5 Ways Yoga Benefits Your Mental Health

Yoga teacher and licensed psychotherapist Ashley Turner says yoga is the key to psychological and emotional healing as well as resolving issues with self-confidence, relationships, and more.

Ever notice how good you feel -- mentally -- when you're practicing yoga regularly?

Yoga teacher and licensed psychotherapist Ashley Turner, who is launching a groundbreaking new Yoga Psychology 300-hour advanced yoga teacher training next month, says yoga is the key to psychological and emotional healing as well as resolving issues with self-confidence, relationships, family of origin issues, and more.

"Yoga is a psychology -- the whole practice helps us work with the nature of the mind, the nature of being a human, how emotions live in our bodies, how they affect our behavior and our minds," says Turner, who reveals that yoga helped her recognize and cope with her own low self-esteem. "This course is reclaiming the deeper roots of the practice, not just asana -- the mental and emotional benefits."

Below are 5 ways that yoga can benefit your mental health and well-being and even improve your relationships, according to Turner.

5 Ways Yoga Benefits Your Mental Health

1. It moves you from the sympathetic nervous system to the parasympathetic nervous system, or from flight-or-flight to rest-and-digest. You typically have less anxiety and enter a more relaxed state. As soon as you start breathing deeply, you slow down out of fight or flight and calm your nervous system.

2. It helps you build your sense of self. Through yoga, you get to know yourself and cultivate a more nonjudgmental relationship with yourself. You are building self-trust. You exercise more and eat healthier, because your unconscious mind tells you, "I'm worthy of this me time, this effort." At the end of the day, everything comes down to your relationship with yourself. When you get more confident and become more rooted in your sense of self and your center, you develop a healthy, balanced ego, where you have nothing to prove and nothing to hide. You become courageous, with high willpower. You're not afraid of difficult conversations -- you know you're still going to be OK at the end of the day.

3. It improves your romantic relationship. When you're more centered and more peaceful with yourself, you'll be the same way with your partner -- you'll view them through the same lens of compassionate, unconditional love. You're less reactive -- for example, you may know that snapping at your partner is not a wise choice.

4. It helps you become aware of your "shadow" qualities. The yoking of solar and lunar (light and dark) in yoga makes us recognize qualities in ourselves that we were not aware of, helping us be more mindful. A lot of my work centers on the shadow concept from Carl Jung. How do we look at those places in our bodies where we hold tension, tightness, knots of energy? That's typically where we are holding our psychological or emotional energy. We work from the outside in, so asana is so important. A backbend will open your heart and release the stiffness between the shoulder blades -- at some point, you will have some sort of emotional release, which you may or may not be conscious of. It's about doing the inner work to shift or change and be open to doing your best with your weaknesses and faults.

5. It helps you deal with family of origin issues. Essentially that's our karma -- we can’t give back our family, we're born into it and that's what you get. It's about owning what I call sacred wounds (rather than blaming) and taking them on more mindfully. You’re the only one that can change -- the only thing you can do is control your actions and your behavior. Other people will inevitably be forced to show up in a different way you’re showing up in a different way. Think of the Warrior poses -- yoga helps you rise up and do your best.

This article originally appeared on yogajournal.com and was written by JENNIFER D'ANGELO FRIEDMAN

It's Official: Yoga Helps Depression

Evidence keeps stacking up that yoga is a boon for both physical and mental health conditions. Now, a small new study from Boston University finds that taking yoga classes twice a week may help ease depression, thanks in part to deep breathing.

The study, which was published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, included 30 people from ages 18 to 64 with clinical depression, who either were not taking antidepressants or had been on a steady dose for at least three months. Half of the participants were assigned to take a 90-minute Iyengar yoga class three times per week, as well as four 30-minute sessions at home each week. People in the other group took two group classes and three at-home sessions every week.

Iyengar yoga classes emphasize alignment, precise postures and controlled breathing. The classes taught in the study also included 20 minutes of slow, gentle breathing, at a rate of five inhales exhales through the nose per minute.

After about three months, most of the people in both groups had lowered their scores on a depression-screening questionnaire by at least 50%. Not surprisingly, more yoga was better; those who took three classes per week had lower depression scores than those who took two per week.

But since many participants mentioned that the larger time commitment was challenging, the researchers actually recommend two classes per week, saying that the regimen still comes with meaningful benefits.

That yoga seems to be effective is good news for people struggling with depression. Lead author Dr. Chris Streeter, associate professor of psychiatry and neurology at Boston University School of Medicine, says that the practice has far fewer side effects and potential drug interactions than mood-altering medications. The most common complaint reported in the study was a small one—temporary muscle soreness—and one participant experienced distressing thoughts while practicing breathing exercises at home.

