Relaxation Poses

Discover the Best Yoga Poses (Asanas) for Relaxation and Wellness

By Dennis Bluthardt, Namaste Studios

A holistic practice of mind, body, and spirit, yoga nurtures relaxation and general well-being. With roots in ancient tradition, a blend of breathing techniques, meditation, and physical postures, or asanas, works to create a balanced state of being, an increased ability to show up in our lives more joyfully and kindly, to be a bit more here and a bit less there.

Each yoga pose plays a role. Various poses shift physical fitness levels and balance our mental noise. The physical postures, asanas, are individual to each state of wellness: from group to group, being to being. Asanas vary based on the ability to stretch and strengthen different muscle groups, improve balance and posture, and increase our ranges of flexibility. They also physically prepare the body for meditation. The transition between asana with an awareness of breath to create a meditation in motion. Beyond motion to mediation and the sweet ease of stillness. Bliss. Let’s explore a series of four asanas.

Understanding Yoga Poses (Asanas)

Yoga poses, or asanas, are critical to any yogi’s practice. These physical postures develop strength, flexibility, and balance. In addition, yoga poses help you maintain clarity and peace of mind. Poses range from simple stretches and bends of the body to complex movements. All postures are vehicles for exploring your mind and body, and your relationship to different poses can shift on other days.

By taking this knowledge of yoga poses and applying it regularly, you will experience stress less often. Yoga is, at its heart, a meditative and mindful practice. When you focus more on your body, your breath becomes central to your routine. “Work” and “yoga” don’t mix, and your brain surrenders the fight, compelling the development of subconscious habits of using your breath proactively throughout the day. Couple that with increased blood flow and circulation, improved respiratory function, and a skyrocketing resting metabolic rate (and who knows how many calories you’ll burn in any session), and you’ll feel your stress ebbing away.

Flexibility is most people’s first port of call when taking up a yoga practice. Balance, strength, and flexibility underlie all goals you could set for yourself in yoga, and it’s clear why: improving this aspect of your physicality can supercharge your health and help you avoid injuries in barbell sporting pursuits. So, how can you improve your flexibility? Learn how to stretch your deep-tissue muscles and, at the same time, strengthen the surrounding muscles. Doing this allows you to share flexibility and add power and strength to your stockpile of contact and non-contact skills.

The Importance of Mindfulness in Yoga

Mindfulness is the ability to be fully present, engaged in where we are and what we’re doing, and not be overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s happening around us. This practice of paying attention and focusing our awareness indeed also plays a critical role in our ability to relax due to the all-important mind-body connection. In the case of yoga, many perform a set of asanas, follow a yoga structure, align their body “as so,” or breathe “like that.” They follow the instructional prompts, duking it out, with thoughts and stresses of the day pervading their mind. However, the structure of a yoga sequence permits the opportunity to enable awareness of the tensions in your body and simultaneously encourages exploration of muscle function, balance, and mobility. Rather than overdoing a specific pose, adopt the posture most suitable for you and hold or repeat the movement while you breathe for 10-12 reps. Sounds easy? Try it out then.

Hold a particular asana, relax, and breathe with abdominal and diaphragmatic breathing for 10-12 reps.

It would help you calm down, take time, and slow down. Yes, it does take time and effort, but it is well worth pursuing each asana to get the most from full-body and mindfulness exercises.

Top Yoga Poses for Relaxation

Yoga is an unbeatable stress reliever, and different poses target body relaxation.

An easy, standard pose is the Baby pose, Balasana. This is just a kneeling pose with the forehead on the floor. It’s very comfortable and introspective.

Another pose I like is “legs up against the wall,” Viparita Karani. You lie on your back with your legs straight up against a wall. It’s cathartic, releasing unbelievable stress from the legs and lower back.

The Corpse Pose and Dead Body are related forms that symbolize death or the surrender aspect of yoga. These poses, usually performed at the end of yoga classes, allow you to relax entirely in surrender.

Standing Forward Bend, Uttanasana: This is just a standing pose, leaning over with legs straight. Do it while in a hot shower with nice-smelling Dr. Bronner’s soap (the smell is a powerful sense), and you will feel completely invigorated.

Incorporating Stretching into Your Yoga Routine

Stretching boosts those benefits by increasing flexibility, enhancing circulation, and deepening our relaxation ability.

Practicing easy stretches helps us prepare for active yoga practices. It warms up our muscles, joints, and other soft tissues to help us avoid sprains when we put those parts into difficult positions or poses. It also allows us deepen our poses by getting the “kinks” out of our muscles before we ask them to perform.

Stretches help prepare the body for what comes next in the yoga practice and motivate us to move.

Stretching brings rotation into almost every movement, whether simply transitioning or preparing to perform an advanced balancing pose.

When we learn how to practice simple twists, like Bharadvaja’s (pronounced bar-DAHV-jahs-an-A) twist, we know how to move our bodies, where we should build the pose from first, and the best positioning for our whole body to get the most benefit out of every twist pose.

Interspersing them with gentle stretches and range-of-motion (ROM) exercises can keep senior bodies fluid and mobile throughout aging.

Adding both to our yoga practices will invite new developments that we may still need to consider and explore. Research shows that hybrid practices, like gentle stretching during yoga, have multiple benefits in improving movement and how students perceive their aging experiences.

Practicing this gentler side of movement can allow older yoga students to age differently than expected.

The various yoga poses, or asanas, stretch and strengthen the body while calming the mind. People pursue their yoga victories with the same dedication as hitting a new bench press PR. As you may have guessed, the selected poses focus heavily on relaxation and are excellent ways to start and end your day.

They also teach a skill unique to yoga: self-listening. The more frequently you practice these calming yoga poses, the better your mind identifies and reacts to stress triggers before you feel genuinely stressed. Many find that the legs-up-the-wall pose alone significantly reduces daily stress levels, and we highly recommend setting aside some time each day to try it. Good luck!

As always, we want to hear what you think! Please let us know in the comment section if you have any comments.