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Yoga For Combating Anxiety and Staying Positive

In today’s fast-paced lifestyle, most people are exposed to high levels of stress. In order to combat anxiety and stay positive in this day and age, why not try yoga. Yoga is known to be beneficial to the healing processes. It is an exercise of the body and mind that has been practiced for centuries. Yoga found its origins in India as long ago as around 2,000 BC. The meaning of the word ‘yoga’ is ‘union’. It refers to the union of your mind and body. Yoga not only offers a tremendous form of exercise, but is also a means for spiritual growth.

Yoga increases your self-awareness by making you concentrate on your postures, your breathing, your body, and mind. It helps you cultivate the art of relaxation and maintain positive energy.  Yoga can be practiced through postures or ‘asanas’ and breathing exercises or ‘Pranayama’.

Some Basic Exercises To Be Done

The basic ‘Pranayama’ exercise is the natural breathing exercise, where you inhale and exhale air until it reaches your stomach. This is far more beneficial than the half breath we normally take that lasts till the nose or mouth. With natural breathing, the muscles are relaxed and blood pressure is regulated. To add to that, you can practice Kapalabhati Pranayama, where you breathe in rapid succession, allowing the cardiovascular muscles to work harder, which normalizes your heart pressure. The breathing exercises should be practiced for at least 15 minutes in a day.

Anxiety can also be alleviated by slow, gentle yoga ‘asanas’. The simplest form is the ‘Shavasana’, which means lying down like a corpse. This posture gives a soothing effect to the nerves and makes the muscles function better, thus providing an overall sense of relaxation. Another posture you can try is ‘Tadasana’, which requires you to stand straight with your legs slightly apart and eyes closed. This position helps you with your strength and willpower.

Yoga helps you achieve physical and emotional balance. It can also raise the level of your spiritual awareness by focusing on the flow of energy and consciousness within all of us. This practice induces a relaxing and analgesic effect on the body and mind. It is important to look deeply into the cause and nature of your anxiety before practicing yoga. You should ensure that you go to a reliable practitioner as learning the wrong techniques will not provide any benefits, and may result in an injury.

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