Saturday 9 February 2013

Yoga techniques to deal with exam stress

Exam time is there and most of students have completed their syllabus. Students are very much stressed due to problem like short-term memory, meditation, concentration, etc…, Yoga has answers to all that problems. The trick is to give it just enough importance it requires and treat it like any other exam one appears for. Don’t give too much importance to your stress, just calm down and concentrate on your studies.
So here are a few yogic techniques to help you stay in control.
1. Deep breathing- Nothing works better than this. You can carry this technique even inside the examination hall. Whenever anxiety strikes you, just sit straight, see if you can close your eyes, and slowly begin to breathe deeply. Not just superficial breathing, but deep enough to make your lungs and stomach completely inflated when inhaling. While exhaling the lungs and stomach must deflate. This should be done slowly, while focusing on the breathe itself. Try doing it for 10 rounds to start with and find the difference yourself.

2. Bhramari Pranayam – Sit comfortably with eyes closed and the whole body relaxed. Now close each ear with each of your thumbs. Place the index fingers on top of your eyebrows, close your eyes with the second fingers, place the ring fingers on the sides of your nose and the small fingers on the corners of your lips. Press all these points softly. Inhale deeply through the nose. Keeping the mouth closed begin to breathe out slowly producing a long continuous humming sound. Hum loud enough like a bee so you can feel the vibration on your face. Exhalation should be slow. Relax and repeat a couple of times. This can be done even in times when you find yourself unable to concentrate or focus on your studies. It should bring the focus back.

3. Grivasana/ Neck roll – Sit straight and place your hands in a comfortable position with arms straight. Do not move the shoulders. Now slowly drop the neck to the front. Then roll the head to the right very slowly. The right ear has to come above the right shoulder. The face is front. Now roll the neck back. Let the head drop back. Then roll the neck to the left bringing the left ear over the left shoulder. Finally roll the neck to the front. Continue then, to move in the reverse direction. Repeat rolling in both directions two more times. This is a slow neck roll and keeps the face close or touching to the body while rolling.
4. Chanting ‘Om’: For non-believers, don’t take this chanting like a religious mantra, rather believe in it strongly as being the universal sound and the spiritual elevator. Cross legged, eyes closed, back straight with no distraction, breathe 2-3 times slowly to gather yourself together. Then initiate the OM dhwani from your tummy. A deep, long, continuous and steady sound which should vibrate all over your body. Don’t push your breathe beyond the comfort point. Inhale deeply and repeat twice more. Great for concentration too.

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