Is Yoga Really an Effective Solution to Fight Stress and Anxiety?

Yoga is a discipline of exercise and a form of lifestyle that is thousands of years old in origin. However, is it really as effective in busting stress and providing mental peace as everyone says it is? Well, there is scientific reasoning behind why yoga really is one of the best techniques to relax while reaping the many benefits of exercising at the same time. To understand how it can truly break up your stress levels and bring your mind peace, let’s discuss some of its effects and how they are brought about.

Relaxation of the Body Leads to the Relaxation of the Mind

It has been found that certain forms or asanas in yoga can be as physically relaxing as a massage, and in some cases even more so. Balasana, which translates to ‘The Child’s Pose’, is a great relaxation technique that targets the adrenal glands in particular, to calm down the entire body, leading to a calm mind as an obvious effect. You can learn more Yin yoga poses at With Yin Yoga, that are geared towards relaxing your body from various angles, so that the mind and body can become completely free of stress and anxiety. They focus on just twenty primary asanas in the Yin yoga discipline that are enough to not only bust stress, but provide pain relief and spiritual healing as well, among various other benefits.

Relaxation of the Mind Leads to Relaxation of the Body

Similar to how yoga poses can physically relax the muscles, tendons, ligaments and even certain organs to bring relief against anxiety, yogic meditation can actually relax the mind directly to consequently bring on relaxation of the entire body. By holding a relaxing pose like Shavasana or Padmasana, and concentrating on controlling the breathing process, it is possible to reduce or completely eliminate stress and anxiety, lower blood pressure and heal the mind from depression.

Yoga Teaches Us How to Control Our Breathing

It is a scientific fact that the way we breathe can both bring on and affect stress and anxiety. Rapid, shallow breaths for example, are a clear sign that the person has reached, or is about to reach a crescendo of anxiety and/or stress, while long, peaceful breaths are seen when a person is in their most relaxed state, which is to say, when they are sleeping. Yoga teaches us how to control our breathing in any situation to reduce anxiety and stress in even the most stressful of situations, by properly making use of our diaphragm, lungs, both nostrils and the mouth.

There are certainly many other benefits of practicing yoga, but as far as attaining stress relief and combating anxiety is concerned, yoga is truly effective and backed up by logical and scientific reasoning. The best part is, almost anybody can practice yoga to receive its benefits, irrespective of their age, pre-existing physical conditions or mental state. It may not be a complete replacement for traditional anxiety medication of course, but it is a proven, supplementary treatment that can reduce one’s dependence completely or partially on prescription meds.