Yoga to power your day

It is always a manic morning. The milkman takes turns with the ironing man to ring your doorbell. Your mom-in-law expects you to serve her tea, since your maid just called in sick.

There are tiffins to be packed for school, and you have to swipe in at the office within the next two hours, and it takes an hour to commute! Needless to say, your house and your mind are in a complete mess.

For most multitasking working women like you, the energy required is conversely proportional to the time available to replenish it. This is when you need yoga the most, but you seldom have the time for it. Though you wish Aladin's genie could rescue you, you know he's not coming! So to rescue yourself from chronic stress and its implications, here are three yogic tricks you could manage, despite your busy routine:

Pay attention to your breathing

Watch your breath when your maid calls in sick - isn't it coming fast, like a little puppy chasing a ball?

When the mind is overworked, the body responds with anxious short breaths - an instinctive fight or flight response wherein additional oxygen is supplied to your muscles.

Even if there isn't time to sit down and do pranayam, just pay attention to the speed of your breathing, and consciously slow it down and deepen it. Bring this awareness while sitting or do it while you work. An anxious mind leads to shortened breaths, and elongating the breaths can have the opposite calming effect.

Once you sort out urgent tasks, such as dropping off kids or packing off your husband do not gorge on a full-fledged breakfast. Eat a fruit to manage low sugar levels in the morning and get away into your room for ten minutes of yoga.

10-minute yoga

The Padmasana
Sit down in the Padmasana (lotus) pose or simply sit cross-legged on your bed or a mat. Keep your back straight. Take your arms behind your back and hold the left wrist with the right hand.

Exhaling, bend forward to touch your forehead to your left knee. As you are doing this, focus on the feeling of surrendering to God, or the forces of the universe, which protect you all the time. Inhaling, come back to the centre and repeat this on the right side.

Finally, complete this pose by touching your forehead to the ground (exhaling again) in the front centre of you. Come back as soon as you need to inhale.

Benefits: This posture will increases your energy by stimulating respiration, improving digestion and calming your nerves. However, this should not to be tried by pregnant women, those suffering hernia, or retinal disorders.

The Shavasana

Finally, just before you set out for the day, relax in Shavasana (corpse pose). Lie on your back on a bed/mat. Keep arms a foot away from your body and your feet two feet apart. Close your eyes, focus on your breathing and let go of your thoughts and tensions.

Breathing normally, focus on all your body parts, starting from toes, to the legs, abdomen, head and finally the scalp and consciously relax each muscle group.

Benefits: Remember, yoga helps even the chronically stressed to relax. It also improves breathing, concentration and provides inner peace.. Avoid this practice if you have low blood pressure. This entire sequence takes no more than ten minutes.

Awareness of breath, once mastered, can be practiced at all times and will help you remain calm and efficient through the day.

Suman Chhabria- Addepalli is a certified yoga expert and has been teaching and writing on the subject for several years. She looks at yoga as a tool that reduces disharmony in the mind and body by enhancing one's spiritual awareness and advocates simple techniques to reach one's maximum potential. You can connect with her at Sahyoga@gmail.com