Stretch for Success
How yoga can transform your morning and mind
It’s 6am. Your alarm clock keeps beeping and buzzing and blaring and you keep snoozing and dozing and sleeping. And after thirty minutes of slapping the snooze button, you reluctantly get out of bed, splash some water on your face, chug some scalding hot coffee, and trudge off to work. Sound familiar?
Well if it does, you’re not alone! The morning blues hit almost everyone. But luckily, this cyclic loop of despair can be remedied by doing one simple thing in the morning: YOGA!
I know what you’re thinking. “I don’t have time to do yoga in the morning,” or “Simple? Yoga is too hard,” or “WHY?!” But you’re going to find that getting a few extra hours of sleep at night and waking up early for some morning asana is more beneficial in the long run, and will help you stretch for success!
1. Stress, stress, go away!
You may have heard yoga melts stress away. Or better yet, have seen all of those chilled-out, blazed-up, yogi-pant wearing, pretzel-shaped peoples drinking hemp juice all cool, calm, collected, infuriating the rest of us just trying to get to work on time and not spill our coffee all over our brand new white shirt. Well guess what, my friend, that chilled out yogi can be you!
According to the American Osteopathic Association, stress can be more destructive on the physical body than you might imagine. Dr. Natalie Nevins, board-certified family physician and Kundalini Yoga Instructor/badass acknowledges that stress can reveal itself through back and neck pain, headaches, drug abuse, and an inability to concentrate, just to name a few.
Dr. Nevins goes on to explain that consistent yoga, “…creates mental clarity and calmness; increases body awareness; relieves chronic stress patterns; relaxes the mind; centers attention; and sharpens concentration.”
So, what’s one of the best ways to combat anxiety? By stretching it o u t!
Start your morning with a consistent yoga practice and find a surefire way to kick out those kinks and say goodbye to stress!
2. Let’s Get Physical
Just like yoga can combat the physical ailment of stress in your life, it’s also a great way to boost strength, tone muscles, and burn fat. One of the best times to do this is in the morning.
Why?
Two words: Fat oxidation.
In laymen terms, fat oxidation breaks down all of those fatty acids. The most beneficial time to reap the most benefits of weight loss and muscle strength is in the morning after several hours of sleeping and fasting. And one of the best ways to stretch, strengthen, and tone? With a full body morning yoga practice.
3. Boost that digestion, baby!
You had me at “gut health.”
Not only does yoga provide all of the stretchy, stress-free goodness anyone could want—it helps digestion.
Nutritionist and yogi instructor Fiona Tuck boasts the benefits of digestive health and yoga in the Huffington Post by acknowledging how it can, “…aid digestion, elimination (constipation) and bloating by increasing the circulation and energy to those areas.”
Fellow yogi Kate Kendall supports this claim in the same article by explaining, “‘Twists and forward bends, coupled with conscious breath work and an emphasis on drawing the navel to the spine at the end of exhalation… [gives] your internal organs a massage which is ideal for detoxification and helping things ‘move along.’’”
Makes sense, right? Why not start your day and “break” that “fast” by sending some much needed love to your gut?
4. Coffee was sooo yesterday
As much as it pains me to resort to anything other than my warm, dark, delicious morning mate that is coffee, as it turns out, yoga might serve better as a number one main squeeze.
As much as yoga can be calming and relaxing, it can be stimulating and energizing. Certain poses and asanas are overwhelmingly more powerful in helping you greet the day and salute that morning sun than a quick fix of coffee that will have you crashing in a few hours.
Getting your juices pumping and that blood flowing after a stretchy, heart pounding, yoga sequence is just the way to say goodbye to those morning gulps and hello to that yoga mat. (Though maybe a quick sip or two after wouldn’t hurt…)
5. Brainpower is your superpower
You can complete all the Sudoku and crossword puzzles you like, but the best way to exercise your brain might very well be by stretching out those limbs.
Studies have shown that a consistent yoga practice can actually alter your brain. A study by some super smart researchers at UCLA determined that, “…long-term meditators had more gyrification of their brain’s cortex.” In other words, incorporating yoga, its breathing techniques, and meditation into a daily routine structurally changed the brain in all the best ways possible!
The cortex is responsible for language, reasoning, memory, movement, and information processing, just to name a few. A consistent morning yoga practice will undoubtedly allow your brain to function at its full potential.
6. How ‘bout some happy?
As if there weren’t enough reasons to stretch for success in the morning, is there no better reason that it makes you happier?
Stress and anxiety are products of not living in the present moment. Yoga encourages the yogi to be present, with a focus on breathing and meditation. Training your mind to remain present will reduce stress and anxiety over the past and future. Yoga will ground you into an alluring, happy present state of mind.
Yoga also increases those ever fleeting endorphins-- sweet, sweeeeet chemicals that your body produces to relieve pain and stress. So if “grounding you in the present” didn’t convince you of a happier state of mind, a scientific, endorphin-filled case should!
Bottom line: A consistent, morning yoga practice has more benefits than you might think. Incorporating a steady practice into your morning routine will only result in more positive outcomes in your daily life.
You can do it!
So stop snoozing your alarm and grab your yoga mat, it’s time to set yourself up for a positive, morning yoga practice and stretch for success!