City life has its own challenges. Job, career, kids, relations, bills, housework etc. the list is endless. Regular yoga practice helps to stay calm and stress-free. It provides you with the inner strength to face events in life without getting restless. Ideally get to the yoga practice which includes a good balance of asanas (body postures), Kriyas (body and mind purification), pranayamas (breathing techniques), meditation and the Ashtanga yoga philosophies of life. Yoga has helped many city folks and anxiety patients recover and face life with renewed faith, positivity and inner strength.
Urbane homemaker Sumi Goyani, (56 years old living in Mumbai city for the past 38 years) recollects, “I was so tensed and worried about everything in life and even the little daily chores made me anxious. My husband decided to refer me to a doctor who diagnosed that I had stress and generalised anxiety disorder. Under my doctors’ advice, I underwent anxiety medication treatment and enrolled for the regular practice of yoga and meditation classes for about eight months. And today I feel so much better and its like having a new birth. My thinking slowly changed and I feel I have faith and strength that whatever happens will be for good. Yoga has provided me with this renewed strength.”
Like Sumi, even you can lead a positive life by overcoming your fears with yoga.
Meditate for a stress-free and relaxed mind. When you get stressed and anxious about any problem or potential threat the level of adrenaline hormone secretion goes higher. This leads to heart beating faster, the muscles tighten and body sweats profusely. Scientific researches prove that regular meditation practice reduces the level stress hormone and induces happy hormones release.
Apply yoga sutra philosophies in your daily life to stay happy and contended. For example- the Santosha niyama teaches the value of contentment. Try Aprigraha every day to overcome greed or desires one of the major reasons for stress and anxiety seen commonly in most cities today.
To understand the yoga philosophies of life, you may consider reading Dr Jayadeva and Dr Hansaji’s commentary on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.