It’s no secret that the past two years have been stressful. There are numerous factors within each of our lives that have us all walking on eggshells, our minds overwhelmed, and our anxiety piqued. Do you have your jaw clenched right now? Is your tongue at the roof of your mouth? Are your shoulders tense and hiked up toward your ears? Then you need to relax. 

Enter: Yoga

Whatever fancy yoga fitness photo you’ve seen on the internet that has someone looking like Elastagirl from The Incredibles — I want you to forget it for now. Sure, a well practiced yogi can pop into these poses quickly and properly (and those poses and photos have their places within yoga!), but that’s not where I want to take you today.

The poses below will focus less on the “fitness” aspect of yoga and more on the meditative and simple stretching side of things. All yoga poses play a specific role, and they are all wonderful in their own ways, but these are just a few you can turn to when you find yourself feeling stressed, defeated, overwhelmed, or anxious. The goal with these 10 poses are for you to find a stretch and to focus on breathing.

Breath is the most important part of yoga (if you ask me).

Deep, intentional, and focused breathing can calm your busy mind. Add in a simple muscle stretch and you can also find relief in your tense muscles.

Head over to Knoxville Moms to find the list of 10 poses.