It’s time for some lockdown yoga!
+ Mrinalika Bhanjdeo
The last 89 days have been about improvising — the way we communicate, eat, work, spend our time and exercise. We’ve gone from spending weekends in a bar to weekends on the couch. Working from office to working from home. Hanging out with friends in clubs to Zoom weddings. Hitting the gym to push-ups in the living room. It’s a brave new world.
While we navigate through this new way of life, we find solace in the few things that haven’t changed. For most of us, it’s yoga. You don’t need expensive equipments, you can do it from the comfort of your home and the meditative aspect of it is a powerful tool that helps tackle our extremely warranted stress and anxiety.
International Day of Yoga is celebrated every year on the 21st of June since 2015, after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed this idea in the UN General Assembly. This years theme is “Yoga for health-Yoga at home” and it’s time for us to roll out our yoga mats!
Mrinalika Bhanjdeo is a certified Hatha & Yin yoga teacher who has restored her 200-year-old ancestral home The Belgadia Palace in Mayurbhanj, Odisha, India and plans to make it a health and wellness centre. She recommends five asanas that have a calming effect, “These asanas help strengthen your muscles and improves flexibility,” she says. “Stretching the shoulders and hips leads to a sense of relief and relaxes the body as we tend to hold maximum stress in these areas.”
- Stretches the chest, neck, and spine.
- Calms the brain and helps alleviate stress and mild depression.
- Stimulates abdominal organs, lungs, and thyroid.
- Improves digestion.
- Helps open the shoulders
- Detoxifies the body
- Calms your mind and body
- Helps reduce stress
- Stimulates the abdominal organs and the thyroid gland
- Stretches the shoulders and spine
- Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause
- Reduces stress and fatigue
- Stretches muscles in the shoulders, chest and abdominals
- Decreases lower back stiffness
- Strengthens the arms and shoulders
- Increases flexibility
All image courtesy: Mrinalika Bhanjdeo – @mrinalikabhanjdeo
Text: currentMood – @currentmood.mag