Yoga is a set of specific poses combined with specific breathing and meditating techniques targeted at improving a person’s general wellbeing. With the many appraisals the art has been receiving in recent times, many wonder how does yoga benefit mental health.
With its origin from ancient India, Yoga has metamorphosed into a collection of physical, spiritual, and mental practices carried out by millions all over the world. While there are so many benefits of yoga with scientific and religious proofs, this article focuses on the mental benefits of yoga.
We would be examining how yoga benefits a person’s mental health. Without further ado, let’s look at five (5) amazing mental benefits of yoga.
5 BENEFITS OF YOGA ON MENTAL HEALTH
it will interest you to know that even though yoga formed part of six orthodox practices from ancient India, it has unique and amazing benefits. These benefits cut across physical health, the mind, the heart, the body, and so on.
We have carefully selected five (5) benefits of yoga as it improves on mental health. These benefits include:
- YOGA HELPS IN ANGER MANAGEMENT
Persons who are struggling with anger are not entirely doomed as yoga has proven to be very effective in dealing with anger management both in adults and adolescents regardless of the gender.
Anger management is an important skill to master in today’s ever challenging world. Built into our fabrics are emotions and these emotions make for the decisions we take, how we feel, how we react, and interact.
Our emotions compartment is the reason why we experience sadness, happiness, depression, anxiety, anger, joy, sorrow, and so on. So long a person has emotions, he or she must experience emotional highs and lows at certain points in their lives.
Additionally, no one is perfect and as such, you may not be treated in the very way you expect to be treated. In fact, one of the major reasons why we get angry is because of the inconsistency in the behavior of other people to us. We expect them to consistently act in a particular way and when we do not get that level of commitment which our minds have subconsciously adapted to, we become angry.
In anger a lot of things go wrong. Some persons become wrecking balls capable of destroying products of long, tedious years in seconds. Aside the physical disadvantages, anger also impacts on the brain and body. In a study by Every Day Health, anger is believed to increase the risk of stroke because when a person is angry the brain releases hormones like cortisol that makes the blood clot.
Anger not only affects the blood, it affects the heart, kidney, liver, and gallbladder. This is why anger management is an important skill today. Yoga increases a person’s ability to control anger and helps in decreasing tendencies for verbal aggression in adults.
It has become highly recommended by therapists and doctors who have patients suffering from anger.
- YOGA IS POTENT IN DECREASING ANXIETY
The feeling of worry and unease about the uncertainty surrounding a thing or venture is called anxiety. It is considered a mental disorder and while some persons may comfortably slump into it, they are oblivious about how it interferes with their productivity rate.
Anxiety disorders are capable of disrupting the flow of a person’s work while making them feel it is okay to be nervous and worried. No it is not. As a matter of fact, anxiety should be tackled the moment it is discerned and this should not be difficult as anxiety can be self-diagnosed.
Panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, are among the many symptoms of anxiety. It can be treated by a medical practitioner and most times yoga is recommended in the recovery process.
How Yoga Decreases Anxiety?
Yoga helps to decrease anxiety by modulating your body’s response rate to stress. When your body’s response rate to stress is brought under control, it causes a decrease in physiological arousal such that the activities that go on in the body when a person is anxious are dealt with.
These activities which include increase in heart rate, difficulty in respiration, increase in blood pressure, etc. brings the body into intense levels of anxiety. With the meditations and disciplines that form part of the yoga exercise, the body is relieved of stress and the activities caused by anxiety disorders are stopped.
- YOGA IMPROVES THE MOOD
For people who experience mood swings, moving from one mood to another in moments, yoga can help in fortifying your mind to become more disciplined with moods. Like we show as we explained how yoga helps in anger management, humans are an embodiment of emotions. Our moods, how we act and react, is determined by the emotions we have within us.
Having mood swings is an evidence that one does not have control over the emotions. When a person has disciplined his or her emotions to stay in check regardless of what goes on in the outer environment, he or she has achieved one of the greatest powers of the human spirit – taming the emotion.
When the emotions are not tamed, when there is not enough discipline, experiencing mood swings would be commonplace. Yoga can help to improve your mood and give you the needed discipline to not engage them. It reduces depression, decreases perceived stress, and builds your mind to repel infiltrations from the external environment on your mental health.
- YOGA HELPS CURE INSOMNIA
Insomnia is the name given to the health condition that refers to the inability to sleep. This sleeping disorder is often caused by stress, poor sleeping habits, irregular sleep schedule, depression, pain, neurological problems, anxiety to mention but a few.
According to Sleep Foundation, a OneCare Media Company, insomnia affects up to 35 percent of adults. Children and adolescent have shown signs of insomnia over time. It is almost commonplace for pregnant women, nevertheless, it is a health disorder that causes fatigue, gastrointestinal symptoms, poor concentration and focus, poor coordination, etc.
Engaging in yoga can cure insomnia and help you sleep better. Studies carried out on women who had passed menopause and were diagnosed with insomnia should significant levels of improvement than women who were kept in a control group.
Final Thoughts on How Does Yoga Benefit Mental Health
The state of your mental health is as important as you beating heart. When you are faced with anxiety, stress, insomnia, frequent mood swings, your mental health is under attack and this can affect your psyche, work and productivity rate, interactions, and much more.
While there could be a thousand and one techniques for breaking the jinx surrounding a person’s mental health, yoga has been proven even by science and medical practitioners to be beneficial and safe.
Note that, yoga exercises can be carried out by all regardless of age and gender. Nonetheless, some yoga exercises are a bit strenuous and as such elderly folks should not engage in them. To avoid battling with your physical health while trying to improve your mental health is not a scenario you would want to be in.
And with that it is time to wrap up this article on how does yoga benefit mental health. We are optimistic you found value. If you did, why not share this article to your friends and family across social media.
