Yoga is a great stress reliever because it allows you to relax your mind and relieve the tension throughout your body that can be caused by stress. For these same reasons, yoga can also help quiet an anxious mind. It brings your focus to your breathing and your body, leaving less room for anxious thoughts and relaxing your body from the physical effects of anxiety, the most common mental illness in America. Focusing on the rhythm of your breath and bringing your attention and awareness to each part of your body can help bring you to a meditative state and calm anxiety’s mental and physical effects.
1. Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana)
Easily one of the best poses to help destress, this pose stretches the hips, hamstrings, and thighs and allows you to rest your upper body. With your knees slightly bent, you can bring your attention to the stretch in your legs.
2. Easy Pose (Sukhasana)
This pose promotes a feeling of being grounded and calm. It opens the hips and lengthens your spine while combating tiredness and a running mind by allowing you to focus solely on your breath and allowing your body to come to ease.
3. Child’s Pose (Balasana)
Child’s pose is a simple resting posture that allows you to relax and release tension from your back and shoulders with a gentle stretch. Child’s pose is a great one to come back to during a yoga session when you become out of breath or your muscles become tired or you simply need a quick breather.
4. Corpse Pose (Savasana)
Corpse pose is often a pose to end a yoga practice. This pose puts your body completely at rest and allows you to relax every part of your body. This pose slows your breathing while lowering your blood pressure and calming the nervous system.
5. Knees to Chest (Apanasana)
This pose helps stimulate your stomach muscles, helping with digestion, while at the same time relieving tension specifically in the lower back where stress can manifest itself.
6. Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Karani)
This pose is great for stress reduction because it keeps your upper half relaxed while your legs are up in the air, bringing blood and circulation back to the heart.
7. Puppy Pose (Uttana Shishosana)
This variation of Child’s pose opens the heart and challenges our habit of slouching and bad posture, which we tend to do when stressed, causing tension in the back and shoulders. This pose can help to prevent and relieve that tension.
8. Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)
The bridge pose helps to gently stretch the back and legs, alleviating tension. Resting on top of a block can provide an even more relaxing way to enjoy the stretch. It allows you to bring your focus to your body and the stretch in your back and legs.
9. Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
Downward facing dog, while one of the most easily recognized poses in yoga, is also great for circulating blood and oxygen throughout your whole body. It can help you feel relief throughout your whole body and leave you feeling energized.
10. Supported Headstand (Salamba Sirsasana)
Being upside-down reverses blood flow and strengthens your body when done in proper alignment. Headstands force you to focus on your breath and balance at each moment. It allows the heart to relax because it no longer has to pump blood back up to the upper body from the legs. This pose forces you to focus all your attention on your body and balance, allowing you to calm your mind. It’s best to practice against a wall if you’re just beginning to learn headstands.