Yoga for Desk Workers & Tech Neck

According to Ayurveda, the best time to wake up every morning is during the Brahma Muhurta, which is one and a half hours before sunrise. But most of us are snoozing away at our alarms well past 8 a.m. Why is that? Well, thanks to our busy and hectic lifestyles, we have all forgotten how to respect our body's internal clock, or circadian rhythm, and are neither able to sleep early nor wake up early. But are there really any benefits to waking up early? Well, let me tell you a few interesting ones.

Number one, early mornings are quiet and peaceful, so you can spend some time with your own thoughts and plan out your day ahead. Number two, you can get done with your yoga or exercise routine first thing in the morning and not have to worry about it for the rest of the day. Isn't that amazing? And number three, you have enough time for breakfast, which means greater energy levels and reduced stress all through the day.

Let's start this episode with a quick 5-minute yoga asana routine for an energetic start to the day. Stay tuned till the end, because I will share some tips with you on how to start waking up early every morning.

Let's start by sitting in any comfortable position, like Sukhasana. Make sure your spine is straight, shoulders are relaxed. We'll start with seated Tadasana. For this, interlock your fingers, turn your palms outwards, inhale, stretch your arms up, and exhale slowly down. Let's do this two more times. Inhale up, feel that positive energy flowing in through your body, and exhale down. One last time, deep inhale up and exhale down.

Let's move on to the next posture, which is the seated Tadasana. For this, once again we will interlock our fingers, turn the palms outwards, inhale, raise the arms nicely above our head, and now exhale, turn our body to the right. Make sure to feel that nice stretch all along the left side. Come back to the center, exhale to the left, inhale back to the center. One more time, exhale right, inhale back to the center, exhale left, inhale center. One last time, exhale right, inhale center, exhale left, inhale center, bring your arms down and relax.

Let's move on to the next posture, which is known as the seated Kati Chakrasana. For this, take your left palm, place it on your right knee. Take your right palm, place it on the floor behind you. Inhale, twist your torso, look behind you, and exhale. Inhale, come back to the center. Let's repeat on the other side. Look behind you and come back to the center. One more time, twist to the right and come back to the center. One last time, twist to the left and come back to the center. This posture is great to relieve that early morning stiffness in the lower back, which most of us experience.

Now let's move on to yet another beautiful posture, which is known as the seated Kati Chakrasana. Once again, from the seated position, take your arms forward, curve your upper back, exhale, try to touch your chin to the throat. And now inhale, take your arms behind, expand the chest. Once again, exhale forward, inhale, expand that chest. Again, exhale forward, feel that stiffness in the upper back going away. Inhale back. One last time, exhale forward, inhale back, bring your arms down and relax.

Now let's do some seated shoulder rotations. For this, place your arms forward with your palms facing up, place your fingertips over your shoulders. Now, touching your elbows, inhale up, exhale down. Again, inhale up, exhale down. One more time, inhale up, exhale down. Again up, exhale down. One last time up, exhale down. Make sure to do it in the opposite direction as well. Inhale up, exhale down, again inhale up, exhale down, three, inhale up, exhale down, four up, and down, last one up, and down. Bring your arms down and relax.

Now let's move on to a beautiful yoga asana, which is known as the Downward Dog, or Adho Mukha Svanasana, or Mountain Pose, or Parvatasana. Yes, that's right, there are multiple names to this beautiful posture. We'll stand up and come into a tabletop position like this, and from here, tucking the toes in, we will lift the hips up. We will gaze at our navel, try to keep the heels on the mat. Now from here, do a simple knee bend and straighten your legs. Make sure you're nicely warming up those hamstrings, hips and your glute muscles. Continue for five more counts, enjoy the stretch, five, four, three, two, and one.

Now from here, bring your knees down, chest down and chin down, tongue to here. Inhale, get your head up and chest up into Bhujangasana. Once again, go up into Mountain Pose, bend and straighten your legs, warm up a little. Now once again, bring your knees down, chest down, chest up, inhale, head up, chest up to Cobra, back up to Mountain, warm up your legs. And one last time, bring your knees down, chest down and chin down, and inhale, head up, chest up to Cobra. And from here, finish the routine by going down into Balasana and relax.

