Yoga for Stress Relief - It Only Takes 10 Minutes

Yoga is more than stretching. Here's how just 10 minutes of Yoga is great for stress relief.

A lot of us are going through very stressful times at the moment, financials, living situations and health.

All this added stress we are feeling takes a toll on our mental health and is something we need to address.

A fix that many people find effective is yoga.

Yoga for stress relief

The great thing about yoga is that it’s easy to do. Anyone can try it. With a little bit of space and a somewhat comfy floor you can start yoga at any level of flexibility or expertise.

You don’t need to have disposable income, live a mindful lifestyle, eat well, be incredibly flexibly or practise meditation to successfully perform yoga. It’s a very accessible thing to do.

Is 10 minutes of Yoga long enough?

Something a lot of us assume is that to be good at yoga or feel the benefits we have to dedicate a lot of time to doing it. Practising everyday and pushing ourselves to improve. However, that really isn’t the case.

Just 10 minutes of yoga every few days is enough to help fight stress and promote good mental wellbeing.

You could do 10 minutes every day in the morning, you could do 10 minutes in the afternoons on weekends or you could simply do 10 minutes every time you’re feeling a build up of stress.

How start your yoga journey

For this article, we will focus on the benefits of 10 minutes of yoga and stress relief. As opposed to the “how to do yoga” 

The how to do yoga deserves a full article of its own, as there are many different levels of expertise. The best thing to do in order to make a start is to skim through YouTube, searching for “10 minutes yoga for stress” or “10 minutes of yoga for anxiety” or “10 minutes of yoga (insert difficulty level, beginner, advanced etc.)

You could also google follow along yoga routines for stress.

There’s a lot of information out there on how to exactly perform yoga. Just pick one that appeals to you and that you enjoy and go from there.

With all that being said, here are the stand out reasons that 10 minutes of yoga is excellent of reducing stress and anxiety…

Breath Control

A big art of yoga is breath control. Learning to regulate and focus on our breathing. Deep breaths in through our nose as we fall into a yogi position, deep breaths out through our mouth as we relax into the position. Even the most basic yoga routines have a big focus on breathing.

If you haven’t done yoga before this is one of the first things you will notice. A lot of it is less about how flexible you can be and more about how to control your breathing.

These breathing exercises and techniques are also great for reducing stress and anxiety. This meditative way of breathing helps relax the body which in turn helps relax the mind. Getting your breathing under control is the first step for reducing stress. Something we will learn a lot about in yoga. 

When it comes to breath control. The main point is just to focus on your breathing, its not particularly difficult to get, breathing is something we do every second of everyday without thinking about. In yoga, we simply think about it. Which helps us control our breathing, find a relaxing breath pattern and reduce stress whilst doing it.

Clearing the mind

A main reason for stress is overthinking or unorganised thoughts. Having a lot to do or things we don’t yet understand keeps our minds running extra active. Our minds are constantly working. They need a break.

Yoga is something that will not just relax the body and but also relax and clear the mind. For the 10 minutes you will be concentrating on yoga, your only focus will be positions and breathing. Which helps give our minds a much needed break. It’s what I find to be the most effective part about doing yoga for stress.

Often I seem to have a million and one things to think about. Multiple thoughts running through my mind. Even when I’m trying to do one thing, my brain is thinking about what I’ve got to do next. The build up of activity is never helpful and just leads to unneeded stress. 

Ironically that stress is then yet another thing to think about which then in turn makes me more stressed. It’s a nasty cycle and one I know we all go through.

It might seem counterproductive to take 10 minutes to relax the mind. Especially when we have a busy schedule. But trust me on this one. It will help a lot.

In fact, oftentimes I'm at my most productive just after doing 10 minutes of yoga. Clearing my mind helps organise my thoughts making me more productive tackling one thing at a time.

Relaxation

For a second, let's talk about the benefits of yoga on the body and how that helps reduce stress. Yoga is great for the mind, as we have spoken about in quite a fair amount of detail during this article. But at the end of the day, yoga is a physical act. And that physical act has its effect on the body.

And I'm not just talking about flexibility. This also includes the relaxation of our joints and muscles. After 10 minutes of yoga you should have used and stretched almost every part of your body in a “no pressure” type of way. Gentle stretching that helps relax our muscles and ease any potential joint pain. 

Basically, after 10 minutes of yoga our bodies are at peak relaxation. 

Being stiff and tense only adds to our stress levels, having fully relaxed bodies will directly help relax our minds as well. Letting us drop all of that stress. 

Its great to note that you don’t need any equipment or money to try yoga. Yoga mats aren’t essential and neither are yoga classes. So if you are feeling anxious or stressed then you might as well try a bit of yoga. What's the worst that will happen? So it might not work for you, ah well, you only lost 10 minutes trying it.

When is the best time to do yoga for reducing stress?

So now you know how 10 minutes of yoga will help you reduce stress. The next thing is to figure out when to do it. Which comes down to personal preference.

If you're the kind of person who tends to stress a lot at night when you’re trying to sleep, then try doing your 10 minutes of yoga just before bed. Not only will relaxing your body and clearing your mind help reduce stress, but it will also help you get to sleep faster and sleep better. Meaning you’re less likely to wake up feeling stressed.

If you’re the kind of person who is busy in the day. You have a very demanding job or a lot of responsibilities, then it will work best for you to fit your yoga into your morning routine. Finding 10 minutes to do yoga in the morning is easy. Sure, you may have to wake up 10 minutes earlier to fit it in, however, being less stressed will help you get better sleep regardless of the 10 minute loss.

Sudden stress or anxiety? If this sounds like you then it might be best to keep your yoga routine more flexibility (mind the pun)

What I mean by sudden stress, is that you may be the kind of person who isn’t usually stressed, then one thing can cause you to feel suddenly overly stressed. Instead of a slow build up it's sudden. You just found out you have to give a zoom work speech that you’re nervous about, or a sudden bill causes an influx of anxiety. 

In those cases, stop what you’re doing and do your 10 minute yoga routine. Obviously you can't always do that. It may be pretty weird if you’re working the check out at Tesco and stop serving people to whip out a 10 minutes of yoga routine in the middle of aisle 3. However, in doing your yoga you will learn how to control your breathing. Which you can do.

Just focusing on your breathing is like doing yoga in your mind.