Feeling lonely? Yoga can help lift your spirits.

Article from lexiyoga.com

Yoga can help lift your spirits!

Feeling lonely? Yoga can help lift your spirits. For those who are not yoga practitioners, this statement may seem unbelievable or downright ludicrous. However when feeling depressed, sad, or broken, you don't have to necessarily reach for that pill or that drink to eliminate your feelings of loneliness and frustration because you do have an alternative choice-yoga. Before the inception of anti-depressant drugs, yoga was used by enlightened Easterners to lift their lonely spirits and calm their minds.

Feeling sad is common and will happen to everyone at some point in their lives. Whether you are just feeling a case of the blues, or taking on more demanding life challenges, oftentimes, your everyday life will be burdened with bottled up emotions you can't seem to let go of. In this case, let the statement 'Feeling lonely? Yoga can help lift your spirits' challenge you to turn inwards so you can find the root of your loneliness and find empowerment, emotional freedom, and resolution.

Yoga postures or asanas were specifically designed to prepare your mind and body for meditation techniques. Yogis are firm believers that it is harder for people with disconnected mind and bodies to attain true spiritual awareness. Because of this, the practice of yoga evolved to be an effective and potent practice to calm the mind and body. Therefore, incorporating yoga exercises in your daily routine can greatly help in freeing up mental clutter you don't need which will in turn cause you to feel lighter and happier.

Many studies have found that exercising regularly can offer relief from feelings of sadness and anxiety. What's more, yoga asanas have actually been found to be highly capable of boosting your body's neurotransmitter GABA levels that can aid in keeping loneliness at bay. In this context of feeling lonely, yoga can help lift your spirits statement may prove to be true.

Keeping Loneliness in check with Kundalini Yoga

When trying to understand the statement 'Feeling lonely? Yoga can help lift your spirits', you should be aware that not all yoga practices are equal. Since yoga was introduced in the West, it has been redefined to suit different styles and to address varying spiritual and physical needs. Because of this, it is important that you select a yoga practice that you can handle both physically and mentally.

Admittedly, there are many yoga types that are physically demanding and may possibly create a more stressful situation for you in the event that you get stuck in a session with more advanced practitioners. This may in turn leave you feeling more overwhelmed and unsure of yourself. Ashtanga and Power Yoga are two of the more physically demanding yoga styles you should steer clear of if you are a first-timer. Likewise, Vinyasa Flow yoga, Bikram yoga, and the like are focused more on shedding unwanted weight instead of achieving mental clarity.

On the other hand, yogis advise that Kundalini yoga is your best bet if you want to see for yourself whether the statement 'Feeling lonely? Yoga can help lift your spirits' is true or not. Kundalini yoga involves repetitive, yet dynamic breathing exercises and movements in order to release and move energy throughout your body, and lift your spirits. It is also considered as the only yoga practice that can particularly target specific glands in the nervous system including the pineal and pituitary glands to trigger their proper function vital to enhanced mental clarity and overall health.

If you've never done yoga before or if you don't practice yoga regularly, you should first try signing up for beginner Kundalini classes or other gentler forms of yoga where use of yoga aids or props are allowed so you won't feel too stressed. Here's an example of a simple Kundalini meditation technique geared towards alleviating feelings of doubt, sadness, frustration, loneliness, and general anxiety:

• Sit in the Easy Pose. Straighten your spine and extend both arms forward and parallel to the ground.
• Make a fist with your right hand and wrap your left hand's fingers around it. The bases of both palms should be touching, with the thumbs pulled straight up and together.
• Focus both eyes on your thumbs.
• Start inhaling for five seconds and without suppressing your breath, exhale for five, followed by holding your breath for a full 15 seconds.
• Repeat this breath work or 'pranayama' and begin with three to five minutes until you reach 11 minutes. Once you get the hang of it, try holding your breath out for one whole minute.

How Yoga Asanas help keep Sadness at bay

Generally and physically, yoga asanas were developed for massaging the internal body organs to either increase or reduce blood flow to specific areas. This action will promote better blood circulation which will eliminate unnecessary body fluids from organs in order to get rid of accumulated toxins. This will also stimulate specific neurotransmitters and hormones that activate positive and happy emotions.

Likewise, based on the Eastern medical healing philosophy, yoga asanas are particularly developed to move your life force or 'prana' ('chi' in Oriental philosophy) to always keep it fresh and vibrant. Asanas are capable of stimulating specific aspects if your body's energy system that is made up of energy centers or 'chakras' and energy channels or 'nadis'.

When you effectively energize and move your stuck 'prana', you also get rid of emotional blockages in your 'nadis' which leads to a more peaceful, organized, calmer, and happier mindset. The accompanying 'pranayama' or breath work combined with yoga asanas will also greatly aid in revitalizing your 'prana' by bringing in a fresher and more usable energy supply via meditative breathing.

Practicing yoga can really change your life for the better once you get the hang of it. It not only offers noticeable physical benefits, but emotional freedom that will help you on your way to creating a happier and more positive disposition of life in general. So if you're still not convinced that the statement 'Feeling lonely? Yoga can help lift your spirits' is true, challenge yourself and see the difference.