Fuel your Spirit : How yoga recharges your energy levels

Discover how Yoga can fuel your spirit and recharge your body to give you the motivation and energy that makes everyday easier.

Where Yoga and Energy Come Together

By practising Yoga, you are encouraging more energy to come through your body, or in Yogic terms, we are embodying more Prana throughout the body. Prana is the lifeforce, it is energy keeping us alive, whether we get it from food, drink or sleep, even your breath. There are other ways to receive more Prana in your life. With more Prana, you find your stress lowers, gaining more focus and more mental clarity, this makes everyday easier. 

No midday dips, less quick dopamine fixes, and more concentration on the tasks at hand.

How can one thing cause this? Just remember, Yoga isn’t just movement. Both breathwork and meditation also increase energy. Also, one of the fundamental principles of a Yoga practice that comes first before anything else is kindness. Kindness to yourself and to others. Forgetting the movement, all these other aspects of yoga will give you energy.

Just a brief appreciation for asana practice though, any movement practice will do this, so even if it is not flow base or a pose base practice, you will still get energy from this. Movement provides us with endorphins, dopamine and serotonin. 

Endorphins lift your mood, and give you a positive mindset, this reduces stress, but also getting on with your day is much easier when you are in a happier mood. Dopamine gives you a sense of satisfaction and motivation, you chase the positive feeling you gain from something like exercise and/or other things. Once you receive dopamine from something as satisfying as movement, you are not looking for quick fixes so you might have motivation to work harder on things that could take more time. Serotonin really lifts your mood and as said before, going into your day with more positivity makes you enjoy it and find more rewards in the small things.

So when we have movement, like Yoga it is really encouraging positive energy throughout our body and fueling it with self-fulfilment.

However, let's say you haven’t slept well and the idea of doing a sun salutation makes you want to cry into your pillow. That is fair. Lucky for us we have other solutions. 

Through breathwork, you are going to lower your stress and increase your oxygen intake. Sometimes, the first time we have taken a moment to even notice our breath is when we finally sit down at the end of the day. So instead, take 5 - 10 minutes to notice the breath or doing a breathing exercise. Box breath is a good place to start. As well as, a breathing technique to use throughout the day if you get overly stressed. Other breathing techniques, like Kapalabhati (also known as Fire Breath) take a little practice, but can be a wonderful practice to receive a great amount of energy first thing in the morning. 

Meditation also lowers stress and increases mental clarity. You can start this with 3 - 10 minutes in the morning, slowly building it up. If this is still hard, there are great guided meditations out there to help you. 

When you are stressed, you are using energy to be in that state of fight or flight. So by finding ways to lower your stress at the beginning and throughout your day, you can preserve your energy. Obviously, Yoga is therefore providing and preserving your energy levels.

Doing it everyday is hard until it is not.

Having a routine is always hard at the beginning, but as we know the benefits of doing Yoga on our energy levels, it is very worthwhile. Not to mention how yoga is good for sleep (blog to come). Nevertheless, it is not always easy to start. 

An overall routine can help you have more energy, because those tasks become second nature and no longer require as much thought to actually achieve. Going into warrior 3 from chair, obviously isn’t like brushing your teeth, but breathwork and meditation can be a 10 or 15 minutes part of a morning. Something that also works is doing a standard mobility flow, everyday which helps your joints and warms your body up for the rest of the day. If you have a set 10 minute flow that you do, almost automatic, that could enhance your day dramatically.

Remembering to start small. Don’t rush it. Grow one habit at a time, start with the breath and slowly add movement. 

Where our energy drops, so do we.

Sometimes, 10 minutes at 8 am isn’t gonna get us through the day. But I think it is an excellent place to start, but other times, could be after lunch. If you are in a place to bring about movement during a lunch break. Before dinner, because sometimes, we need that push to get from work to dinner or make you have to do your kids’ bedtime routine right after dinner, which is full of stress, doing some movement or taking some time to breathe can get you through it. 

Remember, it isn’t about movement, it is about the presence of Prana, that will make you feel more energised and fulfilled. So start slow, take a moment to notice your breath and you may notice your energy lift.

Let yourself find peace today!