Around 300 million people globally practice Yoga. In America alone, 34.4 million, i.e., 10% of the US population practice Yoga as of 2021, nearly double from 3 years back. Yoga is also increasing in popularity among men, making them 28% of all Yoga practitioners, including many celebrities.
People across all genders, ages, and locations are experiencing the benefits of Yoga and hence the increasing popularity. No wonder more and more people are considering Yoga for mental health treatment and management. Using it as an alternative to more intrusive treatments or as a supportive therapy.
In this post, we are going to discuss Yoga for mental health in detail including:
- How it works
- Its benefits
- Scientific research on it
- Its various techniques
- Whether it is a good fit for you
- And how you can start it
So get your notebooks and pen out to jot down the most important points from this extremely informative post as they apply to you.
Here we go!
Table of Contents
What is the foundation of Yoga for mental health?
If you mention the word Yoga to a group of people, most people will think of Asanas/ postures. It means that for most people, Yoga is nothing but another form of exercise. So, how can we talk about yoga for mental health when it all seems to be about the body?
The common understanding of Yoga is far from real, so, it is crucial to establish that the mind is the primary subject matter of the science of Yoga. Not the body.
In fact, the ultimate goal of asanas in Yoga is to make the body and mind calm and steady so one can meditate without bodily interruptions. That is because in Yoga we know that the body and the mind are interconnected.
So, the foundation of Yoga for mental health is in the definition of Yoga itself. Here are the two most popular and relevant ones, and both are about the mind:
‘Yogah chitta vritti nirodhah’ from the Patanjali yoga sutras – The cessation of the fluctuations in the mind, is Yoga.
‘Samatvam yog uchyate’ from the Bhagwad Gita – Equanimity of mind is Yoga.
Yoga and mental health are invariably connected – from dealing with stress and depression to preparing the mind for higher possibilities.
Yoga for mental health training is the ultimate tool in our hands for a calm and peaceful world. And now, when even science is most curious about Yoga with millions of research papers published every year, it is the right time to use Yoga in all its dimensions.
So, what is science saying about Yoga? Let’s take a look!
Research on the effects of Yoga on mental and physical health
Before we look at the research on Yoga, it is important to understand that Yoga is an ancient spiritual practice.
Google may tell you that Yoga is 5000 years old, but the Yogic tradition says that the Vedas (the source of Yoga) were only heard and have existed since the beginning of life. They were only documented 5000 years ago.
Science has only recently started showing genuine interest in digging into the mechanics of Yoga because of its increasing popularity. So, the scientific understanding of Yoga and what it does to the body and mind is limited at best.
Image source: Yoga International
With that in consideration, let’s look at some research on the physical benefits of Yoga:
- A study at the University of California showed that eight weeks of Hatha yoga training improved muscular strength at the elbow and knee by 10%-30%. It also increased the flexibility at the ankle, shoulder, and hip joints by 13%-188%.
- As per the International Journal of Cardiology, Yoga reduces the risk of heart disease and can be considered a precautionary measure for people with an increased risk.
- Research suggests that yoga can improve the symptoms of headaches, osteoarthritis, and neck pain.
- The American College of Physicians recommends practicing Yoga initially as a nonpharmacologic treatment for chronic lower back pain before going for invasive treatments.
As discussed earlier, Yoga works through the body-mind connection. So, if you can avoid any disease or pain, your mental health is naturally better. Now, let’s also see some direct benefits of Yoga on the most common mental health disorders:
- Studies have proven that Hatha Yoga is a promising method for treating anxiety.
- Various interventions with patients with depressive disorder and elevated levels of depression reported a significant reduction in depression symptoms by practicing Yoga.
- A 2017 study showed that Hatha Yoga including meditation significantly improves moods.
- The above study also proved that Hatha Yoga greatly improves the brain’s executive functions like flexible thinking, working memory, and self-control. This was further proved to be true even for older adults in a separate study.
- A series of studies have also proved Yoga to be effective in stress management, PTSD, and fatigue.
So, the importance of Yoga for mental health cannot be emphasized enough. Now, let’s take a detailed look at all the benefits mental health Yoga offers.
Top 10 Benefits of Yoga for mental health
#1. Yoga makes your brain sharper
As we discussed before, practicing Hatha Yoga and meditation improves the brain’s executive functions across all ages.
The term ‘executive functions’ is a business metaphor suggesting that these brain functions are like the executive of an organization. The executive monitors all departments so the organization can move forward efficiently. Similarly, executive functions are higher-level cognitive skills that help us organize, plan, and execute our entire life activities.
