International Yoga Day Special: Yoga comes to the aid of mental health crisis

Yoga stimulates the body to release “feel-good” chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin, which boost your mood and leave you with an overall sense of well-being. / Unsplash

How many times have you heard people say they feel great after a yoga class?

Having a regular yoga practice has numerous benefits, both physical and psychological. 

In the past, people looked to yoga mainly to address physical ailments and improve their health. But today, yoga is being actively sought out as a viable path to mental peace. 

The body and mind are connected. Working on the body during our yoga practice also has a positive effect on the mind. 

Why? In addition to working on the musculoskeletal system and increasing flexibility, strength, and stamina, yoga also works on the internal organs and systems. This includes the nervous system and the endocrine system, which are intimately tied to mental and emotional health. 

Yoga stimulates the body to release “feel-good” chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin, which boost your mood and leave you with an overall sense of well-being after your yoga practice. 

Yogic asanas and practices can also stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, activating the “rest and digest” state, which calms the nervous system and makes you feel safe and at peace. 

Yoga also stimulates the vagus nerve and increases vagal tone, which means that the body can return to equilibrium sooner after experiencing stress. 

Numerous studies have shown that doing yoga can reduce feelings of depression and anxiety, provide relief for people diagnosed with PTSD, reduce stress, help insomnia, and improve sleep. 

To summarize, yoga can help:

• Reduce feelings of depression and anxiety
• Get better sleep
• Regulate emotions
• Reduce stress
• Create an overall sense of well-being

Mental health through a yogic lens

In the modern paradigm, health is commonly understood as the absence of disease. In other words, if you’re not ill, you’re healthy. 

Contrast that with the yogic perspective, in which health is understood to be the vibrant and harmonious expression of our life force energy. 

To paraphrase Viniyoga master Dr Kausthub Desikachar’s remarks made in an interview with Synergies Journal, this means a strong, healthy and radiant body, deep and uninhibited breathing, a peaceful mind, the ability to express emotions healthily and a positive outlook on life.

This is an important distinction because it implies that from a modern perspective, mental health means eliminating what is termed as mental illness. Thus, the focus becomes on the imbalance, or the “illness,” and how to “cure” it. 

In contrast, mental health from a yogic perspective implies a peaceful mind. 

Yoga recognizes that the various ups and downs of the mind are a part of its nature, and often not under our control. 

The focus of yoga is not to eliminate these fluctuations but to detach oneself from them and observe them with awareness. 

Yoga helps create an intermediary space between you and your mind so you can observe your thoughts and emotions with a bit of distance without entirely plunging into them. 

This is not to say one perspective is better than the other. Both these approaches have their place and can be used in a complementary way. 

While the modern perspective can help bring relief in the short term, the yogic approach can holistically strengthen the mind and body and provide long-term benefits. 

The ideal approach depends purely on the individual and their needs and could be a combination of the two.

Perfection in yoga postures comes with time and practice. Remember, the focus here is on your inner experience, so listen to your body. / Unsplash

How to experience the mental health benefits of yoga 

From what I have seen, the benefits can be instantaneous, and you can experience them even after a single class. 

But we’re not just looking for a one-time good feeling. We’re looking for a lasting feeling of well-being. 

And with the right guidance and regular practice, you can certainly experience that, both on and off the mat. 

As a yoga teacher, I’ve worked with clients who have looked to yoga to help manage anxiety and depression, autism and neurodiversity, and even trauma and grief. And from what I’ve seen and experienced in my own life, it works. 

I’m not saying yoga is a magical cure for everything, but it’s an extremely valuable practice to have in your toolkit. Yoga can help calm the body, mind, and heart and inculcate positive habits for handling challenging emotions and situations healthily. 

That said, not all yoga classes are the same. It is important to choose your practice with awareness and find a class and a teacher who can support your needs. 

In adapting my teaching to support my clients’ mental and emotional health, I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. And I’m going to share that with you. 

These tips can also be integrated into your existing yoga practice if you have one already.

Five things to look for in a yoga practice to support mental health

1. A Safe Space: Your yoga class must offer a safe, non-judgmental space, where you feel welcome as you are and free to express yourself without inhibition. 
2. An Emphasis on Awareness: A focus on your inner experience as you perform each asana shifts your focus from the outer to the inner, from body to mind. In this way, you bring your attention to even the minute sensations in the body, without trying to control or fight them. 
3. A Holistic Mind-Body Practice: The mental health benefits of yoga multiply manifold when the emphasis of the practice is on bringing together the body, mind, and breath. 
4. Breathwork: Including pranayama, or breathwork, and meditation in your yoga practice can also be a powerful way to release stress and pent-up emotions and calm the mind. 
5. Letting Go of Perfection: It’s okay if your asanas are not 100% perfect. While it’s important to do the best you can, it’s also important to be kind to yourself, particularly in matters of mental health. Perfection comes with time and practice. Remember, the focus here is on your inner experience, so listen to your body.

Mental health is not a destination. It’s an ongoing journey 

And there’s no miracle pill. Our thoughts and emotions are rarely under our control, let alone the unpredictable situations and circumstances we might face. 

The key to mental health lies in how we perceive and respond to situations, whether internal or external. 

It’s about how we handle emotions like pain, fear, insecurity, and anger when they arise, how we react in moments when we’re overcome with anxiety or depression, and what we do when faced with stress or an unforeseen event.

Is it possible not to get overwhelmed when this happens? Is it possible to respond with a calm, clear mind?

YES!

But it takes conscious, deliberate action to inculcate sustainable, long-term, holistic practices in our daily lives that can support us through our ups and downs. 

You must find what works for you. It can be one thing or a combination of things. It might take some trial and error. But once you have your system in place, you are empowered.

Knowing that you have these tools, techniques, and resources, which you can draw on at any time, brings comfort and makes the mind’s fluctuations less daunting. 

Yoga is an ideal mind-body practice that provides a safe space to come as you are, tune into your innermost feelings, and release physical, mental, and emotional tension through time-tested practices and techniques. 

Having a regular yoga practice offers tremendous mental health benefits, which you can directly experience in your day-to-day life. In other words, yoga can not only make you feel better, but it can also change the way you think and perceive the world positively. 

 

The article first appeared in ALotusInTheMud.com.