Yoga evening routine

 

“Sleep is nature's tonic for healthy living. The deeper the sleep, the healthier you are.'' - Swami Sivananda

Hardly anything is as important for our physical, mental and emotional health as good, restful sleep. While we sleep and lay down our body for the night, it regenerates, the brain can rest and is cleaned of the pollutants that accumulate during the day. So if you sleep too little and not restfully, you often suffer from symptoms such as poor concentration, forgetfulness, low stress resilience and a quickly overstimulated mind. (This can go as far as states of exhaustion that require treatment!)

In our everyday life we ​​absorb an incredible number of different stimuli, ie our brain performs at its best every day and the body system is also constantly busy balancing our stress hormones when we get into hectic and stressful situations. Unfortunately, it has become a very dangerous norm that the outside world expects us to function like tireless machines at all times, while at best being friendly and accommodating - these expectations are now pervasive in all walks of life. For this reason, it is not surprising that insomnia has become a widespread disease, people have difficulties to rest in the evening and a feeling of restlessness is spreading. It is all the more important to create a routine for the evening hours that ensures that we find our center again and arrive at ourselves. In this blog article, we will introduce you to some tools you can make before bed.

Yoga deep relaxation for restful sleep and rest

A few notes and suggestions in advance:

• Avoid artificial light sources and blue light in the evening hours, i.e. switch off your television or laptop and put your mobile phone aside - rather light candles or get lamps that emit a warm light (Himalayan salt - lamps ensure a cozy feel-good atmosphere)
• Sleep hygiene: air the rooms where you spend the night well beforehand and let fresh oxygen and fresh energy into the room, try to have natural materials in your bedroom (linen bed linen, linen curtains, plants, wooden furniture, natural mattresses etc)
• switch off your WLAN during the night and reduce electromagnetic pollution in your apartment and especially in your bedroom
• Essential oils such as lavender, stone pine, cedar wood or eucalyptus create an atmosphere of serenity and stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system (eucalyptus also deepens breathing and cleans the room air)

Anyone who practices yoga every day sleeps much better, because holistic yoga helps the organism to be active when it needs to be active, to relax when it needs to relax and to calm down when the time of silence has come .

Meditate before sleeping . Here you will find different meditation techniques for letting go.

Saying a prayer and incorporating yoga deep relaxation into your daily evening routine will give your body and mind healing relaxation.

The yoga - deep relaxation consists of:

• autogenic training
• progressive muscle relaxation
• body scan
• fantasy travel

Deep relaxation in Savasana is an important aspect of Hatha Yoga and is practiced at the end of each yoga class to bring you into a state of complete letting go and deep calm. You can also work with elements of sound yoga and listen to healing sounds or soothing natural sounds.

Tip: Try binaural beats created specifically for relaxation and sleep

You can do the yoga deep relaxation in the comfort of your bed and then slip peacefully into sleep.

Yoga asanas for evening relaxation

• Sit in your preferred cross-legged position, gently straighten your spine, and let your arms and hands rest relaxed on your thighs. Here you can already practice yoga - abdominal breathing and leave all the impressions of the day behind you and arrive at you.
• the position of the child: conveys protection and security. Lay down your tension here and feel how your back is stretched very gently and you can really come to yourself. Breathe deeply into your stomach and relax your jaw joints. (Variation: Stretch your arms forward and consciously lengthen your back here)
• Shoulder stand - plow - fish sequence: relieves tension in the shoulder - neck area, the legs are relieved in shoulder stand, the plow stretches the back of the body and the cervical vertebrae very intensively, while the following fish gives a stronger chest opening and deepens your breath. (followed by a short relaxation phase in Savasana)
• Pigeon : deepens abdominal breathing and therefore provides regeneration, promotes the emergence of calm and strengthens the nervous system. In addition, the asana helps in the repair of injured tissues, promotes better and deeper blood circulation and oxygenation.
• Seated Forward Bend: stretches the entire back of the body and has a positive effect on the digestive organs. The forward bend provides relaxation and calm.
• the swivel seat: is stress-relieving and nerve-strengthening, calming and harmonizing. The spine is also kept flexible by the rotation and the abdominal organs are also activated here. (If the body is no longer busy with digestion during the night, it has the necessary energy for cell renewal and you will automatically sleep better)

In addition, gentle Yin - Yoga sequences help to relax your body and Pranayama is also an important practice to cleanse your body and your energy system - the best breathing exercises for this are Kapalabhati - rapid breathing and Anuloma - Viloma - alternating breathing. Both exercises relieve mental tension and ensure inner peace and mental clarity. While rapid breathing has an activating and cleansing effect, alternating breathing gives you peace, serenity and balance.

Your yoga evening routine for relaxation and rest can look like this:

• You create a cozy and inviting atmosphere by lighting candles and only warm light sources illuminate your premises
• In your diffuser you have a mixture of essential lavender and eucalyptus oil - the essential oils relax you immediately and ensure an inviting room climate
• you put your technical devices aside long ago and relaxing music is playing in the background
• You have already set up your place for your yoga evening routine and are now consciously taking time for yourself
• you bring your body into harmony with pranayama and feel everyday life say goodbye to your mind
• you practice relaxing and balancing yoga asanas, feel which parts of the body are tense and pay special attention to these areas
• at the end you go into deep relaxation and experience a deep feeling of calm and serenity
• before going to bed you mentally repeat affirmations or a prayer

“ Relax your thoughts when you go to sleep. Before going to bed, repeat a prayer or uplifting verses from scriptures, or repeat a mantra with the japa mala for a few minutes while meditating on God and divine qualities. Don't build castles in the air and stop planning when you go to sleep. Forget any bad feelings you might have toward someone. Instead, cultivate positive and pleasant thoughts. The ideal is to go to bed around 10 a.m. and to keep bedtime as regular as possible.” - Swami Sivananda on sleep.

 

Sleep and Yoga - Philosophy: What does Yoga say about sleep?

In Vedanta philosophy, dream, sleep and waking are taken as signs that the physical world is not as real as we think. When you sleep and go to the dream world, you create your own world. When you then wake up from the dream, you realize that it was a dream and many people then try to fathom their journeys into these mystical worlds. And just as you wake up from dream sleep to waking, you can wake up from waking to enlightenment - the great and ultimate goal of yoga. The deep sleep state is considered samadhi without awareness. It is said that when you are fully conscious in deep sleep, you have attained enlightenment. Patanjali also says in the Yoga Sutra that you can rise above obstacles if you meditate on the realizations of dreams and deep sleep.

If you feel restless and restless in the evening, practice yoga.

The yoga practices have so many gifts and valuable ones ready for us, we just have to accept them gratefully and integrate them into our lives.

The Lotuscrafts team wishes you restful evening hours and a healthy sleep.