If you’ve ever been on a flight and heard, “Put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others,” the same sentiment can be applied to everyday life. By taking care of ourselves, we can be our best selves for helping others. If we neglect our own needs, that can lead to burnout, stress and even sickness that impacts our lives in negative ways.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, self-care is “taking the time to do things that help you live well and improve both your physical and mental health”. Self-care matters because it can:
- Help you manage stress
- Lower illness risk
- Increase energy
- Improve overall health and quality of life
Yoga is a great form of self-care. I often tell my Alexandria VA yoga students, “Congratulate yourself for taking time to care for yourself by doing yoga.” Once you step on the yoga mat, you have an hour or however long your class is to focus on yourself and how you feel in your body. Yoga fulfills the definition of self-care by supporting your physical health through movement, and by providing countless mental health benefits.
If you want to integrate more self-care into your life, here’s how yoga can support a self-care journey.
Always consult with your physician before beginning a yoga practice.
1. Yoga Allows You to Focus on Yourself
In yoga, you’re generally listening to a yoga instructor provide cues for how to properly enter and hold poses. Unless the class is interactive, or it’s a class where it’s normal for students to talk during a class, all that’s expected is for you to show up on the mat and move how you want to in your body.
You don’t even have to do the same poses your instructor is cueing. I’ll tell students they can stay in Savasana (Corpse Pose) the entire class if they want, if that’s what their body and mind need that day.
Yoga gives you permission to focus on yourself, on your own mat, for the duration of the session. There’s no need to do anything else for anybody during that time. You can let worries float away by paying attention to what you’re doing in the moment.
2. Yoga Supports Physical Fitness
According to a meta-analysis of studies in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, yoga supports physical fitness in the following ways.
- Improves muscle strength, balance and flexibility
- Improves cardiovascular function
- Decreases pain
If you do a more physically intensive form of yoga, like a hot yoga class, vinyasa flow yoga class or core power yoga class, you’ll get an aerobic workout that could burn as many calories as other forms of aerobic activity, like walking or swimming. Other forms of yoga, like Hatha, offer anaerobic and strength-building benefits.
Taking care of your physical health through regular exercise helps you prevent chronic disease and helps you increase your longevity. Physical fitness is an important part of taking care of yourself, and yoga is one way to support your physical fitness.
3. Yoga Offers Mental Health Benefits
Related: 5 Mental Health Benefits of Yoga
There are so many ways yoga helps you take care of your mental health. These include:
- Reduced stress
- Increased confidence
- Improved learning and memory
- Decreased symptoms of depression and anxiety
It’s important to support your mental health, because mental health can impact your physical health by affecting your immune system, your ability to recover from illness and your risk of developing disease.
As I write in my philosophy as an Alexandria VA yoga teacher, yoga is just as important for mental health as it is physical health. For me personally, I practice yoga for the mental health benefits. Care for your mental health with a relaxing or invigorating practice like yoga.
4. Yoga Improves Overall Quality of Life
Practicing yoga has a ripple effect on your entire life, from how happy you feel throughout the day, to the quality of your life’s necessities, like sleep.
There’s lots of research on the powerful effect of yoga on improving sleep quality. For example, from this post on how to practice yoga in bed:
- Yoga reduces insomnia symptoms.
- Yoga improves total sleep time and time to fall asleep.
- Yoga increases restfulness during sleep.
As yoga improves aspects of your life like sleep, that can improve your waking hours, as well. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute reports sleep matters because it supports proper brain functioning, hormone regulation and metabolism.
Poor sleep can also lead to issues like higher risk of disease and high blood pressure. By doing yoga, you’re supporting your physical and mental health 24/7.
5. Yoga Can Add Meaning to Your Life
Yoga can add meaning to your life in various ways, from offering an outlet to connect with friends and community members in a social setting, to providing intrinsic value that helps shape your identity. Having a sense of meaning improves emotional well-being, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. Relaxing activities and hobbies, like yoga, are a way to improve self-care.
The National Institute of Mental Health states that positivity, gratitude and emotional connections can help you take better care of yourself. Yoga offers lots of opportunities to integrate these practices, from using a gratitude mantra as you practice, to making a friend in yoga or going to yoga class with a friend.
Care for Yourself by Practicing Yoga
If you’re going to spend your time doing something, yoga is a positivity-filled activity that helps you build self-esteem, stay fit and learn new skills. Beyond class, a regular yoga practice can improve sleep and overall quality of life, which enables you to be the best version of yourself in other areas of life.
Do you consider yoga an act of self-care? How have you seen yoga improve your life? Leave a message in the comments.
Is there a topic you’d like me to write about on this Alexandria VA yoga blog? Message me.
About the author: Nicki Escudero is a journalist and RYT-200 yoga instructor certified by Yoga Alliance. She teaches group and private yoga classes in Alexandria, VA, and Washington, DC. Contact Nicki.
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