Author 20 Dec 2023

Impact of Yoga on Mental Health

Yoga is an ancient practice that has been part of human culture for centuries. There are so many types of yoga out there, each with its own way of helping people. But at its heart, yoga is all about finding calmness by doing special breathing exercises, focusing on meditation, and doing different poses that make your body strong and flexible. People who regularly do yoga often talk about how it helps them feel better emotionally, keeps their muscles in good shape, and even sharpens their mind.

Now, here's the magic of yoga: because it’s all about paying attention to your breath and taking time for meditation, it has this awesome power to calm down your thoughts. Imagine feeling less worried or sad because you’ve found a way to relax your mind. But wait, there’s more! Doing yoga doesn’t just stop there—it's like giving your brain a super workout. Yup, it’s true! Yoga doesn’t just help your body feel good; it helps your brain work better too. 

The Benefits of Yoga on Mental Health

1. Enhanced mental clarity: When you do yoga, it’s like giving your brain a workout too! It helps your brain make new connections and changes how it works, making you better at learning and remembering things.

Yoga targets parts of your brain that help with memory, paying attention, thinking, and talking. It’s like lifting weights but for your brain!

Studies using MRI found that people who did yoga regularly had certain parts of their brain—the processing area and the learning/memory area—thicker than those who didn’t do yoga. As people get older, these parts usually get smaller, but yoga seemed to slow that down. So, it might help keep your memory sharper as you grow older.

Doing yoga and meditation might make you better at lots of things your brain does, like making decisions, remembering things, and thinking quickly and accurately. 

2. Uplifted mood: Doing any kind of exercise can make you feel happier because it lowers stress and brings more oxygen to your brain. But yoga might give you extra good feelings. It works on your brain chemicals to boost your mood and make you less anxious.

When you meditate, it's like your emotional brain takes a break. That part of your brain that handles emotions slows down, which means you don't react as strongly when things stress you out.

Scientists looked at different ways to relax and feel better in older adults. They found that yoga and listening to music were the best at making people less depressed or anxious. And guess what? Yoga seemed to keep helping for a longer time. Some small studies found that yoga could really help people with something called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It doesn't replace other treatments, but it works together with them. Yoga helps reduce bad memories and makes you feel more relaxed by slowing down your breathing. 

3. Decreasing depression: You might think just stretching or paying attention to how you sit or breathe won't really help your feelings, but guess what? More and more proof shows that yoga can actually help make depression symptoms better. Lately, people are more interested in stuff that connects the mind and body to make you feel better. And yoga has become super popular in the last ten years because it's one of those things that seem to do the trick for feeling happier inside.

Additional benefits of Yoga

Yoga doesn’t just make your mind feel better, it makes your body healthier too! It makes you more flexible, stronger, and better at balancing. And when you get more in tune with how your body works, you feel more connected with yourself.

Here are some additional benefits of yoga:

1. Getting Better at Doing Things: Doing yoga regularly helps you learn how to stick to things. Even if you don't feel like doing yoga sometimes, once you start, you'll be glad you did.

2. Staying a Healthy Size: Yoga helps you understand when you're hungry and when you're full, which helps you keep a healthy body size.

3. Bye-bye Back Pain: If your back hurts, yoga can make it feel better by giving your muscles and joints more space.

4. Improved Energy: Breathing in yoga gives you a burst of energy. Learning how to control your breath helps you feel more energized no matter what's happening.

5. Taking Better Care of Yourself: Yoga teaches you to focus on what's happening right now, which helps you take better care of yourself, both on and off the yoga mat.

6. Being Part of a Group: If you do yoga with other people, it’s like joining a team. You feel like you’re part of a group with similar interests, which is pretty awesome!

Yoga really helps you feel better both in your mind and body. It’s like a friend through all the tough times you have faced. The cool thing about yoga is you can do it anytime, even when life gets a little haywire. If you’re dealing with feeling worried, sad, or other tough things in your head, yoga is a good way to give yourself a boost of positivity.