Well, I hope you enjoyed that quick and easy routine to start your day on an energetic note. Now here are my tips for you to start waking up early every morning.

First things first, start going to bed early every night. Stay around 10 to 10:30 p.m. Keep screen time to a bare minimum before bed, otherwise it can hamper the quality of our sleep.

Now set your alarm to just a few minutes earlier than your usual wake-up time. For example, if your usual wake-up time is 8 a.m. and your goal is to wake up at 6 a.m. every morning, start by setting your alarm to 7:45 a.m. and wake up consistently at this time for one week without snoozing the alarm. For the next week, set your alarm to 7:30 a.m. and follow the same routine for another week. Continue for a few more weeks like this, and pretty soon you will be able to achieve your goal of waking up at 6 a.m. every morning.

If there is one thing that binds us all today, irrespective of age, gender or occupation, it is stress. Over the last few decades, technology and the digital revolution have made our lives simpler and more convenient. However, at the same time, they have also left us feeling increasingly stressed and anxious than ever before. It is very important for us to address and acknowledge our mental health struggles and take concrete steps to bring a sense of peace, calm and sanity into our lives, and what better way to do this than through yoga. It has been proven that the regular practice of pranayama and dhyana can significantly bring down the levels of stress hormones within our body and boost the production and flow of the feel-good hormones in our body. So in this episode, I will talk about a simple three-step technique to address stress and anxiety, and I hope you will find this useful the next time you are faced with a particularly challenging situation in your personal life.

Let's start by learning the sensory awareness technique first. For this, sit down in any comfortable position, keeping your back straight and your shoulders relaxed. Now close your eyes and take a few deep breaths in and out. Now slowly open your eyes and look around you. Describe the first three things that you see around you. For me, it is a beautiful flowering bush, a few rocks and my yoga mat. Next, focus on the first three sounds that you can hear around you. For me, it is the chirping of birds, the conversation between a few people near me and the sounds of traffic. And lastly, describe the first three things that you can touch with your hands. For me, it is the hair on my head, the bangle on my wrist and the yoga mat that I am sitting on. This technique is really powerful, as it helps to stop our thoughts and emotions from spiraling out of control during moments of extreme panic or anxiety, and helps us to bring our focus and awareness to the simple reality of the present.

Let's now learn the technique known as Belly Breathing. For this, start by sitting in any comfortable upright position, keep your back straight, shoulders relaxed, and now place one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach. Now start to inhale and imagine that you are filling air only in your stomach while your chest remains still, like this. You will observe that the stomach expands as you inhale while the chest remains still, and now empty out all the air from your stomach like this while the chest remains still. Continue this technique for about three to five times, where you only inhale air into your stomach and exhale air from the stomach. Normal breathing is relatively shallow and doesn't use the full capacity of our lungs. However, belly breathing is a deep breathing technique which completely engages the diaphragm and improves the efficiency of our lungs, while also bringing a beautiful sense of peace and calm into our minds.

Now let's finally learn the box breathing technique. For this, once again start by sitting in any comfortable upright position, keeping your back straight, shoulders relaxed. Now imagine there is a box in front of you. Now take a deep breath in and visualize taking five steps up along one side of the box, like this. Now hold your breath and visualize taking five steps along the top side of the box. Now slowly start to exhale and visualize taking five steps down the side of the box, like this. And finally, hold your breath again and visualize taking five steps back to the point where you first started. Repeat this technique three to five times. While the fundamentals of this technique are fairly simple, what makes it so efficient and effective is the visualization of the box. This technique is particularly helpful, as it keeps our thoughts and emotions from spiraling out of control during moments of extreme panic or anxiety.

And the beauty of this three-step technique that we learnt today is that you can do this very easily from the comfort of your own home, desk, or work desk, and bring about a quick sense of calm, peace and sanity into your mind.