Stress, one of the most common terms used to describe today’s source of all mental pain. Stress is more in today’s generation than in previous times. As the world makes progress in the technological field, stress is becoming so common that it is ingrained into our minds at the core level.
With the pandemic of 2020 and the world still struggling to recover from the aftershock, stress has been multiplied more than before, causing anxiety, languished state of mind, and mental disorders.
“You can’t control everything. Sometimes you just need to relax and have faith that things will work out. Let go a little and just let life happen.”
Source: Split Rock Rehabilitation
To handle and improve mental health, it is important to do different activities like exercises, connecting with people, and interacting with the world. This article brings some of the ancient art of understanding our body internally by yoga and stress reduction benefits from it.
Stress and What Causes it
Source: Forbes
Stress is a feeling of physical tension that makes us aware of dangerous situations happening around us and respond to that situation. It can be physical on the body or mental on an emotional level.
Stress generally helps us to be aware and handle dangerous situations that can cause us harm. Having stress in a few amounts is a good thing if it pushes us to be better in our actions and attempts. However, if stress is chronic, then it only causes more harm, mentally and physically.
Causes of stress are often associated with our past, present, or future situations where we get incapable of handling certain situations and making clumsy actions. Some of the causes of stress are being bullied, working too hard, losing a job, relationship problems, recent breakup or divorce, death in the family, difficulty in school, family problems, busy schedules, and the like.
Stress causes hormonal, circulatory, and respiratory changes in the body and makes us prepared for a fight or flight response. Often we are busy in our routine to the extent that stress is neglected and we continue to work until it erupts like a volcano.
Yoga as a Remedy for Stress
Yoga is essentially a spiritual discipline based on an extremely subtle science, which focuses on bringing harmony between mind and body. It is an art and science of healthy living. The word ‘Yoga’ is derived from the Sanskrit root ‘Yuj’, meaning ‘to join’ or ‘to yoke’ or ‘to unite’.
"Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self."
Yoga leads to the union of mind and body. We feel our senses and consciously experience them in a manner creating self-awareness. The ultimate aim is to have self-realization and understand the importance of our body and surroundings, making us self-aware. Hence, yoga helps to transform and shape our personality as well as maintain our body in good health and have a healthy mind.
Managing Stress Through Yoga
Source: Drummond Education
Yoga contains a lot of techniques and exercises that train our mind and body to be flexible as well as adaptable in the real moment. Whenever we do yoga, meditation or asanas, our body benefits greatly as we forget our problems and focus on our senses.
Yoga helps to reduce Cortisol (Stress hormone) levels in our body when we start focussing on our fundamental senses in the present. The key task lies in achieving self-awareness and shifting our minds towards a clearer state in the present.
Yoga helps to increase our concentration and makes us mentally calm. With gratitude for having what we get and a sense of a blissful state, yoga helps to increase Serotonin levels (Happiness hormone).
Doing yoga asanas or poses that make us focus on ourselves in body position, breathing control, and relaxation is best. Some of the asanas that help to manage stress and lower cortisol in our body are Balasana (Child’s Pose), Paschimottanasana (Seated forward bend), Uttanasana (Standing forward bend).
Pranayama or Breathing Art:
Source: Healthline
Apart from the above asanas, Pranayama or breathing exercises including Kapalbhati, Bhastrika, Anulom-Vilom have lots of health benefits like improving the respiratory system, digestion system, and rejuvenating the mind and body.
Rest and Relax
Source: Ndtv food
Relaxation poses like Savasana (pictured above), Balasana, and Yog Nidra involve acting as if letting your body and mind into the state of trance and concentrate in the present moment.
Conclusion
Managing stress in today’s world which demands time commitment and a busy schedule sometimes stresses our extreme limits. With the daily practice of self-awareness and yoga, stress can be controlled in our mind as mind and body are all connected to the soul.
The ultimate purpose of doing Yoga is about the spiritual realization of oneself and enlightenment. Stress becomes manageable and once you have control over your emotions, more depth in self-awareness is achieved. Our senses are in control of our will, which is a key ingredient of managing stress and all our routines for a blissful state.
Written By - Prajwal Barate
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