3 Yoga poses to relieve your headache

Yoga is an ancient technique that promotes holistic living through a combination of postures and breathing techniques. Yoga is a side-effect free method to fight migraine. Practising these simple yoga postures for a few minutes every day will help prepare yourself better for the next migraine attack

Child’s Pose

Child’s Pose gently stretches the hips, thighs, ankles, calms the mind and helps relieve stress and fatigue. The Child pose also calms down the nervous system and effectively reduces the headache.

Cat Pose

Cat stretch improves blood circulation, relaxes the mind, beats stress and helps you breathe better. The best part about this asana is that it helps relax tense muscles which is an effective way to get rid of pain

Corpse Pose

The Corpse pose rejuvenates the body by bringing it into a deep state of meditative rest. The yoga routine should be ended by lying down in this pose for a couple of minutes.

Downward facing yoga pose for headache

The Downward Facing Dog pose increases blood circulation to the brain and thus relieves headache.
Benefits of the Downward Facing Dog Pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana)

• This pose leaves you energized and rejuvenates the body
• It lengthens the spine, strengthens the muscles of the chest increasing lung capacity.
• It brings strength throughout the body especially the arms, shoulders, legs, feet.
• Helps to tone muscles
• It increases circulation to the brain
• Calms the mind and helps relive headache, insomnia and fatigue.

How to do Downward Facing Dog Pose

• Come onto your fours. Form a table such that your back forms the table top and your hands and feet form the legs of the table.
• As you breath out lift the hips up, straightening the knees and elbows, form an inverted V-shape with the body.
• Hands are shoulder width apart, feet are hip width apart and parallel to each other. Toes point straight ahead.
• Press your hands into the ground. Widen through the shoulder blades. Keep the neck lengthened by touching the ears to the inner arms.
• Hold the downward dog pose and take long deep breaths. Look towards the navel.
• Exhale. Bend the knees, return to table pose. Relax.

Paschimottanasana for controlling anger

Paschimottanasana calms the brain and helps relieve stress and depression and Paschimottanasana also helps to control anger.
How to do Seated Forward bend yoga pose (Paschimottanasana)
• Sit up with the legs stretched out straight in front of you, keeping the spine erect and toes flexed toward you.
• Breathing in, raise both arms above your head and stretch up.
• Breathing out, bend forward from the hip joints, chin moving toward the toes. Keep the spine erect focusing on moving forwards towards the toes, rather than down towards the knees.
• Place your hands on your legs, wherever they reach, without forcing. If you can, take hold of your toes and pull on them to help you go forward.
• Breathing in, lift your head slightly and lengthen your spine.
• Breathing out, gently move the navel towards the knees.
• Repeat this movement two or three times.
• Drop your head down and breathe deeply for 20-60 seconds.
• Stretch the arms out in front of you.
• Breathing in, with the strength of your arms, come back up to the sitting position.
• Breathe out and lower the arms.

YOGA MAKES YOU A CHILD AGAIN

Yoga is connecting to the Divine. Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has said, ‘Yoga is a study of life, study of your body, breath, mind, intellect, memory, and ego.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar further said, ”Vismaya Yoga Bhumika’: ASTONISHMENT is the preface for Yoga. If you are astonished/stunned, that is when yoga begins, means your spiritual journey begins, meditation begins and helps for free mind. So you must be astonished in order to get into yoga. ‘

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar beautifully said, ‘Yoga makes you a child again’.  Not childish, childlike. Children are creative, have a sense of wonder for all things.Inspired by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, leading Yoga Gurus of various lineages came together at The Art of Living International Center for a two day ‘International Yoga Summit’. The two-day conference had eminent speakers exploring ways to use yoga as value-based education .

Feeling Stressed? Yoga is the Way to getout of Stress

Studies have shown that chronic stress can decrease immunity and result in greater vulnerability to disease. However, recently evidence has suggested that a regular practice of Hatha Yoga for Stress may help to decrease levels of inflammation in the body and increase overall health, fitness, and well being.

Yoga for Stress

This study will examine the effects of a regular Hatha yoga practice on chronic stress levels and the immune system in women. More specifically, it will look measures of psychological stress (using surveys), as well as looking at the various biochemical markers of oxidative stress, and how they are affected by a Hatha yoga practice.

The purpose of this study is:

To evaluate the effectiveness of a Hatha yoga practice in reducing chronic stress

To examine the mechanisms through which a Hatha yoga practice affects practitioners

To identify changes in biochemical markers of oxidative stress during a Hatha yoga practice

If you have been experiencing high levels of stress for at least one month, then you may be eligible to participate. Click here to find out if you are a candidate!

Participants are randomly selected (like by flipping a coin) to have the option of giving a blood sample. Those selected will receive a complementary Blood Test that provides information relating to their blood cells. This is not a complete blood check, but abnormally high or low blood cell counts may indicate anaemia, infection or a blood disease.