How Yoga Can Help You Keep Your Balance During Divorce

Yoga is an excellent mind/body practice; doing a couple of poses each day can help you decrease stress and keep your emotional balance during divorce

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Divorce statistics are devastating. According to Wilkinson & Finkbeiner, every 13 seconds there’s a divorce in the U.S. This results in 277 divorces an hour and almost 7 thousand divorces a day. Double that, and you’ll get the number of people feeling stress or even depression caused by divorce every day.

Everyone chooses a different way to go to alleviate stress during this overwhelming time. Some people opt for therapy sessions, others choose the comfort of their families, while others immerse themselves in their work or hobbies. 

While all these can free your mind for a certain period of time, they don’t take into account the fact that your body needs relaxation as well. Stress causes your body to feel trapped, which also influences the quality of your sleep. 

But there’s a way to help relax your mind and body during this stressful time: Yoga.

How Can Yoga Benefit You During Divorce?

Yoga doesn’t mean that you should be in a perfect physical form to do poses. Even the simplest poses can bring positive benefits:

• Breath awareness — While doing yoga poses, you’re required to watch your breath. Inhaling and exhaling the correct way while moving your body is a sort of meditation that helps relax your body the right way. 
• Stretching helps switch focus — Many yoga poses presuppose gradual, pain-free stretching for your body. According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, stretching prepares your body for exercise while also helping you switch your focus from the factors that cause stress to taking care of your body. 
• Healthier sleep — No matter whether you’re doing yoga at the beginning of your day or before going to sleep, the quality of your ZZZ’s will be much better after some mindful stretching. Good sleep helps cope with stress, keeping your body clear and focus. 

Doing yoga also helps relieve chronic pain and flares of chronic disease, which can be caused by stress. “During our latest research on chronic pain and stress, 60% of respondents who experienced stress, claim that doing yoga on the daily basis helped them feel more focused and go about their day without being constrained by pain,” says researcher Martin Glover. 

Yoga, like any other sort of exercise, has many benefits for your health. However, the mindfulness that it brings along can be very helpful to those who go through a difficult period of divorce.

Here are some simple yoga poses that will help you relax your mind and body: 

Sukhasana with Forward Bend

Start your short yoga exercise with this simple and relaxing stretch. Sukhasana with a forward bend is also called an Easy Pose, which is the staple in yoga. 

Sukhasana is the beginning of meditation. Starting with this pose will help you adjust your breathing technique for the following poses. 

• Benefits for your body — Many people that go through a stressful time experience strain in their lower back and shoulders. This pose involves gradual stretching of your shoulders as well as your whole back. 
• Benefits for your mind — During this pose, you have to watch the way you breathe. Chaotic breathing won’t allow your body to stretch, which can cause even more strain in your body. Focusing on your breath puts you in a centered mood, switching your attention from stress and negativity to taking care of your body. 

Adho Mukha Svanasana for Mindful Stretching

Also called Downward Facing Dog, this pose is another staple in yoga practice. Contrary to the previous pose, now you’ll have to pay attention to your hands, legs, and feet, as these will be the parts of your body that should bring you in balance while doing this pose. 

The trick to find your perfect position is to do the cat and cow pose to rest your spine, stretch your body, and feel more comfortable. 

• Benefits for your body — This pose has obvious benefits for body balance. It helps tone muscles and benefits blood circulation. As a result, you feel more energized. This pose also increases lung capacity by helping you breathe freely. 
• Benefits for your mind — Adho Mukha Svanasana is thought to relieve stress and even mild depression. As it helps blood circulation, it can relieve headache and cure insomnia by putting your mind to rest. 

Savasana for Full Body Relaxation

Savasana or the Corpse Pose is another yoga staple to help you keep your psychological and emotional balance. This is a mediational pose, during which you have to pay most of your attention to breathing. 

This pose allows you to enjoy the results of your yoga practice through the complete relaxation of your body and breathing techniques. 

• Benefits for your body — Although this pose might look like a nap, it actually requires your whole body to function as a whole, as every muscle should be completely relaxed. This is harder than it seems, especially when you’re going through a stressful time. 
• Benefits for your mind — To relax your body you need to be fully concentrated. As you watch your body relax with the help of breathing techniques, you experience a mindful moment that shifts you from stress and into a state of peace in your mind. 

When people go through the stressful experience of divorce, they often get lost in their grief, anxiety and often anger. However, in order not to get stuck in this emotional mess, you need to search for a way that will keep you mindful. These yoga poses can do just that!

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