Yoga and stress management go hand in hand.
Yoga relaxes the body, stretching the muscles, oxygenating the blood and relieving sore, tense knots. Having a relaxed body will automatically lift your mood.
And in addition, yoga helps train your mind to be quiet by focusing on your pose. You concentrate on one thing, and all the little worries of the day melt away. You become grounded and peaceful with yoga. Stress Management becomes automatic.
How to Begin with Yoga
Classically, the best way to learn to do yoga is with a teacher.
Teachers help to focus you on your pose. They give you corrections in your posture, but more importantly, a teacher can give you insight about your practice. Are you pushing too hard or are you too lax?
Sometimes yoga poses create an inner battle. A teacher can help you with this. Years ago, every time I sat in Gomukhasana (Cow Face Pose), I would go nutty. My stomach would clench; I would tense my jaw; I felt like crawling out of my skin. Having a teacher helped me through the pose. In class I stayed in the pose longer, and gradually I learned how to cope with it. Without my teacher, yoga and stress management would have been contradictory.
Once you know how to do yoga, the next ideal yoga and stress management plan is to have a personal practice.
Practicing on your own allows you to go deeply and listen to your body and inner voice.
As ideal as classes and personal practices are, they are not always practical. The cost is high; the time commitment often impractical. Sometimes, you can’t find local classes. And we don’t always have the discipline to practice yoga entirely on our own.
The bridge between having a teacher and an active personal practice is an online yoga class.
Online Yoga and Stress Management
Online yoga classes offer an excellent way to practice yoga, have instructions and do it at your own pace and convenience. You are both alone and supported. Yoga and stress management both become possible.
- Online yoga reduces the stress of getting to class. No longer do you rush to class after work, fighting traffic and then try to sit calmly on your mat. If you are uncomfortable in a class setting, from body issues to shyness, online yoga avoids those problems.
- Online yoga gives more detailed instruction than a book, and you can tailor it to a more personal program than a TV show. By choosing your class, starting and stopping the video, and repeating sections or entire classes, you can make sure you really understand an instruction before you go on.
- Many online yoga programs offer a forum and other community interaction, so you have a ready source of help, support and information. You are not alone, wondering why your back hurts in Ustrasana (Camel Pose). You can ask a question and get feedback.
Online yoga gives you training wheels to start your own personal practice. By using videos or audio instructions, you practice practicing on your own. You have guidance and independence.
I have an online yoga program that I highly recommend.
My Yoga Online
My Yoga (affiliate link) is a robust online yoga program.
Here you have many different instructors with many different backgrounds. You can see videos of many yoga practices, and choose a practice that fits your time and health needs. You view the videos as you wish, in any order, at any time. It is a huge library of yoga videos.
Typically, the videos are a voice over while one or two people do the pose. Many of the videos are yoga sequences–one yoga pose flowing to the next and the next.
My Yoga has a wealth of information, from yoga philosophy to healthy living, from pilates to T’ai Chi. If you want to learn about yoga, you can help here. The site is like yoga and natural health course.
Read more of my review about My Yoga.
Combine Yoga and Stress Management
Yoga is a great gift to quiet your mind. Stopping the blah, blah is one of the first steps to stress management. Yoga and stress management are truly two great sisters for your health.
