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Ramadan opportunity to cut stress

Ramadan is an excellent opportunity for us to relieve stress. It is emotionally calming. Stress is something that causes discomfort physically or mentally in a person. Mental stress is caused when the expectations of a person are not fulfilled. Time is a primary factor in stress. Everything is becoming faster, so expectations are going out of control. Work creates stress, and when both parents work, it compounds it, because then you don’t have enough time for each other or your children. Interpersonal relations are in disarray. Breath is an unstoppable process in humans. It goes on and on till we literally breathe our last. The distance between your first and last breath is what we call life. So yoga brings your breathing to its natural cycle. Breathing techniques is most basic in Yoga.

The other type of stress is physical stress. Our body has been naturally built to neutralize stress. Our eight hour sleep cycles are an excellent mechanism to keep stress under control. However, in the modern way of life, few people enjoy deep sleep. They sleep in short bursts, depriving the body and mind of real rest.

Breath is a very unique aspect of life. Breathing has a cycle or rhythm, which can go awry with negative emotions. When our breath cycle is upset, it can in turn upset the natural functions of your body. We have many hormones in our body that control a lot of functions. Our saliva, bile, insulin and so on have to be secreted in due proportion at the appropriate time for our bodies to function effectively. Breathing properly is very important for hormonal balance.

More than 10 diseases are related to stress. Diabetes and pressure, the two most common diseases of the modern world, can be triggered by stress. Nowadays, most diseases, which we call lifestyle diseases, are in some ways related to stress. The inability to cope with stress will put you out of sync with the natural rhythm of your body. Toxins are generated as a result of stress. Stress induces lot of negative emotions.

There are 6 negative emotions that have been identified in the ancient wisdom of Yoga. They are ambition, anger, misbehaviour, desire, miserliness and ego. Stress causes one or more of these emotions to dominate us.

Yoga brings you back into the natural rhythm of our breath cycle, sleep cycle and thought cycle. Even thoughts have a rhythm.

While learning breathing techniques we also learn to concentrate. This helps us bring our mind under our control. When our mind is under our control, we can live in the present. Solutions to our problems lie in acting in the present. It is not in the past or future.

Breath is the bridge between your body and mind. Breath is related to the mind, and is also related to the body. When you are angry, you breathe faster, and you also breathe faster when you work.
There is something called life energy. Nobody knows where your life goes when you die. When you stop breathing you die. With controlled breathing you can restore the natural habit of the body and mind to stay in a normal state. Slow breathing makes you feel relaxed, and allows more oxygen to flow to all parts of the body.

There are thousands of capillaries in our body leading to different organs and tissues. Oxygen has to reach all these parts in due amount to make them all function properly.

Most of us spend our wakeful time in sitting posture. If you sit in awkward postures, you will tend to hurt your spine and neck. So keeping the back and neck straight is important. Yoga postures will help in correcting your natural postures. They have a bearing on your daily postures of sitting, standing and lying down. So, postural correction happens if you practice yoga regularly. It takes 10 to 20 minutes of practice every day, to make a beginning.

The postures along with breathing will help you feel better in your eight or ten hours of working. This helps in de-stressing.

 

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