Stress-relief through yoga nidra

To cure and help asthma, you have to learn to relax completely. I have already given you many exercises that will help you calm your mind and today I give you one more. Yoga offers one of the most potent forms of stress-relief through yoga nidra or awareness sleep. Use it when you are starting to feel stressed or anxious or at the onset of an attack. It will help relax your chest and lung spasms. Start by having someone read out the exercise to you and then begin to practice it on your own. This is last article on asthma. Over the last few days,   Be regular in your practice and you will see the results!

Caution: Avoid falling asleep while doing this.

Exercise 1

• Lie on your back on a mat or on a hard mattress

• Concentrate on your breath. Breathe deeply from the abdomen and just be aware of yourself inhaling and exhaling

• There are sixteen vital points in your body which can relax you totally if you concentrate on them. Start concentrating on the forehead, move progressively to the nostrils, lips, chin, neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingertips, chest, abdomen, thighs, knees, calves, ankles and toes. Repeat this cycle twice or thrice

• Now imagine your limbs are detached from your body. Only the head, chest and abdominal area exist now. As you breathe in, feel the air entering your spine and cleansing it

• Concentrate on the different vital nerve plexus or nerve junctions called chakras and breathe in and out five to ten times while concentrating on each point

• Start with the root plexus or mooladhara in the space between your anus and your genitals

• Move to the solar plexus or swadhisthan, four fingers above the navel

• Then to the midpoint of the chest, anahat

• Then to the throat, to visudhi

• Then to the point between the eyebrows, ajna

• Finally move to the crown, the suryachakra

• Imagine your limbs are once again attached to your body.  Be aware of your whole body as one unit for about two minutes

• Slowly open your eyes, stretch and get up.