For example, you decide to manage stress better, so now you must bring in some regulation in your behavior. Every time you face a stress-inducing situation, your brain will remind you not to respond as per old behavior patterns. It will encourage you to keep calm and learn to handle it instead of getting angry or worked up.
So, Hatha Yoga gives you a sharper brain by improving executive functions and giving you a better set of skills to lead your life. These functions include but are not limited to planning, problem-solving, self-control, emotional regulation, moral reasoning, decision-making, etc.
#2. Yoga helps you manage stress better
Stress affects not only the mind but also the body and the breath. Yoga directly benefits all three of these aspects, thereby providing 360-degree stress management.
Hatha Yoga done with breath awareness brings deep relaxation to the body, and relaxation is the natural opposite of stress. In practices like Shavasana, stress is released from the smallest part of the body as our bodies have a tendency to store stress in different places.
It took me years to realize I was still not letting my neck or left shoulder relax completely. They were always stiff with stress. Hence, the practice of going through each and every body part while in Shavasana. With time you become aware of each of them and learn to relax completely.
Yoga is proven to reduce stress not just in adults but even in Teens. Let’s talk about the breath aspect of stress management in more detail in the next section.
#3. Yoga reduces anxiety
Stress and anxiety and related. While stress is the body’s reaction to a threat, anxiety is the reaction of the body and mind to deep-seated stress.
That is why the aspects of breath and the use of advanced tools of Yoga become more relevant in anxiety.
Bringing your mind to the breath again and again in the practice of Asana develops the act of concentration. The act of concentration trains the mind to live in the present moment – something that anxious people are unable to do (hence the anxiety).
It may seem unbelievable but I have seen deeply anxious people with tremors calm down within seconds just by breathing deeply.
This is the beauty of Yoga as it realizes the direct connection between the mind and the breath. Think how your breath changes with your mental states – when you are relaxed the breath is calm, when you are angry it is rapid, when you are sad it is shallow, and so on…
Let’s talk about the mental aspect of Yoga in stress management in the next section.
#4. Yoga relieves depression
Studies have shown that stress is associated with depression. The entire mechanism may still not be clear to modern science, but in Yogic science one ripple in the mind is sure to cause multiple waves in the body as well as the mind.
Simply put, depression is the lack of happiness.
So, can a pill bring back your happiness? A pill may fake happiness for a few hours, but eventually, happiness comes from within you and that is where Yoga comes in.
The practices of deep concentration are normally avoided with patients of depression as the mind can go on the wrong track. So, Patanjali prescribes tools to cleanse the mind by keeping the right attitude in different situations – friendliness, compassion, delight, and disregard.
So, along with Asanas, life practices like Bhavana Yog (Yoga of the right attitude) are very useful in coming out of depression. Keeping the right attitude towards life is of utmost importance in being joyful, or unnatural expectations from life will keep you depressed.
#5. Yoga makes your mind calmer
Mental health Yoga gives you all the benefits that you get from other exercises like increased production of happy hormones and lowered levels of stress hormones. It also brings more oxygenated blood to your brain giving you more mental clarity, increased focus, and concentration.
But it has some deeper benefits.
It also calms the mind by elevating the levels of a brain chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which decreases anxiety. Some lesser-known Yogic tools like specific mudras and meditation also reduce activity in the limbic system.
The limbic system is the center of emotions in the brain and lesser activity there means less emotional upheavals and a naturally calmer mind.
Not just that, Yoga teaches minimalist living which means you must only own what is necessary to sustain your life in a healthy manner. It also promotes inclusivity as a natural consequence of the understanding that we all are essentially one in spirit.
This understanding brings a lot of peace to the mind as you stop hoarding and constantly judging – both of which are rampant in today’s society.
#6. Yoga induces deep sleep and rest
Though, regular exercise with a combination of Asanas can be enough for most people to get good sleep. Sometimes we burden our systems with too much stress to be able to have deep sleep.
Also, sometimes you may suffer from lack of sleep because of reasons beyond your control like pregnancy, sleep disorders, menopause, aging, etc.
Fortunately, Yoga is reported to have improved sleep across the range of these participants. These studies typically focus on the quality of sleep rather than the quantity of it, because an 8-hour sleep doesn’t necessarily mean good quality sleep.
In fact, unlike modern science Yoga doesn’t prescribe a specific number of hours as the optimum duration of sleep required. Yogic science believes that the number of hours you sleep depends on your food and lifestyle and by modifying these, you can modify the number of hours you need to sleep.
