Stress, anxiety, anger and frustration have terrible consequences on physical and mental health. Yoga helps neutralize these harsh effects on health.
When life gets chaotic and stressful, it is all too easy to feel overpowered and crushed by the various events happening around. Uncertainty, indecision, and dissatisfaction surface, and the mind seem to be exploding. Tension, worry, anxiety, apprehension, fear and emotional upheavals, all take a very heavy toll on the health. Stress causes a host of psychological and physical disorders. Recurrent headaches, muscle pains, backache, insomnia, elevated blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, cardiac disorders, hair loss, mood swings, rage, and depression are just a few of the dreadful consequences of stress.
What can be Done About Stress?
Primarily, one needs to take action before a ‘burn out’. Determine the cause 
of stress and work towards alleviating it. Practice healthy living. Follow a healthy and habitual regimen. Eat right, sleep well, follow a hobby, and most essentially be grateful of the body and treasure it.
Yoga is a powerful discipline that helps lessen the impact of stress successfully.
Counter-acting Stress through Yoga
Yoga is a very ancient science that helps one attain ‘communion with God’. Drawn from the Sanskrit word ‘Yuj’, it unites the individual soul or the ‘Jivatma’ with the universal soul or the ‘Paramatma‘.
The regular and sustained practice of Yoga offers significant long-term benefits. It works powerfully at the physical, mental, and spiritual levels. It provides an immediate ‘feel good’ and buoyant effect. Yoga boosts energy levels and suffuses one with a sense of well being and peace. It keeps a whole range of lifestyle and metabolic disorders at bay. Yoga eradicates unnecessary mental clutter and pessimism and infuses serenity.
The Benefits of Yoga Practice
Chiefly, Yoga operates on the subtle energies in the body. The graceful and free flowing movements of the Yoga Asanas, maintain a good flow of the Prana or the vital force, in the body. Yoga balances the flow of the vital energy and checks an excess or a shortage of the Prana.
Most people have sedentary, desk-bound jobs, with virtually no activity. Yoga guarantees a supple and agile body. It enhances the supply of oxygen to all the cells in the body, betters the mobility of joints, tones up the gastric organs, and improves balance.
Yoga has a strong effect on mental health. It increases concentration, improves memory and calms the mind. Yoga encourages peace and level-headedness, by helping one tackle stressful conditions and encourages hope and living in the present moment.
A Yoga Technique that Provides Complete Peace and Calmness
Shashankasana is a wonderful Yoga posture that is easy to perform on a daily basis and instils profound peace and relaxation. One comes out of this asana feeling revived and rejuvenated.
The technique :
- Kneel on to the yoga mat. Then, sit down with the buttocks on to the feet.
Place the palms on the thighs and keep the spine erect. - Raise the arms, parallel to the thighs, at the level of the chest.
- Gradually lean the body forwards, so that the chest is flattened against the thighs, and the arms are stretched straight forwards, on the floor.
- Let the forehead touch the floor.
- Relax into the pose. Hold the asana for about 2 to 3 minutes.
This asana lets go of all tension and stress effectively. It soothes the mind, relaxes the body and generates inner peace.