Yoga For Stress - What is stress management in terms of yoga?
In today’s hectic lifestyle, a lot of people have to deal with stress in their work and personal life. Apart from causing mental disturbance, stress usually causes high blood pressure and increased heart rate, insomnia, and loss of concentration amongst other symptoms. One can easily resort to medication to help deal with stress. However, this can have side-effects. A safer way to deal with stress is yoga. Yoga is an alternative therapy that originated in India thousands of years ago.
Yoga can be translated as ‘union’ from Sanskrit, which is known to refer to the union of the body and mind. Yoga is a complementary therapy for the mind and body. Yogis believe that by making the mind stronger, the body will respond as well. You can attempt yoga postures or ‘asanas’ along with breathing exercises or ‘pranayama’.
In order to combat stress, the Ujjayi breathing technique is extremely useful. This is a slow breathing technique where you need to take deep breaths in and out through both the nostrils. The Ujjayi breathing technique is known to reduce blood pressure. This is because the pressure from this breathing technique acts on the carotid sinus located in your neck. The carotid sinus detects high blood pressure and sends a message to the brain accordingly to slow it down.
Another helpful breathing exercise is ‘Anulom Vilom’. To perform this exercise, you need to inhale through one nostril while keeping the other one closed. You should repeat this exercise alternately at least 20 times. This exercise increases your breath-holding time and can help regulate your heart rate.
In terms of poses, the sun salutation sequence is excellent. This sequence contains 12 poses that improve the strength and flexibility of your muscles. This sequence takes about 20 minutes and it works out all the joints and ligaments, relieving any tension in these areas. This routine stimulates different body systems and organs and keeps them stress-free.
Bikram yoga is another good option. Bikram yoga involves performing yoga exercises in a heated room. Stretching the muscles in the heat stimulates blood flow ensuring steady blood supply to the brain, thereby decreasing stress levels. Bikram yoga is also known to improve concentration levels.
Even if you are not currently stressed, you can always use yoga to relax yourself. Yoga can act as an excellent preventive treatment against stress. You should also try consuming a diet that is complementary to these stress-busting exercises. If any of the exercises are hard to follow, try attending a yoga class.
