Yoga for Stress Relief
GUEST WRITER: Hi! I’m Elli Zisis, Athens-based Yoga Instructor who teaches individuals, groups and corporate professionals the benefits of yoga for stress relief.
Stress is caused by numerous factors such as pressure, change, uncertainty, and overwhelm. Both acute stress and chronic stress take a toll on our mind, body, and spirit. Practicing yoga for stress relief is a beautiful and gentle option. The mindful movements in yoga release neurotransmitters that create calmness. Yoga has long been known to help relieve stress.
The essence of yoga is not hidden inside the Cirque du Soleil or on a mountain top in Tibet. Incense does not need to exist for you to practice yoga. And please don’t add more stress to the act of trying to de-stress by searching for the perfect yoga outfit. Yoga provides stress relief by practicing mindful breathing, moving your body, and sitting still with a quieter mind. Let’s explore what actually happens physiologically.
A QUICK AND EASY SCIENCE of STRESS LESSON
The amygdala, a little kidney size part of the brain, detects stress first and assesses danger. It’s the air traffic controller of the brain. The amygdala alerts the HPA axis, otherwise known as the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal axis, to get together, not unlike a group of fire-fighters, and execute the stress plan. The hypothalamus gets the message from the amygdala and has to scream over to the tiny little pituitary gland so it can get up, get dressed, and do its job. The pituitary gland sends out immediate hormones all the way down to the adrenal glands, which live right above the kidneys. The adrenals alarm goes off to release cortisol into the body. That cortisol travels through the blood to all the organs that need it. It helps the brain focus, it gets the heart rate going faster, and all the necessary factors that are needed for the Flight or Fight response of the sympathetic nervous system.
Now with all that being said, the sympathetic nervous system and cortisol are there for a reason and we should thank them because they allow us to live and not be dinner to dinosaurs or lions. Our bodies are designed to use cortisol but only for the brief period of time to make the decision to run for our lives or stay and take action. Our bodies are not designed to live under the sustained conditions of the Fight or Flight response. Chronic stress is just that. Cortisol keeps overflowing into our body and our immune systems become weak. We get sick and exhausted among many other side effects.
Nowadays we spend WAY TOO MUCH time in the sympathetic nervous system. We are on the go-go-go, active, reactive, and moving at a fast pace constantly. Yoga helps us tune in to our parasympathetic nervous system, where we slow down and rest and digest. This is the part of the Autonomic Nervous System that we want to become best friends with.
BREATHING EXERCISES IN YOGA FOR STRESS RELIEF
One of the stress relief benefits we get from having a regular yoga routine comes from the breathwork that’s such an integral part of yoga.
The nervous system has its own language; Breath. Thinking or telling yourself orally that you must fall asleep is not the answer. Breathing yourself to sleep IS the answer. Fortunately, as humans, we are native speakers of Breath. When you begin to breathe consciously, you will fall asleep. But first, you must understand HOW to breathe.
The three-part breath, otherwise known as diaphragmatic breathing, is the first breath I teach. You can tell someone to breathe in and out for whatever count they want but if they don’t know how to breathe, it will be difficult to lengthen their inhale and exhale, thus contributing to anxious thoughts. Not to mention that they won’t receive the full benefits of breathing!
THREE-PART BREATH (DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING)
During the three-part breath, we breathe one-third of the air into the belly, one-third into the ribs, and the last third up into the chest. On the inhale, the breath moves not only up but also OUT where you feel your torso expanding from the sides and into the back body. I have my students place one hand on their belly and one on their heart so they can feel each hand move with the expansion of the breath. On the exhale, you can feel the heart sink down first, then the ribs, and finally the belly deflates last. The tendency is to let the belly deflate first. It takes practice until you get the hang of it.
HOW TO PRACTICE THREE-PART BREATH
- For the first several breaths focus on inflating and deflating the belly. Don’t rush this first part. Once it feels comfortable move on.
- Let the belly inflate and next feel the ribs expand. The breath stops just below the bra line. Keep practicing the two parts until you are ready to move on to the third.
- Let the belly inflate, the ribs expand, and then let the breath spread across the chest up to the collar bones. Take a slight pause to relax the shoulders and the neck before you exhale.
WHY BREATHING THIS WAY IS GOOD FOR THE DIAPHRAGM AND THE VAGUS NERVE
The diaphragm is a muscle that unfortunately doesn’t get used to its full potential. When the diaphragm moves, through deep conscious breathing, it allows more air to enter the lungs. When more air enters the lungs, more oxygen is able to travel to muscles that may be sore or stiff, and to the brain where it feeds our mind.
