2/04/2010

Choose the appropriate Yoga poses for complete peace of mind

These days Yoga is a best-selling word in all parts of the world. Irrespective of caste, creed and culture now everybody has adopted the practice of Yoga for a complete peace of mind.

Yoga poses - Tree Pose
But at the same moment as Yoga is a combination of physical and mental exercises so the quest for mental peace is helping people to achieve a well-built body too. But we have seen that not everybody adopting Yoga are getting optimum benefits.

cope stress:physical and mental exercises
There may be a lot of factors behind this kind of failure. But the most important factor behind this failure is the wrong selection of Yoga poses. As Yoga is a gift from the orient to the occident so with time a lot of modifications have got immersed with the original poses and postures. So it has become a daunting task now-a-day to choose or select the appropriate Yoga poses for oneself.

Yoga poses - cope stress

We should understand the fact that there are different Yoga poses for various age groups of people. Moreover some Yoga poses are not suitable for people with specific medical conditions. Then these poses may vary depending upon the beginner or advanced level of the Yoga practitioner.

Yoga poses - Cobra pose, Lotus pose...
So, proper and accurate knowledge and information must be sought before moving into the path of Yoga. Otherwise, it may backfire in a huge manner. The most popular Yoga poses include Awkward chair pose, Bird of Paradise pose, Boat pose, Bow pose, Bridge pose, Camel pose, Cat pose, Child’s pose, Cobra pose, Compass pose, Corpse pose, Eagle pose, Eight angle pose, Fish pose, Lotus pose and Garland pose etc.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

When you are feeling stressed out or anxious, your body will feel muscular tension.
You will then feel all those aches and pains that go with being stressed or under pressure. The best way to relieve you of all those muscular tension is through exercise.

relieve stress - Progressive Muscle Relaxation
An effective form of exercise to relieve stress is the Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR). This technique was developed by Edmund Jacobson in the early 1920’s. According to Jacobson, muscular tension accompanies anxiety. This means that in order to relieve anxiety, one has to relax the muscular tension.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)

You can begin the Progressive Muscle Relaxation by sitting down or lying down and making yourself comfortable. Start by tensing all the muscles of your face. Inhale while holding this for the count of eight.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation - cope stress
Then, exhale and be completely relaxed. Let the tension from your facial muscles seep. Next, do the same steps on your neck and shoulders. Continue and repeat the procedure down your body.

Cope with stress:Progressive Muscle Relaxation

For a shortened version, you can repeat the procedure just on the four main muscle groups. These include the face; neck, shoulders and arms; abdomen and chest; buttocks, legs and feet. The whole PMR session will approximately take you 30 minutes finish.

Morning Breathing

Are you feeling stressed out these days? You are not alone. Nowadays, people from all walks of life feel stressed out from all the pressures hounding them everyday. People no longer have the pleasure of taking some time out and just do the things that will help them forget their deadlines and other important stuffs to do.

cope stress - Morning Breathing
One of the most simple and popular forms of relaxation is doing some physical exercise. These exercises will not only keep you healthy but it can also help you in loosening all those tense muscles and clear your minds of things that are bothering you.

cope stress - physical exercise

Doing some breathing exercise will help you relax, relieve stress, and reduce tension. It will decrease high blood pressure, fast breathing, and increased heart rate. One of its popular forms is the morning breathing.

Relive stress - morning breathing

It is best to try morning breathing when you wake up in the morning. It will clear your clogged nasal passages and relieve muscle stiffness. From a standing position, with knees bent, bend forward from the waist. Your arms hang close to the floor.

Relax - Morning breathing

Inhaling slowly and deeply, return to standing position by rolling up slowly, lifting your head last. Hold your breath for a few seconds in this position. Return to original position while exhaling slowly.

Roll Breathing

With all our daily activities, hectic schedules and mounting deadlines, getting stressed out cannot be avoided. Stress, nowadays is a part of life.

Roll Breathing - meditation

Working adults, stay-at-home moms, and even students sometimes feel the pressure and get stressed out. Being under pressure or stress can affect not only our work but also our health.

Roll breathing - practice in any position

It is best for us to take some time out and relax our minds and bodies. We can do some exercises that can rejuvenate our body and clear our minds. Breathing is one of the most practiced forms of exercise. They combine it breathing exercise when doing yoga, imagery and meditation.

Roll breathing is a form of breathing exercise that is utilized to develop the full use of the lungs and focus on the rhythm of one’s breathing. You can practice roll breathing in any position. It is advisable though that when you are just starting out, it is best to lie on your back while bending your knees.

Roll breathing - breathing exercise

Put your left hand on your belly and your right hand on your chest. Breathe in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth. Remember to make a whooshing sound when breathing out. There are some beginners who will feel dizzy the first few times.


Breathing Exercises for Relaxation

Breathing exercises is the easiest and cost-free exercise methods that we can use so that we can be relaxed. It makes us feel relaxed because our mind and body feels relaxed at the same time.

Breathing Exercises for Relaxation

It has been said that deep breathing is one of the best ways to lower if not eradicate stress in the body. It is so because when we do deep breathing, the neurotransmitters will be sending message to our brain to calm down and relax.

deep breathing - Relaxation

The message will then be sent by our brain to our body relaying the information that we should relax.We should be aware that our breathing pattern affects our body functioning. Breathing exercises is a very good way of relieving stress and reduce tension. Also, this type of exercise is very easy to learn.

Relieving stress and reduce tension

You do not have to go to a gym and enroll yourself in a program because it can be done anytime and anywhere you want it. There are no special tools or equipment that will be used in doing this kind of exercise.

breathing exercises - Relaxation
Lastly, there are different breathing exercises and all you have to do is learn how to do it and you choose which style of breathing exercises will work for you.


Pilates Yoga


People nowadays are very interested to know what is the difference between pilates and yoga. Actually, both forms of exercises have a lot in common. The six principles in pilates is centering, concentration, control, precision, breath and flow.

Pilates - Yoga - cope stress

These principles can also be used to describe yoga. But in , to these principles, pilates and yoga also have differences and through this aspect, it made the two form of exercise such a great team.

Pilates and Yoga: cope stress

Pilates is more focused on strength of the body while yoga is more focused on stretching the body to make it more flexible. Pilates also includes stretching and yoga also develops strength but the only difference is on the emphasis, on how it is being carried out.

stretching and Yoga - pilates - cope stress
These two exercises also share the same steps and techniques on how to achieve a more strong and sturdy body without losing its flexibility.

Pilates and Yoga - cope stress

Benefits of yoga and pilates are extraordinary. Different people of different ages can also try these exercises. It does not only develop a long, strong and graceful bodies but it also supports the achievement of very high levels of body, mind and spirit fitness. Both of these exercises can be used to decrease feeling of stress and increase state of well-being.