Yoga does not have to end once you step off the mat after a 60-minute class. The tools you gain in a yoga class, such as breathing techniques, good posture, balance, and patience are meant to be integrated into your being so you can use them when you need them most. You can carry these four yoga tools into your everyday life for peace, mindfulness, and strength.
Breathing
“For breath is life, and if you breathe well you will live long on earth.” – Sanskrit proverb
One of the greatest tools yoga equips you with is a focused, controlled breath. Whenever you’re feeling stressed, anxious, angry, or sad, you can pause and breathe. Count your inhales and exhales, seeing how long you can extend each. For even more soothing effects, incorporate a mantra into your breath work. Positive affirmations can do wonders in replacing negative, doubtful self-talk. With simple breathing techniques, your mood will be transformed, allowing you to live your best life.
Posture
We spend the majority of our days hunched over a desk, slouched in chairs that don’t support our spines. Yoga can help combat the pain from poor postures and brings awareness to your body. When you make the effort to improve your posture, you increase your confidence, and evoke an image of power.
Balance
When you’re balanced, you feel calm, grounded, and clear-headed. How can you find balance in your everyday life? Achieving balance will look different depending on each individual person, but yoga can help anyone restore balance. Yoga teaches you to acknowledge how you feel, examine why you feel that way, and set plans for different behavior in the future. Yoga ultimately attunes you to your body, mind, and spirit so you can determine what you need to find balance.
Patience
Life can be frustrating – from the people who don’t behave how you thought they would to circumstances that prevent you from achieving your goals. Yoga teaches you that you’ll have feelings but that you don’t have to act on them. You can breathe, then transform that energy into something positive – go for a hike in the woods, cook a meal for a friend, or practice yoga. In yoga, you continually pull your focus back to the present – on your posture, your movement, and your breath. This practice encourages you to accept the moment, being patient while you wait for the next moment to come, no matter how difficult.
Yoga: Equipping You with Tools for Life
Life can often make you feel like crawling back into bed to hide under the covers. But we don’t have to avoid the struggles of everyday life; we can, instead, feel empowered by the tools we gain from yoga. We have everything we need inside of us to make it through any and all ups and downs. Join Health Yoga Life’s community of yogis in weekly classes and add yoga tools into your arsenal for conquering everyday life.