Get Rid Of The Stress With This Super Easy Yoga Routine

It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do yoga while feeling stressed out. In fact, during times when you feel overwhelmed or you’re anxious, doing yoga is probably the last thing you have on your mind. But one thing that you need to know about yoga is that it’s not smart to undervalue what it can do for you.

Despite it being an exercise, many people use it for therapeutic methods and are able to reach a state of calm and remain worry-free.

But what if you don’t have the time right now to do some full-on yoga training? Barely an inconvenience. Many yoga instructors have spoken out that even the basic poses that you do before doing full yoga routine is enough to relieve stress. Based on their recommendations, here are some calming yoga poses that you should try out.

Child’s Pose

The Child’s pose is one of the best stress relievers out there. Doing the pose will allow you to calm your nervous system with nurturing signals that you are safe and supported. Beyond that, the pose will also stretch your legs and hips and relieve tension in your neck and head.

To do this pose:

• First kneel on your mat with your knees hips-width distance apart. Your big toes should be touching behind you too. Take a deep breath in and, as you exhale, lie your torso over your thighs. From there, the goal is to lengthen your neck and spine by drawing your ribs away from your tailbone and the crown of your head away from your shoulders.
• Rest your arms beside your legs with palms facing up. An alternative is to extend your arms out in front of you.
• Remain in that pose for at least five breaths.

Cat And Cow

For a more central body focus, the Cat And Cow poses provide great benefits. It’s a fantastic way of creating an opening and stretching of your spine. On top of that, the movement removes blockages and strengthens your arms, shoulders and neck at the same time.

To do this pose:

• Start on your hands and knees. Your knees should be under your hips, while your wrists are positioned under your shoulders. Start off in a neutral spine position, your back flat and your abs engaged. Take a big, deep inhale.
• While exhaling, round your spine towards the ceiling. Imagine you’re trying to pull your belly button up towards your spine. The whole purpose is to engage your abs, so even if you get a little bit of that tension, it’s good. While doing that, you’ll want to tuck your chin towards your chest and allow your neck to be released. This is your Cat pose.
• On the inhaling part, you’ll be arching your back enough for your belly to relax and go loose. You’ll also be lifting your head and tailbone up towards the sky. Don’t do too much of an arch? as you don’t want to be straining your neck. This position is the Cow pose.
• Melding these two poses together is simple and of course you want to be breathing in and out as slowly as you can, so you have enough time to perform these poses while doing those actions.
• Repeat this process for 10 rounds.

Warrior 2

A Warrior 2 pose is another common yoga pose that provides great stress relief. This pose allows you to cultivate inner strength and confidence while displaying humility and willingness. On a mental standpoint, it helps cultivate stillness of mind and improve your body stamina, endurance, balance, and concentration. It’s hard to argue against that, as this is one of the more complex starting poses incorporating several poses into it.

Here are the steps to do this pose:

• Begin on your hands and toes in the Downward Facing Dog pose. To take that stance, you’ll want to be on your hands and knees first with your wrists underneath your shoulders and the knees under the hips. When inhaling, tuck your toes under your heels and lift your hips up. The Downward Facing Dog pose essentially looks like a classic upside-down V shape.
• Once that stance is complete, you’ll want to step your right foot forward between your palms and move into the Warrior 1 position. As you are moving that right foot forward, you’ll want to turn your left heel in and press into your feet while lifting your torso upwards. As the torso is coming up, your arms should be as well until you can press your palms together.
• From that stance, extend your arms outwards into a T-position while rotating your torso to the left. This is the Warrior 2 stance. Ideally your front thigh should be parallel to the ground and your right knee over your right ankle. The shoulders should also be stacked above your pelvis.
• Gaze past your right fingertips and hold that position for five breaths. After that, return back to the Downward Facing Dog pose and do the same thing, but on the opposite side.

Wide-Legged Forward Bend

Right after doing Warrior 2, this is another pose that’s nice to do afterwards. This pose relieves tension from your lower back, cervical spine, and neck. It also gently reverses the blood flow in the upper torso and brain. This works wonders with the Warrior 2 as this one brings blood flow back to the other areas that were neglected while also promoting grounding and stress relief.

Best of all, it’s easier to perform.

Here are the steps:

• • Stand with your legs further apart than your hips. Your heels should be turned out wider than your toes too.
  • Fold your torso over your legs, pressing into the outsides of your feet while still maintaining your inner arches upwards.
  • For those wanting more of a stretch from this, you can reach for your ankles and try to move your chest towards your thighs.
  • If you want a more relaxed position you can fold your arms while grabbing opposite elbows and letting your body hang down.
  • Regardless of what sort of option you’re going for, you want to hold this position for 30 seconds.