The holidays are crazy. We all know it. There is an energy of stress and busyness that is palpable as early as November 1st. Stores are busier, everything is louder. More lights, more music, more people and things and signs and flashing advertisements in your face. More mail and packages and bags entering your house. More cars on the road. Faster, brighter, louder, MORE!
No wonder we're all exhausted and stressed.
I don't believe it has to be this way. Do you? We can't change the world around us - today, anyway. But we can change how we respond to it and what we do to help ourselves in the midst of it. Here are a few of my go-to tips that I share with my students and that I incorporate into my own life. Because, let's be honest - I don't come by these things naturally. I need my yoga practice in order to be grounded and present or else I just run around like crazy from one thing to the next.
Tip 1 - Breathe. This is one of the most important tips. Deep, diaphragmatic breathing will do wonders for your stress, and the effects come quickly. You will bring more oxygen into the body and calm the nervous system as well as increasing lung capacity and much more. Sit up tall, spine long. Close your eyes if you'd like. Breathe in and out through the nose. Let your ribs expand in all directions as you inhale. Count your inhale and let your exhale be twice as long (1:2 breathing). So if you inhale for 4 seconds, exhale for 8. The exhale is the calming part of the breath, so we are lengthening it to calm the body even quicker. Relax your face, your eyes, your jaw. Let the shoulders soften down the back toward the waist. Let your heart center lift up toward the sky. Do this for 10 breaths or more. Notice the shift you feel mentally after just 10 breaths.
Tip 2 - Drink a cup of hot lemon water first thing in the morning. This helps to jump start your liver which flushes out excess hormones (stress hormones!) from the body, detoxifies, and in general helps keep us healthy. We want it to be healthy and strong, and stress slooooows it down. So give it a little boost first thing in your day. Just squeeze half a lemon into a cup of boiling water and voila! If it's too zingy for you, add a little honey. Do this daily, first thing in the morning, 30 minutes before you eat if possible (don't worry if you miss that window) and notice how invigorating and refreshing it is. Good morning!
Tip 3 - Turn down the volume on your life. Find little ways to decrease the stimulation coming into your brain. Lower the volume a little bit on your stereo. Change the music to soothing instrumental music or something that elicits calm feelings (I've been loving Solo Piano Christmas Music on Songza, a free app). Turn the TV volume down, or skip having it on in the background. When you are in a loud, chaotic place, wear headphones if it's appropriate and listen to calming music. Sit for a few minutes every day - in your house, at your desk, in the car while driving even! Just sit and be quiet. Close your eyes if appropriate, but that's not mandatory. Breathe in deeply, breathe out deeply. Try to sit in silence for a few minutes every day.
Tip 4: Try out my 3 favorite stress-relieving poses.
1. Tree Pose - If you're feeling all over the place and not present or grounded, Tree Pose (Vrksasana) is my favorite pose for an instant sense of dropping into my body and the present moment. Stand with feet facing straight forward. Shift your weight onto your left leg and place the right foot inside the left calf or thigh (never inside the knee). Reach the arms up overhead, palms facing one another. Ground the left foot down, imaging in sending tree roots down into the earth. From the waist up, lengthen up, your arms like branches reaching toward the light. Lift your heart. Smile a little bit. :) Draw your navel in and up to stabilize you. Breathe deeply
2. Child's Pose - From hands and knees, bring big toes together (knees can be open wide, or close to one another). Lay your rib cage on your thighs and draw your sit bones toward your heels. Extend your arms out on the floor in front of you and let your forehead press into the mat or floor. If it doesn't touch, stack your fists one on top of the other and rest your head there. The pressure on the forehead is important because it has a calming effect on the body. Let your whole back soften. Breathe deeply and just let go. Imagine any burdens that you're carrying on your shoulders just melting away, draining off your shoulders, down your arms, disappearing into a pool of white light beneath you. Let them go.
3. Legs up the Wall - I practice this one without raising my hips up because my back feels more comfortable that way. If you feel good with a support, go for it - that has added benefits. Support (firm blanket or bolster) goes 5-6" from the wall. Sit with your right hip against the wall, bum on your support, lean on your left forearm on the floor and swing your legs up the wall. Tie some sort of strap around your mid thighs and let the legs fall out into the strap so that they relax. Make sure your shoulders are on the mat. Arms in cactus or wherever feels ok to you. Make sure you're warm or your nervous system won't relax. Feet may begin to tingle as the blood leaves them - that's ok. Close the eyes, breathe naturally, and as the mind wanders, just keep bringing it back to the breath - notice the cool air coming up the center of the nose and the warmed air leaving through the outer edges of the nostrils - an inverted V pattern. Stay here for about 5 minutes.
This pose is amazing. It feels like it's not doing much at all, but it relieves tension in the legs and back and very quickly helps to shift our sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) to the parasympathetic nervous system that calms and soothes. It's not uncommon to walk into my house and find me in our Yoga room with my legs thrown up the wall for a little two minute Hail Mary with two crazy boys running around.
Take care of yourself. The world doesn't need your harried, eyes-glazed-over, stressed out self who got all the to dos done but forgot to look up and notice the world around.
Look up. Make eye contact. Take a deep breath. Feel your feet on the ground. Notice the crisp air. Smile. And then show up - fully you. This is what the world needs.
Happy, happy holidays, fellow yogis and yoginis.