Anything that poses a challenge or a treat to one’s well- being is a stress. The common stress for instance, are moving into a new home or a job place, illness, relationship problems such as divorce and death of a close family or friends. When the stress undermines both the mental and physical health they are viewed as bad. Therefore, stress management technique is important to help either release or reduce the source of stress and change the way one perceives the stressful event.
One of the techniques to relieve stress is yoga. Yoga is a physical, mental and spiritual discipline and the goal is to attain a state of tranquility while meditating. Practicing yoga helps to relieve one’s emotional side that has been affected due to stress. The yoga posses help loosen up the tense muscles in the body especially areas like the neck, shoulders and the back. It is also proven that yoga lowers the blood pressure as it concentrates on the breathing techniques, allowing more oxygen to reach the muscles, thus making one feel more calm and energised. Culos- Reed et al (2006) conducted a research on breast cancer survivors, examining their physical and psychological state that had been benefited over a 7-week yoga programme. The finding of this study reported that the participant had positive changes as they felt less depressed. This suggests that yoga has significant effect to release stress.
However, although yoga seems to be an effective technique, it is not that easy to learn. Though it is not a necessity of being flexible to do yoga, this learning experience is physically, emotionally and mentally challenging. While performing yoga in groups, it certainly will reduce one’s confidence and self esteem if complicated and difficult poses cannot be done. As a result, this would lead to embarrassment and further stress is built up. Nevertheless with constant yoga exercise, one’s level of