Busy day & anti-stress yoga

When you have a busy day, do you apply any anti-stress yoga poses or routine so as to gain back calmness and clarity? Or, do you leave yourself feeling completely exhausted and out of energy by the end of the day?
If you think that in order to release from stress, you need every day an hour-long yoga practice, I am here to tell you that this is far from truth. All you may need is just a few minutes during the day, and you are going to feel stress free.

Anti-stress effect

Although yoga generally relieves from feelings of stress and anxiety, there are specific yoga poses that have a much more anti-stress effect.
In most of these poses, the head is drawn downwards by the gravity and the spine is even more elongated. The breathing becomes deeper and slowed down.

Anti-stress yoga poses

From a great variety of asanas, I suggest the following 7 yoga poses as the go-to for instant relief from stress.

1. Child’s Pose (Balasana): Kneel down, bring your pelvis to rest on the heels and let the torso fall over the thighs. Rest your head down on the mat, or on your palms.
2. Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana): Stand on your feet and, with slightly bent knees, let your torso fold down extending towards the earth. Release the arms, the head, the neck and the whole spine downwards. Keep the legs engaged as they push the pelvis upwards.
3. Down Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana): Keep your feet down and the legs extending as you walk your palms forward to the top of the mat, till the point that the angle of the hips is almost 90º and the body has a triangle shape. The arms and the torso extend at the same line, the head is released down, and the back of the legs stretch.
4. Seated Forward Bend (Paschimottanasana): Sit down on your pelvis and extend forward the legs, hip-width apart. As you keep your tailbone and the glutes down, extend the arms and torso forward to your feet. Fold over your legs. Hold your feet or any other part of the lower legs, and relax the head.
5. Head-to-Knee Pose (Janu Sirsasana): As you are seated, bend the one leg, bring the foot to the inner thigh of the opposite leg, and let the bent knee rest down to the side. Slightly twist the torso towards the straight leg, and fold over it as you hold softly with your palms the foot or the shin. Relax the head and the neck.
6. Reclining Twist Pose (Jathara Parivrtasana): Lie down on your back, let your legs relax straight. Bend the one leg and bring the knee close to the chest, then twist the torso and bring the bent leg to the opposite side. Let the knee come close to the floor and keep both shoulderblades rooted down to earth.
7. Corpse Pose (Shavasana): Lie down on your back, extend the legs and let them relax outwards, more than hips-width apart. Relax the arms to the sides, apart from the torso, with palms facing up and shoulders relaxed down. Close your eyes and soften the face muscles.

Tips

You can stay in each pose for 5-10 breaths (or even more!). Make sure that you fill in the whole torso with air as you inhale, and not only the upper torso. Feel the whole back expanding during the inhalation, and release completely in the exhalation.
Depending on the time you have, you can choose one or just a few poses, or you can link all of them in a full sequence. The important thing is to give time in each pose.