How to Relax With Yoga

Co-authored by Susana Jones, C-IAYT

Last Updated: October 5, 2021 Approved

Yoga is a path to health, relaxation, and happiness. According to tradition, yoga helps you cleanse your body and mind systematically by removing the build-up of tension (samskaras). Scientifically speaking, some researchers suggest that yoga encourages your brain to physically develop new connections between neurons, which can reduce anxiety.^{[1]
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PubMed Central
Journal archive from the U.S. National Institutes of Health

Go to source} Needless to say, there are a variety of benefits to yoga, and you’re on the right track if you want to find your inner peace. To relax with yoga, here is what to do.

Steps

Yoga provides a variety of techniques. It has techniques for the body and the mind. It is important that you practice each yoga exercise so that it works well for you. If something hurts you, omit it. If it works well for you, keep doing it. You can vary all yoga exercises creatively––you must ask yourself constantly: “What do I need now? What’s good for me? What triggers my tension the most?”
2
Lie on your back.
- Stretch your right leg. For one minute, lift your stretched right leg, with the toes pointing to your head. Keep your head resting on the ground. Meditate on the right leg.
- Next, stretch the left leg and lift it as far as possible, keeping the toes pointed to the head. Meditate for one minute on the left leg.
- Keep your arms lying relaxed at the sides during this step.
3
Lift up both legs in the supine position. Keep the toes pointing to your head.
- Raise your head towards your feet. Send a light beam from the toes to the head and think the mantra "Light".
- Inhale from the stomach. Meditate for one minute in this posture.
Straighten both of your legs to the sky and support yourself with your hands, from the back. Breathe one minute, relaxing into the body.
Again, take up the supine position, and stretch your legs. Put your hands on your belly and move gently your feet. Stop your mind and focus for a minute just on your belly.
Lift your upper body, as far as possible, with your back muscles and hold for a minute. Your head should be positioned in the back, your hands placed laterally from your body on the floor. Breathe, relaxing into the cobra pose. Send a beam of light from the head down the back and think "Light".
Meditate for one minute on the stretched leg. Lift the left leg for a minute and concentrate on it, relaxing.
Place your hands laterally from your body on the floor. In addition, lift both legs and bring your feet together as closely as possible to the head. Inhale from the stomach in a relaxed way and hold the position for a minute. Send a beam of light from the feet to the head and think the mantra "Light".
Turn the pelvis several times, as you breath, relaxing it to the left and right. Focus on the spine and twist as much as possible (and gently).
10
Straighten your back, place your head upright, and relax the belly. Lay your hands in your lap.
- Circulate light through your head, your whole body, your legs, feet, arms and hands. At the same time think the mantra "light, light, light".
- Visualize a small star (dot of light). As the star circulates the earth, think "Earth". Then ,let the star circulate in the sky, around your body and through your body. Think the mantra "Star, Star, Star."
- Rub circles on your stomach with one hand––and the star comes to rest.
11
Lie or sit down in a comfortable position.
- Gently move your feet. Stop all thoughts for minute. Then, relax completely.
- Let your day be suffused with a positive glow. Take things as they are. Concentrate on your goals. Work for a world of love, peace and happiness.
- Move a hand, send all people light and think, "I send light to (name). May all people be happy. May the world be happy."
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Which type of yoga is best for stress relief?

Susana Jones, C-IAYT
Certified Yoga Therapist & Educator
Based in San Diego, Susana Jones is a Yoga Therapist and Educator with 12 years of experience serving groups, individuals and organizations. She is certified with the International Association of Yoga Therapists, registered as an E-RYT 500 with Yoga Alliance and holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado. Susana offers therapeutic yoga to private clients through Shakti Urbana and mentors students of the internationally accredited Soul of Yoga. Susana dedicates her work to peaceful living on a healthy planet.

Susana Jones, C-IAYT

Certified Yoga Therapist & Educator

Expert Answer

There are said to be "eight limbs" of yoga, and each limb represents a different technique that focuses on a different characteristic, like postures, breathing, and concentration. Try a few different yoga routines that each focus on a different limb to feel which one is best for you.

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Eat healthily. People who consume less calories but nutritionally higher quality food, and who exercise more, have a better chance of living longer without ill health. It's also important to give your spiritual self a central space in your life.

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One very useful and clever strategy to cope with negative energy through the day is to take frequent short breaks. At work, it is important to avoid stress and work in your personal space. When you're working in a relaxed manner, you save a lot of energy and it's easier to remain positive. And consider reducing your working hours. Consider why you work so much––do you really need to? For the person who lives wisely, you can avoid a lot of suffering.

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A small tale: A woman once wrote that she was very happy that she had learned yoga. In recent years, she had experienced both professionally and personally a lot of stress in her life. As a result, she'd lost her sense of positivity and her sense of satisfaction in life had diminished. Through yoga, she managed to reduce her internal stress and found happiness again, no longer feeling stressed. She was very grateful because yoga had given her the ability to clearly tell the difference between what mattered and what was merely petty. This freed her up to focus more on the essential things in life. She no longer "sweated the small stuff", thereby conserving her energy. For every day she practiced yoga, she felt positive and lived in a permanent state of fulfillment. However, she found also that when she ceased to practice yoga and positive thinking for a few days, her good energy quickly disappears. This made her even more determined to follow the path of yoga with greater consistently, every day.

And apart from the benefits of feeling happier and more energetic, she also found her psychic energy became stronger and that even though she was more attuned to negative energy, she was much better able to repel it. She had found a way to cope with difficulties of every kind. To this day, she simply asks herself, "How would the Dalai Lama act now?" And then she is able to quickly come up with the proper way to cope with difficult situations.

This tale shows how negative energies don't go away when you practice yoga. You still need to face what is inevitable. But daily yoga will relax you and restore the energy needed to fend off other people's negative energy. It will also help you make sound decisions about avoiding negative energy sources. For example, you can minimize or avoid contact with particularly negative people and you can use positive thinking or mantras to ward off the negativity when you do make contact. After negative experiences with others, you can rebuild your positive energy through spiritual exercises (such as yoga, reading, and meditation).

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Warnings

Avoid rushing! Yoga with meditation is about taking it slowly and quietly. The various yoga postures activate your chakras (inner energy channels) and load you with good energy. Meditation during the yoga exercises brings your mind to rest.
- Seek to meditate on each yoga posture 1 to 3 minutes.
- Feel how each yoga posture forms a specific energy field (aura field) around the body. Through the creation of certain energy fields, you clean our body and mind of tensions.
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Don't over think what is happening. It is helpful if you can feel the spiritual energy. But it is not necessary. It is enough to concentrate in a relaxed way on your body and the postures.
- Take breaks as needed between the yoga exercises. This will keep you refreshed.
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