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Finding Balance Throughout the Day – Part One

One of the biggest complaints I hear from my students is how easily they get stressed during their day. From balancing demands at the office with family and friends, to attempting to find time for yourself and running to a yoga practice or gym session- our days can get very, very busy. Now stress isn’t always bad. A little bit of stress can help you stay focused, energetic, and able to meet new challenges in the workplace. But we need to find how to find daily balance.

How does our body react to stress?

When we are under stress,  we can often feel this in our body. Our muscles become tense, and we can experience aches and pains in the body. Our mind is often busy planning the next “to-do”, already thinking about the next task, when the one at hand is still being done. Our sleep can become disrupted, which leads to anxiety, fatigue and trouble concentrating on daily tasks.

How can we balance stress?

My go-to answer is always yoga and healthy eating habits. Yoga can be beneficial to our mind and body in many ways. From reducing general stress and anxiety, to increasing energy levels, boosting focus and concentration. A yoga practice can help with expanding our breath capacity, to improving posture and circulation in the body, and helping to relieve everyday tensions such as head, neck and back strain, and work-related injuries from sedentary job environments. Although Yoga has been around for thousands of years, it is now becoming more and more popular in western society because of the many benefits in part to combatting with our stress inducing lives.

My hope is is to share a few tips and tools to help balance day to day stress – but there are too many techniques to share in one post, so I will divide these basic techniques up into Part One and Part Two. Here are a few tips to incorporate into a busy schedule to find balance to the stress.

Tip 1:

Start your day off right – create a mindset ready to take on whatever the day has in store for you. Try starting with five minutes of this yoga sequence to energize the body and awaken the mind.
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SUN SALUTATION A 

Forward Fold: Exhale, and hinge forward from the hips to bend forward into a fold, relaxing your belly towards thighs

Flat Back Extend: Inhale, press your hands to shins and lengthen out away from your hips.

Plank: Exhale and step back to plank.

Cobra: Release to your belly and inhale to cobra, drawing your shoulders back away from the ears.

Downward Dog: Exhale to downward facing dog, lengthening your heels back towards the floor. Pause for 5 breaths.

Flat Back Extend: Inhale and step forward to a flat back at the top of the mat.

Forward Fold: Exhale to a forward fold once more.

Extended Mountain: Breathing in, reach the arms up and overhead.

Mountain Pose: Exhaling return back to center at mountain pose.

Bethany found yoga to cross-train when she competed in professional watersports over 10 years ago. The love for the practice transitioned into teaching, as an E-RYT 200 hour certified yoga teacher and studio founder of Yoga Roots in Sweden. She is originally from the US and currently resides and teaches teaching in Malmö, Sweden. To her teachings she brings influences from an athletic background, international environment and a pure joy for sharing yoga with others.

Follow Bethany on social media:

Instagram: @bethanyyoga

Facebook: @bethanyhendersonyoga

Website: https://www.bethanyyoga.com
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