Some people who haven’t responded to traditional treatments might do well with yoga, because unlike antidepressant drugs, yoga and deep breathing target the autonomic nervous system, Streeter says. “If your autonomic nervous system is balanced out, then the rest of the brain works better,” she says. Research shows that 40% of people on antidepressants do not recover fully from depression, says Streeter, which puts them at increased risk for a relapse. “Getting that 40% all the way better is a really important goal. Instead of adding another drug, I would argue that yoga is another thing you can add to the treatment regimen that might help.”

More research is needed to determine how yoga stacks up against other treatments. (A larger trial comparing yoga to walking is underway, the study notes.)

While Iyengar yoga is generally considered to be a safe practice for people of all levels, it’s not the only type with health benefits, Streeter adds. “It depends on who the person is and what they’re looking for,” she says. For now, what’s clear is that the type with the most health benefits will be whichever kind you stick with.

This article originally appeared on time.com and was written by AMANDA MACMILLAN.

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Yoga Now Standard Treatment for Vets with PTSD

Yoga's not usually the first thing that springs to mind when thinking about treatment for post traumatic stress disorder in veterans. But from the Veterans Administration to the Pentagon, yoga classes are becoming not just commonplace, but in some rehabilitation programs mandatory.

One of the places in the forefront of change is the Newington Yoga Center, in Newington, Connecticut.

About 20 veterans train to become yoga teachers. Suzanne Manafort of the Veterans Yoga Project, said what began as a small project has burgeoned into programs across the country. Manafort taught yoga for years before using it as a treatment for PTSD. She said she had no idea she might need to make adjustments to her teaching, until she made mistakes.

"Touching is a mistake. In yoga classes we touch all the time. But to somebody whose been sexually assaulted that's a huge violation. Walking behind them is a huge mistake because it feels like they have to pay attention to what's going on in the room instead of just practicing their yoga practice," Manafort said.

She said ultimately it was veterans themselves that guided her, in some cases just by the courage it took simply to stay in class.

"Some of the men and women that I work with are Vietnam Veterans so they've been at home suffering for 40 years," said Manafort. "And when they come into this treatment program and they're told they have to do yoga, 'they're like are you kidding me?'"

"I thought it was a joke," said Vietnam veteran Paul Gryzwinski. "And I remembered actually laughing out loud and they said no we're really not kidding you're going to be going to yoga."

Gryzwinski is training to teach yoga to veterans. Many years after returning from the war, PTSD hit him hard. He ended up turning to the VA. Where he first encountered yoga.

"And I just thought of myself in like, tights with you know a bunch of women. And I know that sounds sexist — and I'm not, so forgive me — but it was such an alien concept to me," Gryzwinski said with a chuckle.

And Gryswinski's early misperceptions are one reason that Dan libby, a co-founder of the Veterans Yoga Project, said the 12 week yoga training for treating vets with PTSD tries to strip all the new-agey stuff out.

"We really emphasize, 'leave all the Sanskrit names at home, right. Leave the candles at home, don't talk about you know moonbeams and chakras and all these things,'" he said. "It's really just about learning about your body and your experience; learning to breathe."

Lt. Col Melinda Morgan deployed right after 9-11 and started teaching yoga to those who had served and those who were preparing to go to Afghanistan.

"So I started teaching veterans 10 years ago and one of those veterans that I taught became an instructor himself. And so in 2007 when he was in Iraq and I was in another location, he writes me a note that said, 'I have to teach yoga and I don't think I can.' So I'm like, 'yes you can.' I wrote it down all of the poses, emailed it to him and helped him on his way to become a certified teacher," Morgan said.

Today, Morgan teaches at the Pentagon, and she said classes once sparsely attended are now full every day. But despite an increased demand for yoga paired with a growing number of alternative treatment programs in the military and the VA, there's scant hard science about why yoga or most of the other alternative programs work.

Yoga instructor Dan Libby hopes the government does some studies soon, because without more data, returning troops won't take the programs seriously.

This article originally appeared on pri.org
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Reporter Susan Kaplan

Links

• VetsYoga
• Veterans Yoga Project
• Give Back Yoga

The Science of Yoga - What Research Reveals

In a world that demands substantive clinical research evidence to support different approaches to health care, yoga is gaining attention. Despite rapid advances in medical technology and continuing pharmaceutical research into using medication to relieve symptoms, in the past few years we have seen a significant growth in research addressing the impact of yoga on health and wellbeing.

To mark World Yoga Day on Sunday, we have collected some of the latest research into yoga in a virtual special issue.

Yoga is an ancient practice; it has been associated with cultural, religious and physical activity for more than 2,000 years. Its practitioners have asserted its effect on balancing emotional, physical and spiritual health for decades, but only recently has there been a move to substantiate these claims through research. So far, the result has been definitive, significant evidence of the broad-ranging benefits of yoga, both as a treatment and as a preventative form of medicine and health care.

The health benefits of yoga

In this technological age, health care paradoxes abound. Computerization, designed to facilitate daily life, carries with it a demand to be externally connected to events at all times. In doing so, paradoxically, we become alienated from reflecting personally upon body, mind and spirit. Use of pharmacological medication can assuage some of our symptoms, but this approach can also mean that we can carry on as normal with our busy lives, reducing our ability to monitor and focus on our personal health and wellbeing.

