, you will also want to drink water throughout the class. This will ensure that you get an energy boost and do not suffer from the fatigue that often accompanies dehydration.