What’s your go-to when you need to lift your mood and shift your mindset? Call us biased but we believe yoga is one of the best ways to balance your emotions. The most powerful benefits of a regular yoga practice are intangible: a more positive mindset, a sense of lightness, and an ability to remain calm under pressure. Whether you want to feel relaxed or feel invigorated, yoga profoundly impacts your nervous system.
Asana, pranayama, and meditation can lower your blood pressure, regulate your heart rate and reduce cortisol levels, which will simply help you feel happier. In other words, asana and pranayama shifts us from fight or flight––a reactive state––to rest and digest––a receptive state. By balancing our nervous system, we can better manage our emotions and mood. When we move the prana or energy through our system with mindful breath and movement, we are releasing stagnant energy and creating space for the fresh and new.
Feeling blue or weighed down can be tied to holding onto too much Tamas, the universal element or Guna representing solidity and inertia. Dedicating some time to asana, pranayama, and meditation directed toward a more sattvic state of harmony and light will help lift the weight. Backbends are great poses to lift your mood. These heart-opening poses expand the front of the body, which increases your energy and oxygen levels.
If you’re feeling irritated or angry, that’s a sign your body is holding excess Rajas or fire. Forward folds help you soothe your parasympathetic nervous system. Pranayama techniques like Vishama Vritti or unequal breath fluctuations will help lower your blood pressure and quiet your mind. So, when you’re feeling too fired up, try six rounds of inhaling for a count of 4 and exhaling for a count of 8.
In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali emphasizes the three primary benefits of the physical postures or asanas, as resolving dis-ease, creating lightness of body, and stability. In the Sutras on Pranayama, breath control, II-49 through II-53 detail how the regulation of life force is regulated by the inhale and the exhale. Through our practice, we can shift our perspective not by fighting darkness but by introducing light. In other words, we introduce light through our asana and pranayama, thus uplifting our emotions.
This week’s classes will help you shift your mood, no matter which direction you need it to go!
Quick Mood Booster Flow - Mary Baker
The Yogic Way: Your Solar Nature - Annie Coyle
Cosy Sensory Hug - Lila Whiting
Gentle Yoga Flow for Inner Peace - Marie Castello