At a time when technology and drugs dominate the way we live our lives, it is refreshing that yoga not only persists but that researchers are taking the time to explore exactly how this practice can help us. In a climate focusing upon evidence-based medicine, it is important to be able to substantiate clinical claims made for any therapy, and yoga is no exception. We need to know who would benefit from a therapy, contraindications of use and the extent to which specific medical issues that can be ameliorated by a particular therapy.

Journals like Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice frequently publish research on yoga. Recent papers have focused on practicing yoga to reduce essential hypertension and anxiety during pregnancy, its effect on regulating heart rhythm, the connection between yoga and changes in brain wave activity, the improvement of core stability and balance, and relief of post-partum depression.

Highlights of the special issue

To assess the potential of yoga poses for training and rehabilitation, the authors of this study examined the muscle activation patterns in selected trunk and hip muscles. Before this figure, they explain: "In the Downward facing dog pose ( Fig. 2a), the EOA showed significantly higher activity than RAU and RAL (p < .018). In the Upward facing dog pose ( Fig. 2b), the LT and EOA produced significantly higher muscle activities than RAU and RAL (p < .019). In the High plank pose ( Fig. 2c), the EOA produced significantly greater electrical activity than all other muscles (p < .001). In the Low plank pose ( Fig. 2d), the EOA produced significantly higher activity level than RAU, RAL and GM (p < .001)." (Source: Meng Ni et al, "Core muscle function during specific yoga poses," Complementary Therapies in Medicine, February 2014)

We have selected papers that give us an insight into the health benefits of yoga, reflecting the growing evidence-based research into this practice. It seems apparent that yoga may provide broad ranging healthcare benefits for mind and body. It may be practiced to maintain health, reduce particular symptoms, commonly associated with skeletal pain, and assisting in pain relief and enhancing emotional wellbeing.

In her review, Dr. Tiffany Field, Director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami, provides a fascinating overview of the effect of yoga on anxiety and depression, pain, cardiovascular, autoimmune and immune conditions and on pregnancy.

In research looking more closely at the effect of yoga on anxiety, Dr. M. Javnbakht and colleagues from the Psychiatry Department of Islamic Azad University in Iran showed that participating in a two-month yoga class can significantly reduce anxiety in women with anxiety disorders. In their paper published in Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, the researchers say this “suggests that yoga can be considered as a complementary therapy or an alternative method for medical therapy in the treatment of anxiety disorders.”

Another study, published in Complementary Therapies in Medicine, examined the effect of yoga on lower back pain. Dr. Padmini Tekur and colleagues from the Division of Yoga & Life Sciences at the Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation (SVYASA) in India carried out a seven-day randomized control trial at a holistic health center in Bangalore, India, with 80 patients who have chronic lower back pain. They assigned patients to one of two groups – yoga therapy and physical therapy. Their results showed that practicing yoga is more effective than physical therapy at reducing pain, anxiety and depression, and improving spinal mobility.

Yoga also reduces stress in pregnancy, according to research published in Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice. Svetlana Bershadsky and colleagues from the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine tested the effect of yoga on 51 pregnant women, looking at their levels of the stress hormone cortisol and their mood before and after a yoga session.Their results showed that practicing yoga while pregnant can reduce stress, improve mood and even reduce postpartum depression symptoms.

What’s next for yoga?

Yoga challenges the “mores” of modern day life, providing us with a return to simply being, watching the world around us and an awareness of the impact of this world upon ourselves. In the prevailing Western economic system, should yoga ever become a therapy alleviating many of our illnesses, anxieties or distressing emotions, it will have a fight on its hands to become a dominant therapy. Unlike pharmaceutical medications, yoga cannot be packaged in a box or simply taken mindlessly, nor can it be marketed in huge batches to make enormous profit.

Instead, yoga offers something else: reconnecting with ourselves and learning to see ourselves, and our reactions to the world around us, from a different perspective. It takes emotional and spiritual strength to reflect inwardly and directly address personal conflicts, anxieties, hopes and fears, and understand how we respond to them. It also takes time to learn how these states of mind impact directly on physical wellbeing, and how we can change this.

Research into yoga continues to reveal the health benefits it can have, supporting the case for its use in health care. Through randomized trials, reviews and other studies, we are learning more about the effect yoga can have on different aspects of our physical and mental health. Regular yoga practice can increase our awareness about how our body actually feels, with all its aches and pains, and help us restore balance.

Yoga isn’t as simple as taking a pill, but mounting evidence suggests it’s worth the investment of time and effort. Ultimately, in order to benefit from the positive health effects of yoga, we need to be mindful of the present: this moment, now. In such a non-stop world, that, surely, has to be a good thing.

This article originally appeared on Elsevier.com and was written by Denise Rankin-Box.