Managing Stress With Hatha Yoga

With its combination of exercise postures, also called asanas, meditation and breathing, yoga is a great way to help reduce and manage the stress in your life. While traditional yoga originating in India is very much a lifestyle and not simply a fitness program, there is one type of yoga that can be of great benefit to busy, stressed out people. Hatha yoga combines breathing techniques, meditation and yoga postures, and is perfect for anyone looking for help coping with the stress in their daily lives.

You can learn how to do yoga from a book, video, TV program or you can attend a yoga class. It is recommended that you try a yoga class first, so that you can learn the basics of how to do the postures, breath properly and also meditate. When learning on your own through a book or video, without having someone trained in yoga there, you may be at risk of hurting yourself by doing the postures incorrectly. It’s great to start off with a yoga class and then move on to practicing yoga at home on your own.

A typical Hatha yoga session will include a dozen or more poses. Many classes will start beginners off with the corpse pose, which is a simple lying on the floor, completely relaxed pose. The corpse, done properly, is most excellent for calming your mind.

Another important part of yoga is learning how to properly breath. Not just during the postures but while you are meditating. Typically, the yoga instructor will ask you to focus on your breathing, really paying attention to how you are doing it. One breathing technique will include breathing through just one nostril, which slows your breathing.

Hatha yoga can also involve the use of mental imagery while doing your postures and while meditating. One breathing technique includes imagining the air filling your lungs while you are taking a slow, deep breath. During meditation, you’ll probably be given images to focus on, like the sun or the ocean.

Breathing exercises, mental imagery, meditation and postures are all effective in and of themselves for reducing stress, but combined together into a customized program for your needs, they are incredibly effective for managing and reducing your stress.

Effects Of Yoga

The positive health effects of yoga include reduced heart rate and blood pressure, anxiety reduction, better physical strength, improved flexibility, reduced muscle tension, greater peace and calmness, better ability to handle stressful situations, better and deeper sleep, slower aging, spiritual awareness and growth and even a greater overall sense of well being. There are many more benefits to yoga practice, reducing and managing stress is just one of them.

If you have a problem with stress in your life, and who doesn’t, why not look into beginning yoga? It can improve your life as a whole.

By: Lydia Quinn

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