What Is Yoga?
Yoga is not just a form of exercise; it is a mental, spiritual and physical discipline that promotes healthy living. Yoga involves breathing techniques, physical postures and meditation that accelerates coherence among mind and body. There are many plus points of yoga for mental health.
Yoga is a physical practice that focuses on connecting your mind and body through breathing techniques and different positions called ‘asanas’. Most of us are well-versed with the physical benefits of this exercise like diabetes and cholesterol control with Yoga. However, we often overlook its importance in improving our quality of life and mental health.
Benefits of Yoga for Mental Health:
Reduces Stress and Anxiety:
Stress and anxiety in our daily life cause problems like blood pressure, frustration and nervousness. The breathing techniques used in yoga help regulate your response to stress. It helps you to calm down and promotes blood circulation. These ‘asanas’ encourage relaxation thus helping you to overcome stress and anxious feelings.
Sharpens Concentration:
Often, we are unable to fully concentrate on our daily activities. Through yoga, you can successfully improve your memory and concentration. If you are having trouble remembering things lately, you should practice asanas like ‘The Dharana’. It will help you to calm down and get rid of unwanted stress. If you practice it regularly, yoga will sooner or later improve your focus and help you to remember things better.
Improves Mood:
Yoga involves different body postures, breathing techniques and meditation. The whole idea behind performing it is to show gratitude towards your mind and body. These ‘asanas’ are known to help you relax and keep your stress level down. Yoga helps you to stay energetic and fit. It’s a well-known fact that physical activity improves your sleep schedule and boosts your mood. People who have an irregular sleep pattern should try practicing yoga as it shows effective results.
Helps in Anger Management:
Yoga is beneficial if you have been aggressive lately due to factors such as work stress and frustration. Yoga requires you to pay total attention to your breathing technique and body posture. Any feelings of aggression or anger fade away as your entire focus is on your breathing technique and posture. It also reduces high blood pressure thereby cooling your mind. This can also help you improve your social skills.
Helps to Increase the Sense of Awareness:
Practicing yoga regularly will help you to deal with negative feelings and reinforce a positive self-image. Yoga is all about the mind-body connection. It helps you to be aware of your feelings and boosts your confidence. Yoga to relieve stress is recommended by doctors while treating behavioral problems like depression, anxiety.
The benefits of yoga are never-ending. Check out more of our blogs on fitness and workout for information on types of Yoga. But you should also remember that Yoga is a gentle practice that should be performed with utmost care. It is all about connecting your mind and body which is essential for healthy mental well-being.
Importance Of Good Mental Health
Good mental health depicts a person’s ability to cope with day-to-day stress, learn things quickly, make better decisions, maintain a healthy relationship with others and increase strength and flexibility. It enables the person to stay strong during challenging times, thus, preventing them from going into depression, post-traumatic stress syndrome and anxiety. Exercising and eating the right food can play a pivotal role in improving a person’s mental well-being. Besides this, solving puzzles, playing games and indulging in activities of interest can keep an individual’s mind active.
Relation Between Yoga and Mental health
Yoga and mental health complement each other. Practising yoga in your daily routine can be one of the best lifestyle changes that will boost your mental wellness. With good mental health, the overall quality of your life will improve. The surface of the human brain is made up of wrinkles (cortical folds) and bumps. A person’s capability to think depends on them. Cortical folds contain your brain cells. As yoga relieves stress and calms your mind, these folds increase the brain’s surface area, which results in more brain cells and better mental health.
List Of Yoga Poses To Practice For Mental Health
- Anjaneyasana (The high lunge)
- Garudasana (The eagle pose)
- Natarajansana (The dancer’s pose)
- Virabhadrasana (The warrior pose)
- Adho Mukha Vrkasana (Handstand)
- Vajrasana
- Vriksasana (The tree pose)
- Chakrasana (The circle pose)
These poses will make your mind calmer, improve your mood and enhance your focus. Additionally, there are many mental health benefits of yoga.
QnA
Which Yoga Is Best For Mental Health?
Balasana, Viparita Karani, Uttanasana, Sethubandhasana and Shavasana are a few yoga poses to help you achieve mental wellness.
Does Yoga Improve Brain Function?
The various yoga poses help your brain relax and release chemicals that reduce your anxiety and stress levels. These chemicals include endorphins, serotonin, oxytocin, dopamine and gamma-aminobutyric acid. Each of these to make you feel good by calming you down. If you perform yoga frequently, it can help improve the brain’s ‘Gray Matter Density’ (neurons) that facilitates healthy cognitive functioning. A calm and focused mind will eventually improve your brain’s functioning.
Which Yoga Pose Is Good For Depression?
Savasana (Corpse Pose) is one of the best poses that can relieve the symptoms of depression, stress and anxiety. While performing this pose, you can even meditate, which recharges your body and relaxes your mind.
With yoga sessions daily, you can earn Health Returns for staying active during the new normal of staying at home. HealthReturns can be used for getting discounts upto 30% on your next health insurance premium.