Looking for an instant energy boost? Yoga can help. Yoga can smooth out your moods, energizing you when you’re tired, and relaxing you when you’re stressed. Make time for yoga during your busy day: you can even do yoga at work — just close your office door.

Here are four poses which will give you an instant energy boost.

1. Mountain Pose

When you’re standing in mountain pose, you’re focusing on your body’s alignment and on your breathing. Your everyday concerns drop away and within a couple of moments you’re relaxed and focused.

Practice mountain pose for a minute or two every hour when you have a busy day. You’ll be amazed at how this very simple pose revitalizes your mind and body: it gives you an instant shot of energy and helps you see everything more clearly.

2. Forward Bend

There are several popular forward bend poses which you can do. All of them help to relieve stress. Just pick your favorite forward bend pose, and maintain the pose for at least five slow breaths. Inhale deeply before you come up, this helps to prevent dizziness.

You can create a sequence with forward bends. After standing in mountain pose for five breaths, bend your body from your hips with a straight back and maintain the forward bend pose for five breaths. Then come back up into mountain pose.

After this sequence, you’ll find that you’re totally relaxed, and energized too.

3. Downward Facing Dog

Dogs know how to stretch. If you’ve ever watched a dog waking up, the first thing he does is downward facing dog pose. This pose stretches his muscles and gets his entire body ready for action.

As with all the forward bending poses, this pose gives you a new perspective.

From mountain pose, get down on your hands and knees, and then go into downward facing dog pose. Maintain the pose for five breaths, lifting your hips towards the ceiling.

Then walk your feet forward until they’re between your hands, and get up into mountain pose again.

4. Cobra

Cobra pose stretches out your back and is a great corrective if you’ve been sitting in an office chair for several hours.

Just maintain the pose for five breaths, and come out of the pose into downward facing dog, and from there walk your feet forward and come back up into mountain pose.

Try these four poses, they’ll give you an instant energy boost during your busy day. They’re especially useful when you come home from work, and then have to go out again. You’ll find afterward you get your second wind and you’re more relaxed too.

If you’ve been confining your yoga to weekly yoga classes, try these simple poses which help you to integrate yoga into your daily life.

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[tags]yoga, yoga poses, yoga for energy, stress relief, beginners yoga, yoga benefits[/tags]

Are you looking for yoga poses for stress relief? Triangle pose is a great pose which energizes as well as relaxes you. Spending just a few minutes in triangle pose can change your mood completely.

The following process takes just a minute or two, and has huge benefits.

1. Start in Mountain Pose

If you’re doing the pose in your office during the day, remove your shoes. Start in Mountain pose, ensuring that your alignment is correct.

Your weight should be evenly balanced between the balls of your feet and your heels. Relax your neck, and your shoulders.

Stand in Mountain pose for a few breaths, breathing normally. Your belly should expand as you breathe in.

2. Relax Into Triangle Pose

Take a wide step to the right, with your feet are parallel and 3 to 4 feet apart. Turn your left foot in, at a 45 angle and your right foot out by 90 degrees.

Open your arms so that they’re parallel to the floor, then bend sideways until your left arm is pointing straight up and your right arm rests on your right leg, or beside your right foot.

Relax your neck, and look up towards your left hand. Breathe evenly, and remain in the pose for several breaths.

Use your left foot to anchor yourself and come back up, until you’re standing with your arms parallel to the floor.

Perform the pose to the other side moving your right foot inward to 45 degrees, and your left foot outward 90 degrees.

Step your feet back together and rest in Mountain pose. You can repeat triangle pose two or three more times on both sides of your body if you have sufficient time.

3. Feel the Benefits As You Return to Mountain Pose

Wen you return to Mountain pose you should feel very energized.

Feel the energy moving throughout your body. Wait for a few moments, and then return to your day.

Triangle pose leaves you relaxed and confident, and is a perfect stress-buster.

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Downward Facing Dog has been one of my favorite poses ever since I discovered that it works as a sleep-inducer. It’s better than a sleeping pill for fixing insomnia.

But I know it’s difficult for many new students to understand how active this pose is, and learn to relax in the pose.

Here’s a great description of the pose Asana Anatomy Downward Facing Dog – My Yoga Online:

“At the palms, our fingers are spread wide, distributing the weight evenly from the thumb side to the pinky finger side. This minimizes tension and discomfort in the wrists. There should be an ever so slight bend in the elbow, created by the biceps, avoiding hyperextension at the elbows. Imagine the eyes of your elbows (the crease) gently turning forward without changing the hands. This requires the pronator muscle of the forearm to engage the internal rotation of the lower arms, as the rotator cuff muscles (teres major and infraspinatus) turn the elbow eyes forward with outward rotation of the upper arms. “

If you need help relaxing at any time, try Downward Facing Dog — a couple of minutes in this pose, and you’ll face the world with new confidence.

[tags]yoga, yoga poses, downward facing dog[/tags]