Yoga is a practice that involves bringing the mind, body and spirit together through physical movements, breathing techniques and meditation. It has a long history and there are many different schools with their own unique emphasis and combinations of exercises.
A recent study found that practicing yoga can improve interoceptive awareness — the ability to recognize your body’s signals.
Physical
Yoga is an aerobic exercise that can get your heart rate into the healthy range, which helps protect against heart disease. It also builds muscle strength and improves your balance and flexibility. In addition, the weight-bearing exercises in yoga can help prevent osteoporosis and arthritis by strengthening bones and joints.
Yoga can decrease the stress hormone cortisol and increase levels of a neurotransmitter called GABA, both of which can improve mood. It can also improve breathing and encourage relaxation.
Yoga can have a profound impact on mental and physical well-being. Studies have shown that yoga can help with psychiatric conditions like depression and anxiety, and can even provide prevention and early diagnosis for several other health problems. It can also serve as a complement to psychotherapy and medications. Preventive psychiatry is an approach that aims at health promotion, protection from specific mental illnesses, early diagnosis and effective treatment, and disability limitation. The National Institute of Psychiatry and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in South India is one of the largest tertiary care mental healthcare facilities to incorporate yoga into clinical practice.
Mental
Yoga is not just an exercise, it is a mental health practice. It can help reduce stress, depression and anxiety. Yoga also can improve sleep patterns, improve mood and increase resilience to illness and disease. Many therapists are integrating yoga into their patients’ treatment plans because they are seeing that it helps with their mental and emotional health.
Yoga can boost your mood by increasing levels of brain chemicals called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which promote calmness and well-being. It also can help reduce activity in the limbic system of the brain, which controls emotions. As a result, your emotional reactivity can decrease and you have more of a tempered response when faced with challenging situations.
While more research is needed, especially high-quality randomised controlled trials with adequate sample sizes, active controls, validated outcome measures and longer follow-ups, yoga has been shown to improve mood and wellbeing and be an effective adjunctive therapy for some conditions such as depression and PTSD. Yoga training programs with a health-care emphasis are emerging out of medical schools and universities, but need more organizational buy-in from health-care settings for yoga to be integrated into mental health care.
Emotional
Yoga is a spiritual practice that promotes healing of the mind, body and soul. It is a discipline that is practiced by individuals worldwide. While modern medicine has the ability in many cases to eliminate physical diseases and alleviate psychological disorders, yoga offers a more holistic approach to healing.
A key component of yoga is its practice of mindfulness, which can improve mood and foster emotional resilience. It also helps reduce rumination on the past and worry about the future, which can help ease depression and anxiety.
Studies have found that yoga can elevate levels of the brain chemical gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, which is associated with improved mood. Moreover, the regular practice of yoga can improve sleep, and thereby enhance emotional well-being. This may be particularly helpful for people living with PTSD, as a result of which they often have trouble sleeping and can feel overwhelmed in daily life. Yoga can offer an effective alternative to antidepressants and psychotherapy for many people.
Spiritual
Spiritual yoga is a practice that blends physical postures and breathing exercises with meditation. Its goal is to release the serpent power (kundalini) that lies coiled at the base of your spine, to awaken consciousness and find inner peace.
According to the studies included in this review, regular yoga practice is associated with increased levels of spirituality. Specifically, spirituality is related to a greater sense of meaning and purpose in life, a deeper connection with nature, and a higher degree of self-awareness and personal growth.
Developing spirituality in your yoga practice can be as simple as focusing on gratitude, compassion, or self-love during your practice. Or, you may incorporate philosophies and teachings from different traditions into your practice to cultivate a more holistic and individualized spiritual path. Whatever your yoga style, it is important to have a consistent practice in order to fully reap the spiritual benefits. This includes practicing gratitude, focusing on breathwork and meditating before or after your routine.