Can Yoga help reduce stress?

During this pandemic, everyone has realized mental health is real. It is very easy and comfortable to stay in bed all day, watching Netflix, having classes on Zoom, and scrolling through Instagram and Twitter. However, that won’t help your health. The hardest thing to do is getting up, but once you’re up you’ll see it was worth it.

One of the things you can do to reduce stress and clear your mind is to practice yoga. Many of you might ask what exactly is yoga? We interviewed Matthew Morales owner of Quiet Mind Yoga studio located in McAllen and he gave us a more detailed explanation of what yoga is.

“We all have heard all our lives, ‘Just take a breath,’ but we never really think about it; you just, like, throw it off,” Morales said. “That has a lot of meaning to it. You take a deep breath and then adding movement into it helps release any kind of pent up energy you may have stuck in your body”.

I’ve learned these past few months that taking care of our bodies is important. From to what we eat to how many minutes a day we take time to stretch and have quiet time. Sometimes we can get too caught up in our lives, either with school, relationships, work, and other daily activities. However, it is important to at least take 30 minutes out of the day and exercise, stretch, or do yoga to reduce our stress.

The question here: does practicing yoga really take off stress? We talked to Nyssa Fox, co-owner of Casa Om Yoga studio located in McAllen, and she tells us more about this question many people might wonder.

Fox said yoga stimulates the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. In moments of stress, the body enters in fight or flight mode as if to survive. Yoga acts as a distractor from it because your focus is on the breath. This is called Drishti, “that focus of that awareness that you have on one thing, but whenever your focus
is deep and narrow, it eliminates all that external distraction,” Fox said.

“The mindfulness is going to reduce the stress, connecting to breath,” Fox said. “I can’t tell you how much I teach breath when it comes to yoga and helping people understand that when you are in control and when you have power over your breath, nothing in this world can steal your joy … because you are so connected to [your]self.”

Another question people have “Is yoga a religion?” I met several people throughout the way that do not practice yoga because they think it is a religion, however, this isn’t the case.

“Yoga is not a religion because we often are asked that you know, is yoga religion and it’s not,” Fox said. “You practice yoga, [that] doesn’t mean that you’re insulting or degrading any religion that you’re a part of. It just means that spiritually you get connected to something so much deeper than the physical body because this is physical. When you get on your yoga mat, it’s a deepening of the awareness that you have with yourself which that spirituality and that connection to cell will take us light-years beyond the physical years that we have on this planet.”

Other than feeling relaxed, yoga has many benefits such as reducing your weight, increasing your sleep, increasing productivity, getting rid of addictions, whether it be drug or alcohol, increased flexibility, reduction of muscle tension, calmness, reduction in anxiety and increase lung capacity, according to Fox.

Another reason why people are discouraged to try yoga are the positions and right away don’t even give yoga a chance and throw it right out the window. I too have been guilty of this, but my perspective has changed.

“Start small. If it’s hard for you right now to get motivated to do anything,” Morales said. “Five minutes, I mean, five minutes out of 24 hours. Start small … then maybe grow it to 10 minutes and grow it to 20 minutes. You have to just make a commitment, set your intention, and stick to it.”

Morales said he’s felt the lack of motivation to engage in yoga but said that he makes himself do it.

“There’s never been a time where I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to do it and do it,’ He said. “And then I wish I hadn’t, I am always so happy that I did it. You just got to keep pushing it especially right now when times are hard. Know that we are all going through that, we are all having to push ourselves a little harder right now.”

What do you have to give up? When you practice yoga, you connect with yourself and get a deeper understanding of what you might be going through in a season of your life. You can have a clearer view of life when you take time to lay down on your yoga mat and breath. Yoga is the union of mind, body, and soul.

Yoga has maintained Fox’s mental health. She said its kept her off medication and have a clear state of being. It’s also improved her relationship with family and loved ones.

“I can’t motivate you. I can’t make anybody do yoga. I can offer it, I can hold space, I can share it, and just speak for myself speak from my own personal story and speak authentically.

Due to COVID-19, a lot of yoga instructors are posting their videos online for free or have lower their price. Take advantage of this, you don’t have to overpay to do yoga. Get up from bed, put some activewear clothes, and start a new lifestyle.

“As long as you have a surface that is soft, not hard to practice on, that’s great,” Matthew said. “If you’re on a budget, you can get a yoga mat at TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Target, Walmart, or order one online.”

Now Casa Om Yoga and Quiet Mind Studio are both giving classes online through Zoom. Casa Om Yoga has classes at 6:15 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays and at 10 a.m. Saturdays. Quiet Mind Studio has classes at 12 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, and at 4p.m. Sundays.

I recommend everyone reading this to practice self-care, once you start you will see how important it is to take care of yourself. After practicing yoga, take a bath, do skincare, drink wine, and enjoy one of your hobbies. Be grateful for the little things in life and you will see how much your perspective of things changes.