Travelling is an important and unavoidable part of day-to-day work. Whether it’s for leisure, office vacations, or simply to gain new experiences. Travelling not only results in fatigue but also disrupts your usual routines. With unusual flight hours and long road trips at different time schedules, your body’s sleep cycle as well as your daily routine are affected.
These poor travelling conditions, which might be a result of cramped seats or uncomfortable seating, can hamper your body posture, energy levels, and digestion. While travelling is good for the soul, in order to make it good for the body, one needs to keep doing their physical movements to stay healthy. These movements could either be running, swimming, cardio, pilates or one of the easiest and yet most effective movements, that is yoga. Yoga is not only the most relaxing and effective workout, but it is also the best companion, especially yoga for travellers.
The reason that yoga is termed a way of life is that it can be practised literally everywhere. Now, one might have the idea about how to unroll a mat while taking a flight, well, the good thing is that you don’t always need to have a yoga mat handy to practise yoga and stay fit in general. it not just engages your body physically, it engages your mind so not only does it drive mindfulness, and encourages you to make healthy choices, allows you to enjoy travelling, and feel better. In this guide, we shall be exploring some simple ways to feel better while and after travelling through yoga.
Why yoga is important, especially while travelling
Helps relax the body – One of the most important reasons to make yoga a non-negotiable especially while you’re travelling, is that it helps you relax the body. Long hours of travel, improvised day routines, poor eating patterns, disrupted sleep cycle etc, result in unavoidable fatigue. So in addition to yoga keeping, you fit while you are travelling, Yoga becomes a form of therapy to heal you from the long hours of tiredness.
Maintain consistency – One of the crucial aspects of yoga and the most challenging one rather is to maintain consistency in Yoga practice. Many advanced yoga practitioners also struggle with this as consistency not only requires one to show up when they are not in the mood, but it also requires one to show up when the situations aren’t favourable enough. Yes, it is true that you might not be able to carry out full-fledged yoga flows while you are travelling, but you can still practise breath work, simple stretches that can be done on your chair, easy exercises which you can perform before leaving your hotel room or after checking in.
Reduce stiffness in body – The usual idea of travelling, which is also the reality includes, you sitting in a stiff upright position through long waiting hours on the airport or railway or metro stations. And then there are train travels for the long journey but even that would lead to fatigue and you feeling stiff all around your body. it helps you stretch your muscles and bones. Your lower back, neck, feet, etc to help you get relief from cramps, improve blood circulation as well as revitalise your body.
Improve digestion – It is no surprise that while you are travelling, you get the opportunity to explore new food varieties and culinary items, but at the same time, you are also exposed to a variety of other stimuli which may impact your digestion, changes in food and water, and other hygienic conditions that might lead you to feel uneasy and bloated. If you are practising yoga in your travels, you can at least be relieved about the food being properly digested, and you not having to struggle with it.
Maintain sleep schedules – Now, generally, people prefer travelling in the daytime, so that at least they can have a good night’s sleep. But more often than not, when prioritising travel, sleep schedule is not the one you are focusing on, but rather the time efficiency and the time you have in hand. So, yoga helps you soothe your sleeping schedules, which get affected by travelling. A good night’s sleep can do wonders and help you benefit from the reason for your travel.
Simple exercises
Desk yoga – Simple exercises which can be easily performed while you’re sitting or you are working at your desk. This could include easy neck rolls, shoulder rolls, wrist rotations, elbow rotations, ankle movements, and stimulation in your calf muscles.
Spinal yoga poses – While travelling, you may not have a mat at hand, so spinal yoga poses can be comfortably done on the bed. Doing spinal twists with breath consciousness can not only help you relax, but also prepare you for your day ahead.
Standing poses – Simple yet powerful yogic exercises such as the tree pose, not only help you with balance but also cultivate mindfulness and the ability to stay in the present.
Simple flow movements – Like Surya Namaskar for full body stretching, Surya Namaskar is not only a powerful 12 posture yoga flow that not only stretches the body fully but energises the body’s rhythm and can be done anywhere, even in a little place.
Breath work – Breath work is one of the most important and effective arms of yoga that can not only be practised anywhere, but also modified and personalized. Breath work techniques such as Pranayama (Yogic breath work), Anulom Vilom (Alternate nostril breathing), Etc are simple and beneficial techniques of yoga which can relieve you from travel stress.
When to do yoga while travelling
- Before setting out on the journey, do simple breath work for grounding and relaxation, and prepare for the journey.
- Stretching in transit points to relieve stiffness.
- Using your hotel room as a temporary studio.
- Being mindful and taking stairs instead of lifts.
- it before sleeping. Simply put your legs up against the wall while you are making your schedule for the next day or scrolling through your phone.
- Overcoming the mental barrier that practising yoga while travelling is a huge task, which can be overlooked
- If you commit to it and make it a part of your routine, space and time would not be an issue.
Conclusion
While travelling is good for the Mind and soul it is beneficial for the mind, body and soul. Travelling opens new horizons for the world, and practising yoga while travelling helps you elevate the experience by also maintaining your energy levels, rhythm and balance. If you happen to be travelling to Goa and are interested in enrolling in yoga courses in Goa, choosing Adi Yogam run under the expert guidance of traditional yoga Indian Master Bharat Ramji can be a great experience.
