The Benefits of Yoga for Mental and Physical Health
3 min read
People who practice yoga often report improved sleep, reduced stress levels and an enhanced sense of well-being. Yoga’s physical benefits are shown to include improved posture, balance and joint health while its mental aspects provide holistic approaches to healing.
Yoga encourages relaxation by shifting balance away from flight-or-flight responses and into parasympathetic nervous systems, thus decreasing blood pressure, heart rate and cortisol levels while improving cognitive skills such as memory, attention span and awareness.
1. Improved Sleep
Yoga can help increase flexibility, strength, balance and stress management. Most types of yoga include physical postures, breathing techniques and meditation practices that combine poses with breathwork to expand range of motion while building muscle strength.
Yoga offers significant balance and strength benefits to older adults who face an increased risk of falling or breaking a bone. Yoga also improves focus and memory as its concentration-intensive poses can help clear your mind.
A 2019 study concluded that people who regularly practiced yoga enjoyed improved sleep quality, reduced anxiety, depression, fatigue and daytime dysfunction compared to those who didn’t practice yoga (based on methodological limitations), though more research with larger sample sizes will need to be completed to validate these promising findings (Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 2019) (Published by University of Massachusetts Amherst)…
2. Reduced Stress
Yoga has been proven to significantly enhance quality of life (QOL) for those living with various health conditions, reducing pain, fatigue, depression and anxiety while improving mood and cognition. Studies have reported this positive outcome.
Yoga, like other forms of exercise, can help reduce stress by lowering levels of cortisol hormone and stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system for relaxation. Yoga’s emphasis on breathing exercises and meditation may make it unique in its ability to promote an overall sense of calmness and mental wellbeing.
Yoga can also help to elevate your mood by increasing levels of the GABA neurotransmitter in the brain, which has been found to decrease with low GABA levels in individuals who become easily stressed or irritable. Regular yoga practice can increase GABA levels, helping keep individuals calmer during life’s ups and downs – especially beneficial for individuals living with chronic conditions as stress-reducing techniques help alleviate symptoms more quickly than stress alone can do.
3. Increased Flexibility
Yoga helps lubricate joints and spine, improving flexibility. Flexibility can be particularly useful to older adults as it enables easier body movement and enhances balance.
Increased flexibility has numerous positive side-effects on back and posture health, strengthening muscles that provide support. Yoga poses can also offer great stretching for the hamstrings which may provide relief for lower back pain as well as postural imbalances.
Breath training in yoga increases circulation, helping to thin the blood and decrease risk of blood clots, while optimizing oxygen delivery to the tissues and muscles – speeding healing, shortening recovery times from injuries, increasing physical performance, as well as helping those with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder reduce symptoms (Brinsley 2020). Furthermore, participating in group classes offers an environment for group healing and support – something yoga doesn’t offer alone!
4. Reduced Anxiety
Yoga has long been recognized for its benefits when dealing with anxiety or stress, and with good reason: regular sessions of yoga can significantly alleviate symptoms even for beginners just starting out.
Yoga helps reduce stress by slowing the body’s response to perceived threats through breathing exercises and meditation, making the mind-body connection more conscious, helping change unhealthy coping mechanisms such as alcohol misuse or overeating.
Studies show that consistent yoga practice can increase GABA levels in your brain, an essential neurotransmitter responsible for controlling mood and relieving depression and anxiety. Yoga should only be used as a supplement to manage anxiety; more serious cases may require therapy and medication combined; yet yoga still stands as an invaluable way of improving quality of life by improving sleep and lessening stress on body and mind.
