I was chatting with my fellow yoga teacher and friend Nilina recently, and she told me something really beautiful about how yoga has inspired her. She said:
“Yoga is much more than asanas. It’s about delving deeper within us. We start seeing the real us, which is comprised of both good and bad. It helps us understand who we really are. Yoga helps us dig the dirt out of us, by just observing our thoughts. I never really noticed my thoughts before more yoga journey. Now, I can correct my own thoughts from bad to good. Yoga is so powerful in that way. I feel I can be put in any situation and believe I can come out of it. Thanks to yoga, it’s helped me find my mind-body balance.”
I thought this was so meaningful! Indeed, I practice yoga personally more for the mental health benefits than the physical health benefits. Yoga has certainly helped me develop balance and flexibility, but it’s the mental health impact that compels me to continue a long-term yoga practice.
If you enjoy yoga, consider these five ways you’re also gaining mental health benefits as you pursue a physical practice.
1. Yoga Helps You Relax
One of my yoga teachers would always say, “You’ve arrived on your mat. There’s nothing to do, nowhere to go, but to be here on your mat and take this time for yourself.” I loved that, because it was a reminder that it’s OK to take time for self-care, in practices like yoga, other forms of exercise, meditation or pursuing a hobby, like reading.
One of the many mental health benefits of yoga is relaxation. A systematic review of more than 100 research studies confirmed yoga reduces stress and alleviates the burdens of modern-day stressors. Even a half-hour or hour of focused yoga practice is a way to escape the stress of the outside world and take some time to relax.
2. Yoga Helps You Understand Yourself
Like Nilina said, yoga helps you understand the inner you more deeply. Because you’re taking time to focus on yourself during your practice, you have more opportunities to notice your thoughts. Some of these thoughts may be limiting (“I’m not sure I can do that,” “I’m scared to try that,” etc.) and some are very encouraging (“I can’t believe I went there!”, “I achieved that!” etc.)
Clinical psychologists report yoga helps support self-awareness by enabling us to observe how we “push our limits or handle discomfort”. By trying new things that can challenge ourselves in a supportive environment on our mat, we can translate those techniques to face bigger challenges off the mat. Simply observing how we act and react during a yoga practice can help us become more aware of our patterns in other life situations.
3. Yoga Builds Self-Esteem
Related to the above, as we experience new gains in our yoga practice, we may feel a sense of empowerment that also encourages us to try new things and push past limits in other life situations. We can remember moments in yoga where we never thought moving into a specific expression of a pose was possible, but we were actually able to do it. This kind of situation can translate to real life, too.
A study published in the “Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care” found there are positive effects of yoga on increasing self-esteem. Simply being more in tune with your body can increase confidence, and yoga encourages you to focus on your body’s movements throughout every practice.
4. Yoga Improves Brain Functioning
Yoga is also beneficial in strengthening cognitive skills, such as learning and memory. According to Harvard Health Publishing, people who regularly do yoga have a thicker cerebral cortex and hippocampus, which are parts of the brain responsible for information processing, learning and memory. Also, while these brain areas typically shrink with age, for yoga practitioners, there’s less shrinkage.
Yoga can help keep our brains functioning at younger levels. That means, we’re better able to tackle tasks like decision-making and reasoning, especially as we age.
5. Yoga Makes You Happier
Like other forms of exercise, yoga releases feel-good endorphins as you move. Endorphins act as natural mood elevators. That’s why it’s common to feel much better when you leave yoga class than when you arrived.
Yoga also elevates the brain chemical gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is also associated with a better mood, Harvard Health Publishing reports. Plus, out of depression and anxiety interventions including massage, listening to music and stress management, yoga had the longest-lasting effect on reducing anxiety and depression.
What Mental Health Benefits Have You Experienced Due to Yoga?
For me, there are lots of positive mental health benefits I gain from yoga. Some I enjoy include:
- I feel positive about having yoga as part of my routine and look forward to relaxing during class.
- Yoga gives me the opportunity to practice mindfulness and breathing, which I can use throughout my daily life when I feel stressed.
- Yoga makes me physically stronger, which boosts my self-esteem.
- When I deepen my yoga practice, I also feel more confident I can progress in other areas of my life.
What are some ways yoga helps you improve your mental health? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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