Best Yoga Poses for Stress Relief
Yoga can be incredibly beneficial for relieving stress. The breathwork, as well as the meditative effects of yoga, both target the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis of your brain (or the HPA for less of a mouthful). The HPA controls your sympathetic nervous system (think fight or flight response) as well as your parasympathetic nervous system, which tells you when to chill out. Yoga helps reduce your sympathetic nervous system activity, and also helps increase your parasympathetic response, reducing your heart rate and blood pressure.
Here are some of our favourite, accessible yoga poses that are known for their calming effects:
Child’s Pose (Balasana)
This gentle resting pose helps to calm the mind and release tension in the back and shoulders. It’s often used as a relaxation pose between more active yoga sequences.
Forward Fold (Uttanasana)
This pose stretches the entire back body, releasing tension in the spine and hamstrings. Importantly, if you relax your head and neck gently in this pose, you can really ease up the tension that builds up when you tense up as a result of feeling stressed.
Cat-Cow Stretch (Marjaryasana-Bitilasana)
The flow between these two poses helps to increase flexibility in the spine and release tension in the back and neck. The rhythmic movement can also have a calming effect on the mind as you tune in to the sensations of your body.
Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
Of course, we had to reference downward dog! This inversion pose helps to stretch the entire body and relieve tension in the shoulders and hamstrings. It can be quite intense, so as you bring awareness and control to your breath, and embrace the sensations of the phone, you probably won’t even realise that the stresses of the day are melting away.
Legs-Up-The-Wall Pose (Viparita Karani)
This inversion pose is much more gentle, and it helps to calm the nervous system and promote relaxation by allowing blood to flow back towards the heart. This directly switches on your body’s parasympathetic response: lowering heart rate and reducing blood pressure.
Bridge Pose (Setu Bandhasana)
This pose is slightly more active, which can have a positive, energising effect. Sometimes you’ve got to spice things up a bit to provide a bit of a distraction!
Happy Baby Pose (Ananda Balasana)
When your body needs release, make Happy Baby your go-to. You are on your back, so it requires less physical effort than many poses. Plus, supine positions, especially this one, are restful and restorative. There are many reasons it can feel so good, as happy babies know!
Supine Twist (Supta Matsyendrasana)
This gentle twist helps to release tension in the spine and massages the internal organs. Not only does this pose aid digestion and detoxification, but it just feels good.
Corpse Pose (Savasana)
It would be criminal not to mention the greatest of them all: Savasana. You might think Savasana is simply resting after the physical part of your practice. Corpse pose requires a full mind-body presence, which can sometimes be difficult for a busy mind. But as we allow the breath to return to its natural rhythm, the mind settles. And when the breath is free, the mind is free.
We encourage you to book a class with us, because poses for stress relief feel different when being held in community by like minded people. See our classes and book today!
