Life is full of modern stress which fill us to the brim with anxiety. In this article we’ll explain why yoga is one of the best ways to combat this stress, and why a wellness retreat can calm the mind and improve your levels of happiness.
You may have work stress, where your boss is breathing down your neck or projects are nearing deadlines. Maybe you have kids that you can’t help worrying about, and bills, house issues, and thoughts of the future make you worried and stressed.
Going back tens of thousands of years, the only stresses and worries we had were fighting off wild animals and hunting for food. When you get a bill in the post that you can’t pay, your brain activates the same anxiety that triggers when a lion was staring us in the face.
This is where a yoga retreat can change your mind. Yoga taps into the PSNS system (parasympathetic nervous system) which is the state where your body is in ‘Rest and Digest’. We’ll call this state the “Relax” state.
The opposite state is the “Fight or Flight” state. This is the state we get in when a lion is chasing you, or you have a deadline that’s in three hours and you haven’t started work. In this state, your body releases cortisol and stress, which prepares your body for action. We’ll call this state, the “Stress” state.
The modern world bombards us with “stress” states every day. As mentioned at the start of this article, your work, deadlines, bills, kids, house problems and future goals are all triggers for this stress state. It’s your brain preparing you for action.
However, too much of this stress state, and your mind goes haywire. You end up having excessive anxiety and stress, which cause many health issues.
Yoga is one practice that activates your relax state. It activates the PSNS (parasympathetic nervous system) during poses like Child Pose, and helps your brain release all the positive chemicals that case your body to relax.
On a health retreat, you’ll remove yourself from the hustle and bustle of modern life. Tuning into nature and connecting with the flora and fauna is proven to reduce cortisol and increase levels of happy chemicals in the brain.
When you’re on a wellness retreat, away from the stresses of modern life, and you take a deep breath while in a deeper stretch, your mind switches off. Your relax state activates, and a huge weight lifts off your shoulders.
One huge reason a yoga retreat can help remove anxiety and stress is because yoga is a mediation. Your stretches and poses are coupled with deep breaths in, and deep breaths out. Even taking one deep breath can relax you. Try it now. Deep breath in.
See. Much better. Meditation is proven to improve your DNA structure and increase the grey matter in your brain. It removes cortisol and removes inflammation within your body.
Stress causes inflammation in your body, and the natural breathing of meditative yoga on a health and wellness retreat can heal this damage.
Yoga is exercise, and exercise is also been proven to prevent the onset of depression. By combining exercise, meditation and getting away from life, you’re giving yourself the cure to your anxiety and stress. This combination exists in every yoga session that you would do on a yoga retreat.
Many people lie awake at night staring at the ceiling, worrying about all of their life stresses. They think about all past mistakes or any future decisions they have to make. They cycle through bills, deadlines, and all the worries we’ve mentioned already.
This is because you are trying to sleep while still being in the stress state. Since yoga takes you into the relax state, it can improve your sleep.
Yoga is a focused practice and requires a meditative concentration while you perform the moves. This concentration trains your focus, so you are sharp and productive while you work and relaxed when you want to sleep.
After a yoga retreat, you’ll rewire your brain to relax for sleep, and focus during work. You’ll learn to find flow in everything you do and enjoy optimal experiences in life.
The change that your mind will experience during a retreat will reshape your DNA and change your mindset towards the day-to-day stresses. Instead of anxiety when thinking about those bills or house issues, you’ll know to relax and breathe. You’ll be able to focus through problems, and then gift yourself with true relaxation afterwards.
Even if deadlines are looming, you’ll know how to relax and focus in the moment. When you achieve your goals, you’ll know how to enjoy those moments and savour them, instead of jumping straight to the worry of the next one.
Overall, a yoga or health and wellness retreat can change your life. It will help you develop the skills to remove anxiety and stress from your life, or deal with them so they don’t bother you.
You’ll sleep better, focus more, and enjoy having less anxiety and more happiness in your life. These are the best reasons to go on a health and wellness yoga retreat.
If you think you can benefit from learning stress reduction techniques, coping mechanisms and powerful emotional control that enables and heals your DNA while reducing harmful stress hormones then a health & yoga retreat is definitely for you.