Yoga improves sleep by increasing melatonin levels, relaxing the nervous system, and making the mind calmer, etc. Yogic techniques that are used range from slow and deep breathing to body awareness, to practicing Yognidra (psychic sleep).
#7. Yoga promotes better moods
We talked about GABA, a brain chemical produced during Yoga that reduces anxiety.
Beneficial hormones including endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin are also released during Yoga practices like Asanas and meditation. Together, these chemicals not only reduce anxiety but most importantly, promote a better mood.
Embracing a yogic lifestyle including getting up early in the morning and eating a Sattvik diet (positive prana food) also promotes these hormones and improves your mood. Getting up early also means you have more access to daylight which is a natural mood booster.
So, if you are feeling uplifted through consistent Yoga practice, it is not your imagination, it is brain chemistry.
#8. Yoga unburdens your mind of physical distress
Let’s be honest and forget the body-mind connection, but can you be mentally at peace if your body is aching in different places?
No wonder the basic principle of Hatha Yoga is to eliminate disease from the body and make it so fit that the mind elevates on its own. Also, the cleansing techniques of Hatha Yoga clean the body in such a way that the faculties of the mind become clear and stable.
On the other hand, chronic illnesses like cancer, heart disease, or diabetes may make you more likely to develop a mental health condition. After all, it is not easy to adapt to such realities of life, and feeling sad or discouraged is natural.
Even in such cases where getting back to a normal life may not be a possibility, Yoga and its founding principles give you the right attitude to cope with them. Yoga also helps you cope with chronic illnesses better by improving immune function and reducing anxiety and fatigue.
#9. Yoga improves concentration and increases your attention span
Anyone who practices Yoga postures understands how much awareness the practice involves. Anyone who has practiced meditation knows the challenging amount of attention it needs!
Any tool and technique of Yoga from breathing exercises to mantra chanting and even yognidra, commands a certain amount of awareness and attention. It is obvious therefore that Yoga improves these faculties in time, especially if you are a regular practitioner.
Studies are proving the same thing, take meditation for instance.
Research published in the Journal of Cognitive Enhancement found that meditation successfully improved the attention and focus of participants, including those of older ages.
University of Waterloo study also showed that just 10 minutes of daily meditation increases focus drastically in anxious individuals. This means that people with issues like ADHD must consider meditation and yoga to improve their concentration and attention spans.
#10. Yoga helps your mind evolve!
Yoga doesn’t stop at helping you get rid of anxiety, depression, stress, or PTSD. Because that is not its goal to start with. Yoga’s goal is to expand your consciousness, your sense of perception, and your creativity. And this is true for all Yogic tools from Asanas to meditation.
Creativity in Yoga is not limited in the sense of painting, writing poems, or any other performing arts or even scientific innovation. True creativity exists in realizing the higher virtues of life, like minimalism, non-violence, and service.
Image Source: Operation street dogs Varkala Facebook Group
This creativity can only come once the consciousness starts expanding and we are able to see beyond not just logic, but ourselves. Such creativity further helps the mind to mind to evolve, as it is not bound by regular worldly matters. Also, logically, creativity is the opposite of mental illness. It is only when your mind is out of its shackles that it revels in its creative freedom.
How Yoga helps in mind healing
So, you see, Yoga for mental health is not just about managing your mental health. Yoga literally helps the mind heal itself through a multi-dimensional approach.
Let’s quickly run down the key ways in which Yoga helps the mind to heal:
By giving you a healthier body
When the body is sick, the mind is constantly engaged with it. But when you are healthy and not worrying about your health, you give your mind space to heal itself.
By improving the breath
As breath is directly connected to the mind, by calming the breath and deepening it, we calm the mind allowing it to heal itself. Deep breathing also activates the parasympathetic nervous system giving the sympathetic a rest, making spare mental energy available for the mind to heal itself.
By improving physiological functions
The brain controls all the physiological functions of the body. Yoga gives it less things to worry about by improving a ton of physiological functions like:
- Gets more oxygen to the brain
- Strengthens the heart and increases blood flow to all organs
- Activates all the glands
- Improves digestion
- Increases blood flow toward the genital organs
- Increases the supply of Lymphatic fluid by multiple times
These are just some of the physiological functions that are improved by Yoga and have ripple effects on various aspects of health.
By improving the overall quality of life
People who practice Yoga naturally develop a few qualities:
- They eat healthy and make healthy life choices like choosing not to smoke.
