Headaches can disrupt your day & make you feel terrible. Medicine helps but yoga provides a natural way to manage headaches. Yoga reduces tension and stress while releasing tight muscles and improving blood flow. This can make headaches less intense & less frequent. Here are seven yoga poses that help relieve headaches:
1. Child’s Pose (Balasana)
How it helps:
Child’s Pose is a deeply restorative posture that helps ease tension in the neck, shoulders, and lower back—areas where stress-related headaches often originate. It also calms the nervous system, encouraging deep relaxation that can lessen headache intensity.
Instructions:
– Start on your hands and knees, spreading your knees apart while keeping your big toes together.
– Gently sit back on your heels, lowering your forehead to the mat and stretching your arms forward.
– Stay in the pose for 1–3 minutes, taking slow, deep breaths.
2. Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
How it helps:
This pose improves blood circulation to the head while relieving stiffness in the neck, shoulders, and spine. The gentle inversion helps reduce tension-related headaches by promoting better oxygen flow and relaxation.
Instructions:
– Begin in a tabletop position with your hands and knees on the floor.
– Lift your hips upward, forming an inverted “V” shape with your body.
– Keep your hands shoulder-width apart and feet hip-width apart, pressing your heels gently toward the floor.
– Hold the pose for 30 seconds to 1 minute, breathing deeply.
3. Cat–Cow Pose (Marjaryasana–Bitilasana)
How it helps:
This flowing movement stretches the spine and releases tightness in the neck, shoulders, and upper back. Coordinating breath with movement improves circulation and helps reduce tension that may trigger headaches.
Instructions:
– Come onto your hands and knees, placing wrists under shoulders and knees under hips.
– Inhale as you drop your belly, lift your chest, and look upward (Cow Pose).
– Exhale as you round your spine and tuck your chin toward your chest (Cat Pose).
– Continue flowing between the two for 1–2 minutes, matching movement with breath.
4. Seated Forward Fold (Paschimottanasana)
How it helps:
This gentle forward bend relaxes the nervous system while stretching the neck, shoulders, and upper back. It encourages calmness and increased blood flow to the head, which can help soothe headache discomfort.
Instructions:
– Sit on the floor with your legs stretched straight in front of you.
– Inhale to lengthen your spine.
– Exhale and fold forward from the hips, reaching toward your feet or the floor.
– Hold for 30 seconds to 1 minute, breathing slowly and deeply.
5. Legs Up the Wall Pose (Viparita Karani)
How it helps:
This restorative pose helps improve circulation, reduce stress, and calm the mind. By elevating the legs, it eases tension in the body and supports relaxation, which may help relieve headaches.
Instructions:
– Sit sideways next to a wall, then gently lie back and swing your legs up against the wall.
– Your body should form an L-shape, with your back and head resting on the floor.
– Rest your arms comfortably by your sides.
– Stay in the pose for 5–10 minutes, breathing naturally.
6. Bridge Pose (Setu Bandhasana)
How it helps:
Bridge Pose opens the chest and stretches the spine, neck, and shoulders. By improving circulation and reducing upper-body tension, it can help ease tension-type headaches.
Instructions:
– Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart.
– Press your feet into the ground and lift your hips upward.
– Keep your arms relaxed alongside your body.
– Hold for 30 seconds to 1 minute, breathing deeply, then gently lower down.
7. Neck Stretch (Simple Stretching)
How it helps:
Simple neck stretches help loosen tight muscles in the neck and shoulders, a common cause of headaches. Regular stretching improves blood flow and reduces stiffness and discomfort.
Instructions:
– Sit comfortably with your spine straight and shoulders relaxed.
– Slowly tilt your right ear toward your right shoulder and hold for 10–15 seconds.
– Return to center and repeat on the left side.
– Perform 2–3 rounds on each side while breathing deeply.
