Yoga for Stress Relief: The Poses That Saved Me During My Toughest Year
I'm not going to pretend I have it all figured out. From the outside, my life in Dubai probably looks polished — the content, the collaborations, the sunny skyline behind every photo. But 2024 was quietly the hardest year of my life. A family health scare, burnout from work I loved but had let consume me, and an anxiety that crept in so slowly I didn't notice it until I was waking up at 3 a.m. with my heart racing. Yoga didn't fix everything. But it gave me a place to fall apart safely, and then put myself back together, one breath at a time.
These are the poses that carried me through. Not the fancy ones, not the ones that look good on camera — the simple, quiet ones that actually work when your nervous system is screaming.
Child's Pose (Balasana)
I keep coming back to this pose because it keeps saving me. There's something about folding forward, making yourself small, resting your forehead on the ground, that tells your brain: you're safe. During the worst of my stress, I would come into Child's Pose on my living room floor — not even on a mat sometimes — and just breathe. The pressure of the forehead on the floor stimulates the vagus nerve, which activates the parasympathetic nervous system. In plain language, it tells your body to calm down. I'd stay here for five minutes, sometimes ten, and the world would feel a little less like it was ending.
Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Karani)
This became my go-to evening pose when my mind wouldn't stop racing. You literally just lie on your back with your legs extended up a wall. That's it. No flexibility required, no strength needed, no way to do it wrong. I'd lie like this for ten to fifteen minutes before bed, sometimes with a lavender eye pillow, sometimes just staring at the ceiling of my Dubai apartment thinking about nothing for the first time all day. The gentle inversion helps blood circulate back toward the heart and brain, reduces swelling in the legs — especially welcome after a long day in heels — and profoundly calms the nervous system. If you try only one pose from this list, make it this one.
Reclined Bound Angle Pose (Supta Baddha Konasana)
I discovered this pose in a restorative yoga class and immediately brought it home. Lying on your back, soles of the feet together, knees falling open to the sides, arms resting by your sides with palms up. If it feels too intense on the inner thighs, you place a bolster or pillows under each knee. This pose opens the chest and hips — two areas where I hold enormous amounts of tension. I'd often do this while listening to a guided meditation or just soft music. The openness of the body in this position creates a feeling of vulnerability that, paradoxically, becomes deeply restful.
Forward Fold (Uttanasana)
Standing forward folds are deceptively powerful for stress. You stand, hinge at the hips, and let your upper body hang heavy. Bend the knees as much as you need to. I'd grab opposite elbows and sway gently, feeling the weight of my head pulling my spine long. Forward folds are introspective — you're literally turning inward. During my toughest months, there were days when I didn't have the energy for a full practice, but I could stand up, fold forward, and breathe for two minutes. It was enough to reset.
Cat-Cow (Marjaryasana-Bitilasana)
Stress lives in the body. It tightens the jaw, lifts the shoulders, locks the lower back. Cat-Cow is the gentlest way I've found to release all of that. Moving slowly between arching and rounding the spine, breathing deeply with each movement, I could feel the tension physically leaving my back and shoulders. I'd do this first thing in the morning when the anxiety was worst, sometimes for five minutes straight, just rolling through the motion like a wave. It's rhythmic, it's soothing, and it requires absolutely zero skill — just willingness.
Supine Twist (Supta Matsyendrasana)
Lying on my back, drawing one knee across my body while looking in the opposite direction. The twist wrings out the tension in the lower back and spine, and there's something about the gentle rotation that feels like releasing a valve. I'd hold each side for two to three minutes, breathing into wherever I felt tightness. Often it was my mid-back, the spot right between my shoulder blades where I carry stress like a backpack I can't take off. This pose helped me set it down, even temporarily.
Corpse Pose (Savasana)
Savasana looks like you're doing nothing. You're lying flat on your back, eyes closed, arms at your sides, palms up. But for someone whose mind runs at a hundred miles an hour, lying still and doing nothing is the hardest pose of all. During my toughest year, Savasana was where I often cried. Not from sadness exactly, but from the sheer relief of giving myself permission to stop. To not perform, produce, post, or please anyone. Just to exist. My yoga teacher in Dubai once said, "Savasana is where the practice integrates." She was right. Everything I worked through in the poses would settle during those final still minutes.
What Yoga Taught Me About Stress
The biggest lesson wasn't any single pose. It was learning that stress isn't something to fight or fix — it's something to move through. Literally. When I stopped trying to think my way out of anxiety and started breathing and moving my way through it, everything shifted. Not overnight, not dramatically, but steadily.
I'm not going to tell you yoga will solve your problems. It won't pay your bills or heal your loved ones or undo burnout. But it will give you a space — even just twenty minutes in your Dubai apartment at the end of a brutal day — where your body can remember what calm feels like. And sometimes, that's enough to keep going.
If you're in the middle of your own tough year, I see you. Roll out the mat. Start with Child's Pose. Breathe. You don't have to be strong right now — you just have to show up.
