When the holidays arrive, your wellness and wellbeing goals often go straight out of the window. You’re so busy running around attending parties, preparing food or buying gifts that you feel you simply do not have enough time to focus on your personal health. Yoga is a form of complementary health, and is one that you could actually integrate with your holiday plans.
The great thing about yoga is that it helps to decrease stress – and stress is something which (sadly) many of us feel during the holidays. Yoga can help to turn impatience and frustration into a sense of rejuvenation and mental clarity. Whenever you feel fatigued, drained and stressed, yoga can be great for boosting your alertness and mental energy.
There are some yoga poses in particular which are great for relieving holiday stress. If you try these, you will find that they help to reduce the tension you are experiencing and that they also increase your energy, boost your moods and help you to sleep at night.
The first are the cat and cow poses. For these, you need to be on all fours with your knees aligned directly underneath your hips, placing your wrists slightly in front of your shoulder alignment. At first you keep your head in a neutral position, looking at the floor. You should then inhale, round your spine up towards the ceiling whilst keeping your knees and shoulders in place – this is the cat pose.
Then, allow your head to come back down and tuck your chin in towards your chest. Inhale and lift your bum up towards the sky, dropping your belly down – this is the cow poses. Alternate between cow and cat poses about 15 times during each session and you will find that your back, torso and neck are stretched out and your anxiety levels are lower.
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