The Best Stress-Relieving Yoga Moves

The Rabbit Pose

The Rabbit Pose, also known as Sasangasana, involves sitting with your head positioned towards your knees while the top of your head relaxes on the floor and your hands hold your feet. By doing so, it helps alleviate strain in your shoulders and neck as well as lengthens the spine, which helps nurture and re-position the backbone to ease areas prone to storing stress and tension. It has also been shown to help balance the hormones, which helps improve your mood.

Simply practice the pose anytime you want to stretch the backbone and back muscles, which can become tight due to anxiety. Many physicians advise stretching as a method to reduce accumulated tension and stress caused by anxiety, which this pose is effective at doing.

Ready for a long stretch? Keep reading to discover another pose.

The Side Stretch

There are numerous variations of side stretch poses, including the Extended Triangle, the Gate Pose, the Upward Salute Variation, and the Reverse Warrior. Side stretches, or side-bends, help restore balance throughout the entire body by extending and strengthening the hips, thigh muscles, and core muscles, and it also improves suppleness in the backbone. Furthermore, it loosens the rib muscles, which can become taut over time, as a result of slumping, and cause tension and stress.

Practice side bends up to three times a week or to feel re-balanced and revitalized anytime. However, if you feel sharp pain, or if you have low blood pressure, headaches, dizziness, or diarrhea, it is not recommended that you do one of these poses.

Light up the sky with this next pose.