Reverse the afternoon slump with a short yoga routine that strengthens your body and helps you relax. The simple movements of this routine can help ease the midday lull when your energy levels decline, concentration fizzles and stress builds.
Start with a pose that stretches your back muscles and hips. Child’s Pose (Balasana) opens your hips and stretches the back of your body.
Breathing Exercises
Using breathing exercises as part of a yoga routine is an important way to calm the body and mind. This practice helps you maintain an ideal level of blood pressure, reduces stress and anxiety levels, improves sleep, strengthens the lungs, and enhances cognitive functions, such as memory and focus.
One of the most common yogic breath exercises is ujjayi pranayama, also known as victorious breath or ocean breath. This breathing exercise is used throughout asanas to bring power and focus into the body.
To perform this breath, sit on your mat with your knees together. Inhale through your nose for a count of 8 and exhale forcefully through the mouth, making a hissing sound. Repeat this sequence for up to 4 rounds. It’s best to start with 2 rounds at first and work up to 4. This breath is effective for relieving stress and enhancing mental alertness. It’s also useful for preventing asthma attacks and bronchitis.
Asanas
Yoga asanas, or poses, strengthen and stretch the body. They also improve balance and posture, relieve stress and fatigue and help you relax. They are only one part of the yoga practice, however, and other yogic activities such as breathing exercises, dhyana or meditation, niyamas or self-observances and pratyahara or withdrawal of the senses contribute to the mental and physical health benefits of yoga.
Depending on your yoga style, you may do asanas that are still and static for several breaths or move quickly between poses linked to breath, such as in vinyasa yoga. In both styles, you can tailor your moving sequences to specific intentions such as energizing ones to start the day or relaxing ones to wind down in the evening.
Many yoga sessions end lying on your back in Corpse Pose (Savasana). This is a wonderful way to end because it encourages you to pay attention to your body’s signals and respect its limitations above all others.
Meditation
Whether you’re looking for a morning routine to nurture clarity and intention or a way to calm your mind and relax your body before sleep, yoga can offer a powerful combination of movement and meditation. When done in a conscious, mindful way, both yoga and meditation are meditative practices that help you live your life with purpose and clarity.
Many people associate mindfulness with stillness, but practicing yoga is an accessible and dynamic way to stay present and cultivate awareness. Research has shown that yoga reduces levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.
Most yoga classes end lying flat on your back in Corpse pose, a meditative position that challenges the mind to remain calm. Before you settle into this position, warm up the back and hips by getting on all fours and moving through a series of movements: inhale to arch the back and lift the chest (cow); exhale to round the spine and tuck the chin (cat); then inhale again to raise the arms overhead in Half Moon pose.
Relaxation
Yoga combines physical postures with breathing exercises, meditation and mindfulness for holistic health. This combination helps to improve the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, reducing stress hormones and encouraging relaxation. It also promotes self-discipline and encourages a healthy lifestyle by teaching principles of ahimsa (nonviolence), truthfulness and tapas (self-discipline).
Like other forms of exercise, regular yoga can improve mood. It may help alleviate chronic depression and decrease anxiety by boosting serotonin levels in the brain. Yoga also reduces inflammation and increases your flexibility, strength and endurance.
A relaxing yoga session can be an excellent way to prepare for sleep. The poses focus on calming the mind and body, and can aid sleep quality and speed up the time it takes to fall asleep. This type of yoga can also enhance the ability to concentrate, improving mental clarity and reducing restlessness. Try this guided meditation to relax before bed: Journey into Sleep.