Yoga For Stress And Anxiety Relief

By Paul Jerard

Today’s lifestyles define the word, “stress.” More than 19 million Americans suffer from some from of anxiety on a regular basis. Part of what contributes to the increase in stress, and anxiety, is that very few people know how to manage their stress.

Some of those, who know how to manage stress, fail to create a plan of action. In a nutshell, Yoga can provide the means to cope and reduce stress. Allowing stress to become chronic, or permitting anxiety to take over one’s life, can be seriously detrimental to a person’s health.

Stress can cause a variety of health problems. Existing conditions, illness, and ailments, are worsened, if they are allowed to thrive through stress. Anxiety and stress can lead to a paralyzed existence, or inability, to function.

The good news is that yoga works to loosen the tension in the mind, body, and spirit. Even the medical community has begun to recognize what yogis have known for hundreds of years.

The core goal of yoga is to reach a state of tranquility, completeness, and peaceful union, of mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health. Is there a better way to calm your worry?

The methods of breathing, and focused meditation, draw your mind away from stressful distraction. Visualization during breathing, and the performance of yoga postures, plant your mind in a place of calm.

These practices are designed to give you a place to heal, a path to move forward, and the ability make progress. Without first allowing you a place to rest or heal, you cannot move forward from anxiety and stress.

There are several different types of yoga practices. Yoga styles vary in philosophy, approach, intensity, and format, but they all grant varying benefits on practitioners.

A calmer, slower, but physical type of yoga, is Hatha yoga; one of the nine main styles from India. This type of yoga is both designed to calm the student, and can be structured to meet the needs of anyone, of any age, or physical condition.

Hatha yoga also has several sub-styles, but all have the same three main focal points of controlled breathing (pranayama), postures (asanas), and meditation.

Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, has written many books on the subject of Yoga. He is a co-owner and the Director of Yoga Teacher Training at: Aura Wellness Center, in Attleboro, MA. http://www.aurawellnesscenter.com He has been a certified Master Yoga Teacher since 1995. To receive a Free Yoga e-Book: Yoga in Practice, and a Free Yoga Newsletter, please visit: http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html