Yoga is often peddled as an antidote for stress but before we can understand how yoga can help us, we need to understand what stress is and how it affects us. So, what is ‘stress’ and when does it become a problem? (Cheat: watch the videos at the end of this article...)

Everyday stress

Stress, in basic terms, is what we associate with the feelings of 'pressure' and 'too much pressure' in our daily lives. Pressure, on its own, is not a bad thing - it motivates us from getting up in the morning, to hitting that deadline. In isolation, these everyday types of stress take place on the bottom rungs of what we could call the ‘stress ladder’ – our feet are never more than a step away from the stress-free safety of the floor.

Moving a few rungs up this ladder - a small jump away from the floor this time - an increased feeling of pressure (although we might still describe these occasions as ‘stressful’), can be encouraging and help us to achieve what we might not have achieved in a more relaxed state. For example, finding your Olympic-standard running legs in the last few minutes before your train leaves the platform; or not giving up in Sirsasana (headstand) because you feel like everyone in the class is watching you. The pressure we might feel in an everyday-kind of stressful situation makes us more efficient and alert.