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Stress Relief through Yoga

Allistair Santiago

crossed-legs.JPGLike I said in my last blog post, it’s been a while since my last yoga class. I got totally stressed out over my animation portfolio and couldn’t make it to yoga class for a couple weeks. But that’s over, and I made it back to my yoga studio for one of their meditative Yin classes just recently.

Now, I don’t know what I expected, but yoga was more difficult than I remembered it being.

Even the slow, ponderous poses we went through were body-breakingly arduous. It was an embarrassment. I even found it difficult to sit cross legged and meditate. No joke.I figure there was more to it than just two weeks away from yoga. I mean, yeah, you’re going to feel it more the longer you’ve been away from physical activity, but it shouldn’t have been that hard. My suffering was not in proportion to my absence.

So here’s what I think: not only did I spend a couple weeks away from yoga, but I spent a couple weeks away from yoga while feeling maximally stressed out. Now, stress has a funny way of messing with everything. At its root, it may be psychological, but it manifests itself in very physiological ways, affecting all biological processes. It’s not unthinkable, then, that being under stress would cause a good deal of muscle tension, among other symptoms. So the first class back to yoga saw me working through two weeks of inactivity and the stress of compiling an animation portfolio to a deadline. It was unexpectedly brutal.

But there’s an up side. I’m way less stressed out now. Not only have I finished the portfolio, but yoga has proven to be good stress relief. Even within a single class. Relaxing after the workout, I could feel the difference. I left the studio feeling heavier of limb, but lighter of mind.

[tags]stress relief, Yin yoga, meditation, deadline, workout, yoga practice[/tags]

One Response to “Stress Relief through Yoga”

  1. Niyati says:

    I read your whole article and I loved your article. Yoga today is very important in people’s life. Yoga is gaining more and more importance as there is a lot of stress at workplaces. Yoga is the best and easy way to reduce the stress. And I have some good yoga tips at http://www.jiyohealthy.com/category/stress/

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