Guest post by Ani Johnson
Yoga is a practice that brings together your body and mind through a series of breathing exercises, poses, and meditation, which reduces stress and encourages relaxation—practicing yoga benefits both mental and physical health. Apart from stress reduction and relaxation, yoga also increases blood circulation as it increases your flexibility, concentration power, and a sense of inner peace.
More than the physical benefits of yoga, researchers have found therapeutic benefits of yoga for mental health concerns. They have even put the stamp of effective “prescription” on yoga for being a solution to the most common problems for which people seek psychotherapy. As a result, yoga is now more than a holistic approach to improve mental health and well-being. Now, it is backed by science and with extensive research to support its benefits.
Hence, we must check how yoga affects our mental health and what its impacts are.
How Yoga Affects Our Mental Health?
Yoga is beneficial in reducing or controlling the following, which directly impacts our mental health.
1.) Controlling Anger:
Regular yoga practice has shown positive outcomes in reducing verbal aggression in adults. In 2012, a study conducted on adolescents showed that their ability to control anger increased significantly through yoga compared to only physical education participants.
2.) Sleep Improvement:
If you have sleep deprivation or insomnia, yoga can be of great help in offering you sound and deep sleep. A 2012 study of postmenopausal women diagnosed with insomnia showed signs of reduced insomnia severity through yoga practice compared to a control group. In another study where women with restless leg syndrome were the participants, it was found that yoga helped them improve several domains of low sleep quality.
3.) Reducing Anxiety:
Anxiety is a silent mental illness that slowly gets the better of people and kills them from within, just like depression. However, by practicing yoga, people have experienced a decrease in anxiety symptoms, including performance anxiety. For example, a study conducted in 2013 on adolescent musicians showed that yoga helped the participants decrease anxiety in solo and group performances.
4.) Decreasing Mood Swings:
Several studies have brought into light that yoga largely contributes to reducing depression, improving effects, and lower perceived stress, which shows positive improvements in our mood. A study was conducted on a prison-based population in 2013 where they were given a 10-week yoga class. They showed signs of reduced reported psychological stress and increased positive affect.
5.) Decreasing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Symptoms:
Adult women diagnosed with PTSD were a part of a 2014 study, in which they had received a 10-week yoga treatment and, as a result, showed a significant reduction in PTSD symptoms compared to a control group. When this study ended, 52 percent of the women participants who regularly practiced yoga no longer met the criteria for PTSD, in contrast to 21 percent in the control group.
6.) Relieves Migraines:
Severe recurring headaches are called migraines, and there is increasing evidence that yoga can be a potential adjunct therapy to help you reduce migraine frequency. In 2007, a study carried out on 72 migraine patients divided them into a yoga therapy or self-care group for three months.
The patients in the yoga therapy showed signs of reduced headache intensity, pain, and frequency compared to the self-care group. Researchers believe that practicing yoga stimulates the vagus nerve that has shown promising results in relieving migraines.
7.) Moves you from the sympathetic nervous system to the parasympathetic nervous system:
Yoga helps you to move from flight-or-flight to rest-and-digest state, which means shifting from the sympathetic nervous system to the parasympathetic nervous system. While in a parasympathetic system, you experience less anxiety and enter a more relaxed mode. Once you start breathing deeply, your fight-or-flight state slows down, and your nervous system calms.
8.) Fights Depression:
Studies show that yoga may have an anti-depressant effect on your mind, which decreases depression symptoms. A stress hormone, named cortisol, is reduced by practicing yoga. This cortisol influences serotonin levels in our body, which is a neurotransmitter frequently associated with depression.
A study, conducted on the participants in an alcohol dependence program where they practiced a specific type of yoga called Sudarshan Kriya, which focuses on rhythmic breathing. After two weeks, the participants showed lower levels of cortisol and limited symptoms of depression. ACTH, a hormone that stimulates the release of cortisol inside our body, was also reported to be low in the participants after practicing yoga for two weeks.
9.) Build Your Sense of Self:
Yoga is a medium to learn about and nurture a more non-judgemental relationship with yourself. The more time you spend with yourself, you will get to know yourself better and build self-trust.
Yoga helps you become self-confident, resilient, pure, and more rooted in your center and self-sense, developing a healthy, balanced ego where you have nothing to hide or prove something to someone. In a gist, you gain high willpower and become more courageous.
Final Thoughts
Many studies are conducted worldwide, which proves that yoga offers a myriad of physical and mental benefits. If you add yoga to your daily chores, you would slowly see positive changes in yourself, such as flexibility, calmness, inner peace, increased strength, reduction in anxiety, depression, and stress. So, stop worrying and start practicing yoga.
Author bio:
Ani Johnson is a passionate blogger. She loves to share her ideas, thoughts and experiences with the world through blogging. Ani Johnson is associated with EmblemWealth & WpBloggerTips.