The holidays are the best time to “take your yoga practice off the mat and into your life”. Whether you are a new student of asana and vinyasa or a seasoned yogi, here’s a handy guide for using all the tools at your disposal–including breath, movement and mindfulness–to limit stress and maximize happiness in the coming months.
Simple Ways Yoga Can Help Handle Holiday Stress
1. Helps You Stay Healthy
Chronic health issues often flare up over the holidays, so don’t forget to use your yoga practice as preventive medicine. Keep persistent symptoms at bay – high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, back pain, heart issues, allergies and more–with a daily dose of yoga.
- Drain your lymphatic system and increase blood circulation through postures and movement.
- Try combating infections and colds by opening up your chest with a gentle fish, bridge, or bow pose.
- Don’t skimp on your yoga just because you are busy.
- Everyone has time for a quick round of sun salutations in the morning, a few standing forward bends at lunch or some breathing techniques before bed–no mat or props needed.
Just remember the old saying: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
2. Keeps You Worry-Free
“I’m so stressed out. My mind is racing. Everything seems overwhelming. I just can’t stop thinking!”
Are anxious feelings wearing down your holiday spirit?
- Politely excuse yourself from the party; turn off the computer – just take a break.
- Find a quiet, peaceful spot for some yogic mantra or meditation. You can quickly detach from worrisome thoughts by focusing on the individual sounds of the mantra or by simply following the breath – in and out. Sometimes a longer exhalation or pausing at the end of your out breath can calm a speedy mind.
- If time permits, do some asanas such as ‘child’s pose’ to really let go.
- You can try balancing poses (like Tree pose) to connect to the earth and sky or ‘toe squat’ to stretch your feet and take the focus out of your “head” and into your body.
A restorative yoga session can be an hour well spent; your worries will literally melt into the mat and leave you feeling clear and refreshed.
[Read: 7 Tips to Burn Those Holiday Calories]
3. Increases Your Concentration
As if your life isn’t hectic enough, the holidays with extended family, shopping, school recitals, the annual office party can weigh down on you. All these distractions can wreak havoc on our memory, concentration and problem solving.
- In order to stay productive, incorporate asanas that increase mental focus like Warrior I, II, III, dancer’s pose, eagle or ‘shoulder stand’ into your practice.
- Activate your tired brain with a series of breathing exercises. You can do them anywhere, anytime, seated or standing.
- Really crunched for time? Take a few moments sitting in a comfortable halflotus (eyes closed or with an unfocused gaze), or stand in mountain pose with your hands in anjali position.
The simple act of remaining still with palms pressed together can help bring you back to your center.
4. Keeps Your Body Toned and Fit
It doesn’t matter if you’ve done one yoga class or a thousand. Factors such as Strength, flexibility, muscle tone, core stabilization, balance, cardio health and enhanced athletic performance become apparent with that very first stretch or twist. You might have a consistent practice and then December rolls around.
Suddenly there’s no time to cook dinner, let alone squeeze in an entire yoga session. What do you do? Do something rather than nothing! During the holiday season, concentrate on the target areas that are the most important to you.
- Try adding a few minutes of yoga before or after a workout, run or walk.
- Strike a few powerful poses before the kids get up in the morning or discretely activate your core with tummy toning exercises while sitting on the couch.
- If you want better shoulder flexibility, keep up your downward dogs.
- For a stronger spine, perform backbends, forward bends and twists.
- And for stronger triceps, perform chaturanga as often as you can during your yoga flow.
5. Keeps Your Weight Stable
Everyone knows that a good yoga series burns calories, builds muscles and provides your body with a systematic, holistic workout. More importantly, yoga practice helps you make friends with your body. This is no small statement. When you “know” your body, you eat more consciously, recognizing the difference between a food craving and actual hunger.
You make more sensible food choices, and intuitively eat less because you know when you are actually full. Over the holidays, even our most thoughtful meal-planning can be disrupted. You can’t say no to grandma’s pumpkin pie or your cousin might be eyeing your dinner plate to see if you’ve eaten all his homemade mashed potatoes.