Another benefit of diaphragmatic breathing, or three-part breath, is that the vagus nerve is stimulated. The vagus nerve runs from the brain to the large intestine. It’s known on the street as the stress nerve. Have you ever noticed when you have anxiety that you have to run to the toilet? Give your thanks to the vagus nerve for that. Your mind creates the anxiety, you start to breathe unconsciously and fast and then the nerve delivers the message to your intestine. Now you have the intestine freaked out. The diaphragm is just sitting there waiting to help but you’re not breathing correctly so that means less oxygen, more stiffness, more mental fog, and toilet runs. Chaos!
MUSCLE TENSION AND YOGA FOR STRESS RELIEF
Another benefit of yoga and one of the causes for stress relief is through the physical practice. The physical practice of yoga originated to keep the body fit for longer seated meditations that lasted for hours. Nowadays, many people sit in a chair in front of a computer for as long as ancient yogis would mediate but without the muscular strength, in turn causing neck, shoulder, and back pain. The physical practice is important because being in physical pain causes stress to breathing patterns and lifestyle.
WHERE WE HOLD STRESS IN OUR BODY
We hold much tension in our facial muscles, especially the jaw, in our neck and shoulders, and also in our pelvic floor. Yoga as a whole helps to regulate the nervous system which activates during stress. A clenched jaw is a good sign that you’re working from the sympathetic nervous system, aka Fight or Flight mode. After you consciously start to breathe (in other words speak to your nervous system), you can consciously start to move your body to relax these areas of tension and strengthen the nervous system.
The physical practice of yoga also strengthens muscles that help support joints and lengthens muscles for better mobility. The more you move the body, the more lubricated your joints become. Remember Dorothy oiling up the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz? Just like that!
MEDITATION AND YOGA FOR STRESS RELIEF
Learning how to meditate is another part of the yogic experience that aids in stress relief. Mediation brings awareness to your body as a whole. It slows down the fluctuations of the mind and brings you into rhythm with your breath. It connects us with the parasympathetic nervous system.
Mediation allows you to witness your thoughts as an observer so that you do not attach to them. Imagine a clear blue sky. We want to stay gazing into the clear blue sky forever, but inevitably a little fluffy cloud comes along. In mediation, our only job when it comes to the cloud, is to see it, give it a wave to acknowledge it, and then let it keep moving on. Sometimes we see a bright white cloud in the shape of a dinosaur and sometimes we see a nimbostratus cloud that’s dark and scary. But again, we just see it in the distance, give it a wave and let it pass on its own while we return back to that clear blue sky. Mediation works in this way except the clouds are your thoughts.
Once you are able to just sit in consciousness without attachment to thoughts and without reacting emotionally to the thoughts, the amygdala shrinks, and the Prefrontal Cortex, which is in charge of awareness, gets thicker. People that meditate show much more activity in the Prefrontal Cortex. The Prefrontal Cortex is the most recent part of the brain, evolutionarily speaking. It modulates between emotions and the external world. It tells you that a tiger is not going to eat you and to calm down. It also discerns that the fear you have for something you want to achieve, for example, isn’t consistent with what it wants to do, therefore, helping you to again, calm down. The Left Prefrontal Cortex is the place where resilience develops. Healing requires resilience. Meditation changes the wiring of the brain so that you become more resilient.
Below you’ll find 10 different ways that you can begin to meditate.
- Breath Awareness
- Mindfulness
- Sound
- Trataka (candle gazing)
- Absolute Stillness
- Yoga Nidra
- Body Scan
- Mantra
- Loving Kindness
- Kundalini Yoga can be viewed as an active mediation
Breathwork, meditation, and the physical practice of yoga work together like a symphony. You begin to consciously breathe deeply, moving the diaphragm while stimulating the vagus nerve and the adrenal glands that keep you calm. The breath stimulates the brain to work calmly and properly without the added hormones of cortisol and adrenaline. More oxygen to the muscles help you feel less stiff so your endurance in the physical practice keeps rising! After the physical practice your muscles feel stronger and your energy channels are feeling so activated that you can sit in meditation for longer with more comfort ultimately quieting your mind (with practice of course) and making space in there to receive a message, an answer to a problem, a fresh idea, or just the resonance of peace.
About the author
Elli Zisis is an E-RYT 200 yoga instructor and private yoga consultant in Athens, Greece. She has a BA in English Literature, a BFA in Fashion Design, and a never-ending knowledge of the corporate side of the restaurant business. She has been practicing yoga for 15+ years and was certified to teach in 2015 in Chicago, where she grew up. Elli currently loves writing stories, cooking, studying anatomy and the microbiome, and teaching anyone who will listen how to truly breathe. But really, through yoga, she loves to inspire and help people who are on their wellness journey. You can find her blogging when she feels like it at yellowyourspirit.com
