Life can be stressful, and there are times when stress and anxiety will be more crippling than others. Whether it’s due to work, relationships, family, or personal issues, stress and anxiety can put you in a place of immobility that’s hard to overcome. Some people look to harmful remedies like alcohol or overeating, but there are much healthier ways to go about things. Enter: Yoga. These yoga poses for stress relief will help you overcome the hurdle of stress and anxiety so you can live a happier, more fulfilling life.
Yoga for stress isn’t anything new. Some of the benefits of yoga include mental wellness, relaxation, improved respiration and lowered heart rate, so it’s no surprise that many people use yoga for stress relief. You can even use yoga for anxiety and depression as it helps calm you, slow your mind and keep overwhelming thoughts at bay.
RELATED: Yoga for Emotional Balance
If you really want to know how to reduce stress and anxiety, try these 6 yoga poses and 5 yoga videos!
Child’s Pose
Why it works
One of the most popular poses in yoga practice, child’s pose is a helpful way to relieve stress. It helps release tension in your back, neck and shoulders, and promotes steady conscious breathing. It’s a great pose for relaxation and helps ease your mind.
How to do it
Use a yoga/fitness mat for this pose so you don’t hurt your knees. Start on your knees (they can either be touching or in a V-shape). Reach your arms up and stretch forward as far as you can, spreading your fingers out and placing your hands on the mat. Release your head, arms, shoulder, back and neck and let your body melt.
Seated Forward Bend
Why it works
The seated forward bend is one of the best yoga poses for stress. It can help relieve anxiety and mild depression, as well as eliminate headaches that often come with stress.
How to do it
Start seated upright with your legs straight out in front of you. Reach your arms up above your head and then out towards your toes, leading with your heart and keeping your back straight. You can leave your back flat to stretch your hamstrings, or round it to stretch your back. You should feel a stretch, but no pain.
Easy Pose
Why it works
Easy pose brings you into a state of tranquility, eliminating anxiety and reliving physical and mental fatigue. It promotes groundedness and inner calm by opening your hips, lengthening your spine and enforcing deep breathing. Sitting upright with your spine aligned can reduce stress and anxiety.
How to do it
Start seated upright with your legs extended in front of your body. Then cross your legs at the shins, and keeping your knees wide, place each foot beneath opposite knee. Align your head, neck and spine, lengthening your spine and softening your neck.
Cat-Cow
Why it works
Move through cat-cow to relax and release stress and tension in your body. Cat pose stimulates the digestive tract and spinal fluid and is known as a powerful stress buster. Cow pose calms the mind, and massages and stimulates organs in your stomach to create emotional balance.
How to do it
Use a yoga mat for this pose to protect your knees. Start on all fours with your hands below your shoulders and knees below your hips, keeping your back in neutral position. Start with going into cow pose with an inhale and lowering your belly, drawing your shoulder blades together, opening your chest and lifting your gaze. Then move into cat. Exhale, rounding your back and drawing your shoulder blades apart, gazing toward your navel. Move slowly following your breath.
Legs Up the Wall
Why it works
Legs up the wall pose helps eliminate tension and stress by elevating your legs above the heart. It relieves everything from lower back pain to menstrual cramps and even helps with insomnia.
How to do it
You can do this pose anywhere there’s a wall. Use a pillow or blanket under your lumbar spine to reduce back pressure if you need to. Start sitting with your left side against the wall, then gently turn your body to the left and bring your legs up onto the wall. Lower your back to the floor and lie down, resting your head and shoulders on the ground. Let your arms rest open at your sides with your palms facing up. To release, push yourself away from the wall and slide your legs down to the right side, and push yourself up with your hands.
Headstand
Why it works
This is more of an intermediate/advanced yoga pose, but if you have been practicing for a while and feel comfortable with a headstand, it’s one of the best yoga poses for stress. It reverses the blood flow in your body and causes you to focus attention on your breath and body to enhance calm. When we stimulate blood flow to our head it detoxifies our adrenals which can alleviate depression.
How to do it
If you don’t feel comfortable doing it without support, you can do headstand pose against a wall. Start on your hands and knees, lowering your forearms to the ground, keeping them shoulder-width apart. Keep your elbows there, clasp your hands and left your hips high, dropping your head.
Place your head on the ground and push lightly into hands, tucking your toes and lifting your hips higher to prep for your headstand. Walk your feet in in as close to your elbows as possible and left your heels to your butt one at a time. Once you feel stable, reach your feet straight up over your shoulders and hips until your legs are straight.
If you’re craving more yoga for anxiety, check out these 5 yoga videos for ultimate stress relief.
20-Minute Relaxing Yoga for Happiness | Melt Away Anxiety & Stress | PsycheTruth
Stress Relief Yoga | Boho Beautiful
Head Stand Yoga Pose – How to Do a Headstand for Beginners | Yoga with Adriene
Yoga for Relaxation – Beginner Friendly Stress Relief Yoga Flow | YOGATX
30-Minute Yoga with Adriene to Reduce Stress | POPSUGAR Fitness
Yoga can significantly reduce stress and anxiety. Try these poses and videos to destress and feel better all around!