Try keeping your “yogi mind” at family dinners. Stay centered, drink plenty of water and don’t forget to breathe deeply when you feel stressed or overwhelmed. You can also practice high cardio yoga styles during the holidays such as power vinyasa, warm or hot flow, sculpt with weights–to get maximum aerobic benefits in the shortest amount of time.
6. Lifts Your Mood and Helps Maintain A Positive Outlook
Yoga practice is a great way to boost sagging spirits and control your depression. Yoga raises your heart rate and gets the blood flowing throughout the body.
- If you are feeling blue, try stretching your arms overhead and spreading your toes wide in a simple raised arm mountain pose.
- Back bend in bridge or upward bend in cobra, opening your chest, rib cage and heart.
- Any inversion that gets your heart lower than your head –supported headstand, legs -up-the-wall pose, shoulder or handstand can have a positive effect on mood.
- Relax and rejuvenate in your favorite restorative pose; don’t skimp on any blankets or props needed for extra comfort.
- For mental stimulation, use a breathing exercise like Bellow’s breath to stir your prana – it’s better than a cup of coffee!
Let your yoga practice serve as a physical reminder that your mood won’t stay low forever. Change happens all by itself if you stay on your mat, breath and follow the sequence of poses.
7. Helps You Sleep Better
Work is stressful and your parents are coming for an extended holiday stay. You’re worried and anxious so it’s hard to fall asleep. You toss and turn all night and now you’re cranky and irritated at breakfast. The sleep deprivation cycle begins, and with it all the troubling symptoms; insomnia, exhaustion, over-stimulated nervous system, chronic stress, sensory overload, muscle tightening, tension headaches and more.
How can yoga help?
- Get in a rigorous session during the day so your body is tired by nightfall or try a gentle yoga series before bed.
- Follow your out breath. Deep exhalations allow your nervous system to relax and your breathing to slow down.
- Use poses that relieve physical tension such as spinal twists (seated or supine), plow, or a gentle forward fold (let your head hang).
- Turn out the lights, turn off the day.
- Climb into bed and let it all go with a final savasana.
[Read: The Best Low Calorie Nutritious Holiday Appetizers]
8. Improves Your Vitality and Energy
What happens when you follow a sequence of yoga movements choreographed to the rhythm of your breath? Your blood flow increases, more oxygen gets delivered to your cells and tissues, red blood cell and hemoglobin counts rise. You feel rejuvenated.
What about when you’re tired?
- A series of sun salutations can warm and stimulate both the body and the mind.
- Chair and eagle are also energizing poses you can do anytime; hold them longer to generate more heat and internal energy.
- Kundalini is a good yoga practice for increasing prana and vitality.
Be sure to make an extra effort to keep your yoga practice going over the holidays; you’ll be rewarded with more vibrancy and stamina to enjoy the whole winter season.
Did you overindulge in turkey, stuffing or green bean casserole at the holiday dinner? You’re not alone. Intestinal symptoms like indigestion, acid reflux, bloating and constipation can sap your energy. Wind removing pose (wide leg, legs together, or one leg at a time to target different segments of your colon), twisting poses (to massage your abdomen), reclining bound angle pose (for all your abdominal organs), or some gentle cat/cow movements can offer instant relief for intestinal distress.
[Read: 6 Simple Tips To Stay Healthy Through The Holidays]
9. Maintains Your Mind-Body Connection
Why are we so clumsy and accident prone during the holiday season? Stress can make you move too fast, lose your mind-body connection and make you react with a fight or flight response to ordinary situations. Try breathing exercises, balancing poses or seated meditation. The mindfulness coupled with the physical embodiment that yoga brings can help you recover faster, protect you from further injury, improve your coordination and reaction time, and help you balance better.
10. Helps You Be Centered, Present And In The Moment
Your commitment to yoga practice is the most precious gift you can give to yourself. Don’t hesitate to use all of your yoga tools–breath, movement and mindfulness–to keep your holiday season stress-free.
Enjoy. Appreciate. Celebrate. Morn. Rejoice. Connect. Forgive. Extend. Radiate.
When you are centered, present, and in the moment, you can give and receive, love and be loved, touch and be touched back.
Happy Holidays and Happy Yoga.
