For many years, people who practice yoga have known the benefits of this exercise, but outside of the select few who have been involved with yoga, not many people are aware of the multitude of benefits associated with regular practice. This article will focus on using yoga for high blood pressure, and some of the ways in which practicing the art of yoga can help reduce stress in your life and help lower your blood pressure, and get your body back in check.

I personally have always thought that yoga’s effectiveness as a stress-reducer is best shown through example. Try this exercise:

First, find a quiet place, away from as much noise and hustle-bustle of life as you can (trust me, it’s not always easy). Sit on the floor (grab a pillow to sit on if you need to), and close your eyes. Take deep breaths, inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth. While you are doing this, search for a place in your body called the “Dan Tien”, which is located about an inch behind and an inch below your belly-button. Imagine a spot of bright light and energy there, which acts as a filter for your experience. When you breathe in, it grows stronger, purifying your body, your mind, and your thoughts. When you breathe out, imagine all of the stresses of life flowing out with your breath.

While this is a simple exercise based almost entirely in the mind, it actually does have physical effects on you. If you believe strongly in the image you created, your mind will accept it, and make the proper changes for you. In addition, if you’ve done this, you’ve just done a very basic yoga breathing exercise which is done at almost every single class around the world.

In addition to using calming breathing exercises like this, yoga does something else which is noteable for removing stress: requiring you to take a step back from your daily life and focus on something else entirely for a few minutes.

If you have a more severe case of high blood pressure, you may want to try something called “inversion” or upside-down yoga. This is best done with a partner, but it can be done against a wall if you’re strong enough.

The idea of this exercise is simple: you’re turning your body upside down to temporarily relieve some of the stress on your heart. It takes a great deal of force to pump the blood through your body so that enough of it can get back up to your heart. When you’re upside down, gravity is helping you out, and blood can more easily drain through your veins and return to the heart. By performing some simple yoga poses in this upside-down position, you can do even more than you could upright, and it can provide a temporary relief to some high blood pressure symptoms.