Simple Yoga to Combat Festive Stress
Many of us will suffer from some form of stress as the festive season draws closer. Here are a few yoga practices that might be useful.
During the month of December yoga mats might begin to gather dust as the festive invites roll in and shopping excursions become a necessity.
To help eliminate stress this season make time to roll out your yoga mat regularly. Yoga is an amazing stress buster, if you have never practiced yoga before do not wait for January, December is the perfect time to begin as the techniques learnt will prove to be valuable when it comes to avoiding stress.
Yoga in some form or another is suitable for everyone, whether it is just the relaxation techniques, breathing exercises, or you might even prefer to practice in a chair there is still valuable technique that can be learnt by us all – and we never stop learning! If you are pushed for time just 15 minutes a day will prove to be just perfect.
Daily Yoga or taking time for Relaxation or Meditation will help combat festive stress.
How does Yoga help to relive stress?
These simple yoga techniques can be easily performed in just a few minutes to help lower stress this festive season.
Basic Relaxation Technique
During this busy time it is important that you make time for yourself, a short relaxation performed prior to bed will help you sleep well and provide you with the time and space to clear the mind and balance your emotions.
Lie on your back with both hands lightly resting just above the navel and below the breastbone. Close your eyes and begin to breathe slowly in and out through your nose. Concentrate on the area of your body beneath your hands and then notice that your hands rise as you inhale and fall as you exhale. Continue to breathe slowly focusing on this area. After a few minutes move your hands to your chest with the palms lightly resting on the centre of your breast bone. As you breathe slowly notice the warmth of your hands delivering love and understanding. When you are ready relax your arms alongside your body with your palms facing up and continue to breathe slowly in and out through your nose.
Each time you exhale feel your body sink and become heavy. Continue to breathe slowly in and out through your nose working to release tension with each exhalation for as long as you feel necessary.
Just Breathe
If you find the volume of shoppers a little hard to handle this simple breathing technique can be performed anywhere as and when required.
Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose, retain the breath for a comfortable length (a natural pause is fine for those with high blood pressure or who are pregnant) and then exhale as slowly as you can through your nose feeling all stress and tension leaving your body with the exhalation. Repeat at least five times.
This blog article was written by Sue Fuller creator of the Yoga 2 Hear range of audio yoga classes and yoga teacher training courses.
