The blog site Daily Cup of Yoga has “tips, tools and wisdom on yoga, books and technology.” The articles share details for serious yogis to helpful information for people who just want to accept a little calmness into their day. The following are some of the site’s suggestions on how to incorporate a little yoga into a busy day.
You can deep breathe when you are driving, when you are standing in line at the grocery store, or when you are sitting on a conference call or in a business meeting. Not only does deep breathing calm your heart rate and soothe the nervous system, it also calms the people around you. You can even influence the respiratory rate of others, by slowing your own respiratory rate. Deep breathing brings more oxygen to the brain, too, so you’ll be smarter and more eloquent when you have to speak to clients in your next business meeting or other moms at the local PTA.
Many aspects of yoga have more to do with changing your perspective than doing a pretzel-like pose. Try sitting in gratitude for a few moments between conference calls and emails. Just focus for two minutes on all the things you already have in your life.
You can calm your mind and make your workday more effective, allowing problems to even work themselves out when you take just five minutes to have singular, and calm focus. There are hundreds of meditation techniques you can try, but the easiest one to practice in a hectic day is just concentrating on the breath. It goes with you everywhere you go, after all. Count your breaths, each inhale and exhale being a single cycle, or simply notice the air leaving and entering your chest and diaphragm, the movement of your belly, or the temperature of the air as it enters and leaves your nostrils. Notice if your mind tries to ruminate on other things besides the breath, and for just five minutes, gently bring it back to the breath over and over again.
Try a seated twist in your office chair. You can also do backbends and side stretches whether seated or standing. Just doing a simple back arch can stretch tired muscles and eliminate both physical and mental fatigue….. Daily Cup of Yoga 12/22/12