Grant Yourself Permission to Relax

Mother, yoga teacher and self-professed ‘yoga geek’ Kirsty Norton shares her top health tip with us.

Relax, every single day.

Lie on your back, take a deep breath in and consciously allow yourself to completely let go. Take another breath, sigh it all out of the mouth and relax into that spaciousness.

We have got so caught up in being ‘on’ 24/7 that, for a majority of the time, our nervous systems are in a state of alert. We can get into a cycle where we forget we are human ‘beings’ and not human ‘doings’.

Read more about yoga for stress and anxiety in this complete guide

The word ‘stress’ is a commonly used in our day to day lives and in times it can be useful– but our bodies have gone into overdrive, as have stress hormones such as cortisol.

When finding moments of rest in your day, you are allowing your cells, your nervous system, and your brain to settle and catch up to you.

In our modern society, we seem to be plagued with guilt if we choose to do nothing. Our number one priority, ourselves, gets shoved aside because we feel it’s not as important as all the other stuff that needs to get done.

Yes, our jobs are demanding and require our undivided attention and commuting is totally draining and juggling life with children is really tough.

All of these stress-inducing factors should motivate us to consciously sit still for a few minutes, every day. By taking that time,  we can begin to rebalance ourselves and address any build up of tension in our bodies or minds.

Taking time to relax allows us to act from a better place, the effects of which will ripple out to everyone around you.

Taking a few minutes to relax can only positively impact your life.

If you don’t know how to relax, breathe into it – remember that you do enough, you are enough and have enough.

There are plenty of tools out there for you use to guide your relaxation, such as one of my free guided relaxation videos on my website.

When you wake up tomorrow and think about all of the to-do’s in your day ahead, remember to give yourself permission to relax.

Energise your morning with Kirsty’s 20 minute Good Morning Flow video.

Kirsty Norton started practicing over 20 years ago. She has been teaching since 2004 and practising since 1994. She is fascinated by the energetics and quantum aspects of movement and meditation practices. She is a yoga and meditation teacher, holistic therapist, essential oil educator, Reiki master. She essentially teaches people how to breathe and how to tune into their energy to feel the vibrancy that we all are.

Kirsty is a proud ambassador for Wellicious and has been published in Teach.Yoga, Yoga Magazine and Elephant Journal. Find her on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Read more in Yoga for Stress and Anxiety: A Complete Guide