- They deal with emotions better
- They develop an attitude of gratitude towards life
- They have a better body image
- Long-term Yoga practitioners have increased self-awareness that leads to multiple personal and social benefits.
So, Yoga makes life effortless by improving its overall quality and freeing up energy for the mind to heal itself.
By improving brain function itself
Yoga stimulates brain function resulting in boosted energy levels, elevated mood, and a sharper brain – a direct mental healing benefit.
Best Yoga for mental health
Most of the time, yoga poses or asanas are the only thing that pops up when you search for or discuss the best yoga for mental health. But Asanas are only one of the eight limbs of Ashtanga Yoga of Patanjali.
We also have tools from Hatha Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Gyana Yoga. So, we need to open up our horizons about Yoga for mental health. Let us take a quick look at some of these tools before we pick the best one!
Asanas
Undoubtedly, the first thing that attracts people to Yoga, asanas when done in the right manner balances the mental faculties. Asanas also clear the energy channels and develop our awareness to lead a more conscious life.
Diet
Diet is the most overlooked factor when we talk about Yoga for mental health. In Yoga, it is one of the most important aspects of your life that you must modify for a healthy mind. You must start looking at food as per its Prakriti (Tamas, Rajas, and Sattva) before you decide to put it into your system.
Fortunately, there’s increasing talk in science about how to be happy by eating right and a whole field of nutritional psychology has come up.
Breathwork
From an immediate remedy for a panic attack to a long-term solution for mental health issues, Pranayama or breathwork should be practiced gradually and carefully.
Yoga of the right attitude
Yama and Niyamas, also translated as social and personal disciplines are the magic potion for living a stress-free life. In Ashtanga Yoga, they must be practiced before practicing Asanas as it is your attitude that decides your progress in Yoga.
Devotional singing and mantra chanting
One of the least talked about but most effective tools in mental health issues are mantra chanting and devotional singing. Sound is the basic unit of creation both as per science and Yoga. So, the easiest and the most powerful way to bring our body and mind in balance is through sound.
Yognidra or the psychic sleep
Yognidra is a technique to withdraw your senses from the outside world temporarily. It is one of the most powerful forms of relaxation you can ever experience and one of the most effective in dealing with stress and depression.
Continuous practice of Yognidra can literally transform your life, including your mental health. But, it must be conducted by a deeply experienced teacher.
To conclude, the best Yoga for mental health is not just one, and definitely not just a combination of some Asanas. The best Yoga for mental health is a combination of all these and more techniques from various paths of Yoga.
Risks and alternatives to Yoga
Yoga is a mystic science. So, there are risks of practicing it from the books or by simply watching videos. Practicing any technique without understanding its overall impact also has its side effects too.
For example, concentration or guided meditation may be a common suggestion for people facing issues with mental health. But these practices shouldn’t be done without a basic cleansing of the energy channels. There has to be a basic readiness of both the body and the mind for meditation.
So, when Yoga is used as mental health yoga therapy, one must practice under the supervision of a qualified and experienced Yoga teacher.
Also, a lot of times people tend to push themselves through things and practices. In Yoga, pushing yourself too much may take you down the ladder instead of up. For more details, take a look at our post here to decide whether yoga is good for you.
There are no alternatives to yogic science. But if it is not possible for you to do Yoga, or for some reason you don’t want to do it, you can consider complementary therapies like Ayurveda, Siddha, and Naturopathy.
How to do Yoga for mental health
Considering everything we discussed, Yoga for mental health needs immense skills and experience. Look for a good teacher online or near you to practice a couple of times a week. Once you become a seasoned practitioner, you can start practicing on your own.
If you are starting with online classes, here are some pointers on how to prepare yourself for yoga at home.
Choose your teacher carefully by having a detailed chat with them about their techniques and how they work for your issues. It is extremely important to choose the right type of Yoga to get the right results. For instance, most research says Hatha Yoga is the best.
I second that opinion and wouldn’t recommend Ashtanga or Vinyasa as Yoga for mental health.
A great way to kickstart your healing journey is to join a mental health yoga retreat. Invest a chunk of your time, and aim for a longish retreat, say about 28 days, that is one moon cycle. This gives you an appropriate amount of time to settle in, get into the practices, and invest enough energy and work to see solid results by the end of it.
One retreat is not going to be your answer for life, but it can give you a glimpse of the peaceful and healthy life you aim to live.
Such retreats are only for issues like anxiety, depression, and stress. For more serious mental health issues, seek the services of a mental health Yoga therapist online or near you. In both cases, do not stop taking your medicines until advised otherwise.