Yoga is a powerful practice to heal both the body and mind. The way yogic techniques connect your physical fitness to your mental wellness is through your breath and awareness.
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The breath threads the whole practice together, which then leaves you feeling light, calm and de-stressed. Not only that, breath-based movement and yogic techniques also improve your cognitive function and productivity levels.
Therefore, breath is that one element that differentiates yoga practice from any other type of exercise. Your breath elevates your yoga routine and makes it an experience that is beyond just the body. Here is how you can enhance your yoga practice to become mentally fitter and stronger.
Breathing Kriyas
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Start your practice with a dynamic breathing kriyas like Kapalabhati, Bhastrika, or Agnisara. These techniques involve rapid breathing, which creates heat in the body while preparing your yoga practice. On the mind, they work like someone has wiped the slate clean! Therefore, you’ll find it easier to disconnect from any immediate stress or anxious thoughts that may make it hard to be in the present moment. This then leaves you free to enjoy your practice with good breath awareness.
Dynamic Warm-Up
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After dynamic breathing, work on movements that activate all the joints, focusing more on the spine. In yoga, the most essential structure is your spine, which houses your central nervous system. The spine can be activated by movements like Cat-Cow, side bending, and spinal twists. Sun Salutations are also good to invigorate the range as they repeatedly alternate between spinal flexion and extension (forward and backward bending). However, for the same reason, care should be taken because if there are pre-existing issues or weaknesses in the spine, they can get aggravated.
Core Practice
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This is the central theme of your practice. the choice of postures depends on your intention – whether you’re looking to relax, manage anxiety, improve focus, etc. today, we focus on mental health, and here are some key postures that are very helpful.
- Single-Leg Balances: balancing poses like tree pose, half moon, or warrior III harmonise the mind. They are good indicators of brain health, as an inability to balance on one leg has been linked to cognitive decline. since balance improves with practice, you must practice them regularly.
- Twists And Binds: In twists, you make contact between the opposite sides of the body (contra-lateral movements). These can be confusing initially, but they help improve agility and synchronise both brain hemispheres.
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- Inversions And Arm Balances: These postures help improve body awareness as they require mindful attention and control over the body. It is the process of exploring and practicing them that is important, not the posture itself. So, enjoy the journey, don’t stress about how long it takes, or push yourself too much, which is counterproductive in Yoga. These include postures like Headstand, Crow Pose, Downward Facing Dog, and Shoulder Stand.
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All yoga postures should be done with breath awareness.
Closing Sequence
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This is the time when you start closing your practice with gentle forward bends and hip openers. Forward bends help calm the mind and prepare you for meditative practices. Hip openers like Pigeon Pose open up the hips for meditative postures like Padmasana.
Pranayama And Meditation
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This is where the practice moves entirely into the realms of the mind. And unfortunately, this is where most people struggle! However, skipping these practices is like putting in the effort to go to an ATM machine to withdraw money, but leaving without collecting it from the dispenser. You have put all that effort into preparing the body and mind through Yoga asanas, now is the time you reap the benefits. This is where you ‘tone the mind’, learn to be more mindful, and manifest changes in your personality and temperament. Some simple but powerful Pranayama practices you can include at this stage are equal breathing, box breathing, or alternate nostril breathing. You can then rest in Shavasana to conclude the session.
Yoga is a powerful practice that is not limited to asanas; in fact, asanas simply prepare us for yoga. Once you learn to make that distinction, maintain breath awareness in your practice, and regularly do Pranayama and meditation, you will see a complete transformation in your physical and mental health.
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