5 Benefits of Yoga on Mental Health

 Before we go onto the benefits of Yoga on your mental health, it is important to know what yoga really is?

Yoga is a mind and body practice with 5000 years of history in ancient Indian Philosophy. It is a spiritual discipline based on an extremely subtle science which focuses on building strength, awareness and bringing a balance between the mind and body. The word yoga means, "That which brings you back to reality." It consists of physical exercise, relaxation, breath control, and meditation aimed at acquiring a harmony between your body, mind and environment.

Performing yoga is very beneficial for your body and the mind, here are its few benefits:

• It Improves Posture,
• Increase flexibility,
• Builds muscle strength,
• Boosts metabolism,
• Helps in lowering blood sugar,
• Increases blood flow,
• Keeps diseases ay bay,
• Increases self-esteem,
• Improves lung function,
• Helps you sleep better,
• Reduces stress,
• Helps you keep a calm mind.

The above mentioned benefits are great, but did you know Yoga plays a very important role in improving your mental well-being too!! Here are the few important benefits of Yoga on Mental Health:

1. It switched you from the sympathetic nervous system to parasympathetic nervous system:

The sympathetic nervous system is the reason behind the flight or fight response during a threat or danger situation, whereas, the parasympathetic nervous system initiates the rest and digest or feed and breed response, that is restoring the body to a state of calmness. Both are part of the autonomic nervous system.

The first benefits of yoga on mental health is that Yoga helps you switch from the sympathetic nervous system to the parasympathetic nervous system, which means your anxiety is reduced and you are in a relaxed state instead of anxious and confused. This is done by practicing the breathing deeply exercise of yoga to help you slow down and move out of your flight and fight response and be calm and relaxed.

2. It helps you learn about yourself:

Most people suffer from mental health issues because they are not confident, or they have self-esteem issues, depression and stress that makes them feel unwanted and unworthy of any and everything. However, yoga helps you learn more about yourself and to have a non-judge mental view of yourself. It makes you feel worthy and confident that you deserve this effort and time. With time after starting yoga, when your confidence starts increasing, you develop an healthy and balanced ego that helps you let go of things and people that stress you out, makes you realize your self worth, and assures you that you matter. All these have a positive effect on your mental health and all the unnecessary stress and depression is easy to get rid of.

3. Yoga reduces stress and relieves anxiety:

The secretion of cortisol, that is the primary stress hormone, is reduced when a person performs yoga. This helps is the reduction of stress and helps improve your mental health and promotes calmness and relaxation.

As yoga emphasises on being present in the moment and ignoring all other things, it helps you find a sense of peace which is helpful in relieving anxiety. This is found to be extremely helpful for women suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). As it helps them forget their stress and fear and focus on finding their peace.

4. Yoga helps increase mental strength and be more positive:

As yoga encourages you to be self-effective and ponder over your strength, weaknesses, preferences, and limitations, it helps you gain a sense of self-control and make you confident in commitments. As a person who is not sure of their own preferences and limitations and suffers from stress of not being able to say no to decisions they do not agree with, yoga helps them accept their likes and dislikes and encourages them to be more self-accepting and confident to help improve their mental well-being and increase their mental health. As a person living in denial to their own feelings and limitations will never be able to accept their own self wholly. And without self-acceptance a person is rarely ever able to have a healthy mental well-being!

Most people suffer from mental health issues as they have a habit of pondering over the negative aspects of life more than the positive aspects of life and situations. Yoga is the best remedy for them, as it is like vacuuming your mind, getting rid of all negative thoughts, unnecessary emotional attachments and to bring out the positive energy in your mind! This helps the person be more inclined towards taking new steps in life, being more open to new ideas, be more confident in their stance and less anxious and mentally burdened. This is a major benefit of yoga on mental health.

5. Helps fight Depression and promotes health sleeping habits:

As most of you might know, yoga has the same effect as an antidepressant, which means it helps in reducing the symptoms of depression. It is also effective for people fighting with alcohol and drug addictions.

As yoga helps reduce the levels of ACTH (the hormone that is responsible for the release of cortisol), it is recommended that people fighting depression make yoga a part of their lives, along with the traditional methods of treatment.

Depression, High blood pressure and other health issues lead to poor sleeping routines which affects your mental health. However, by incorporating yoga into your daily routine, it is proven you are bound to sleep well and faster, you will sleep for longer and wake up feeling well-rested. Yoga helps one get a peaceful, uninterrupted sleep without any disturbances or any sleeping medications. This is because yoga increases the secretion of a hormone that regulates wakefulness and sleep, called melatonin.

Conclusion:

In the present years, yoga has become a common adjunct therapy to improve the quality of life, to become physically fitter and mentally healthier. People practicing yoga daily are proven to be mentally stronger and less stressed than those who do not practice yoga. It is important to acknowledge that a good life can only be spent if a person is mentally happy and stable and therefore, yoga is important as it increases the level of acceptance, confidence, and relaxation in your life.

To conclude, the benefits of yoga on mental health should not be ignored. Everytime you feel you are too stressed out or anxious, treat yourself to a simple yoga exercise and see how that improves your mood and relieves your anxiety. We hope this article was helpful for you!