Yoga for Stress & Anxiety Relief - Therapeutic Yoga

Stress & anxiety can take a toll on the body. Luckily, therapeutic yoga can help. Trudy, a fellow PT & registered yoga teacher, stops by to show me stress & anxiety relief techniques. Therapeutic yoga focuses on gentle yoga or modification poses with breathing techniques. Focusing on the nervous system will help calm the body down. The nervous system is made up of the central and peripheral nervous system. The peripheral nervous system has the volitional control, which helps us move our body, and the autonomic control which we don’t have control over. This is the one we will focus on today. The parasympathetic and sympathetic systems of the autonomic system control our stress. These techniques should help decrease stress. Eye movements with head movements activate the oculomotor nerve to help reduce stress. Activating the facial nerve will also help relieve stress. Something as simple as laughing can make a big difference. Finally, working on the accessary nerve by gently stretching the upper traps and the sternocleidomastoid (SCM) can relax muscles around the neck and shoulders that cause stress.