How Yoga Can Support You Through Anxiety & Depression
Yoga practice most commonly combines stretching and physical postures with deep breathing, mindfulness, and meditation.
Exercise is one of the best and most affordable ways to improve your overall well-being. Plus, the positive link between physical activity and mood is impressive. From a decrease in depressive and anxiety symptoms to better sleep and less stress, participating in a regular exercise program has some major perks. Yoga can help improve fitness, strength, balance, and flexibility. It has been shown to reduce pain and help with adjustment to and symptoms related to medical conditions such as diabetes, asthma, multiple sclerosis, and cancer. It can also improve sleep and help reduce anxiety and depression. In addition, performing yoga in a studio offers the ability to connect with others and creates a feeling of belonging.
Mental Effects Of Yoga
Although the mechanisms by which yoga creates these benefits are not fully understood, research shows that yoga increases the levels of the brain neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric (GABA), which can help combat anxiety and depression.
It also appears that mindfulness meditation, a common component of yoga, is associated with changes in the volume of certain regions of the brain believed to be involved in regulating emotional response. Brain studies have observed these brain changes amongst meditators who meditate for as little as 30 minutes a day for eight weeks.
It helps practitioners to experience their body in a different way. Rather than focusing on their external appearance, yoga helps practitioners to experience their bodies internally, mindfully, and non-judgmentally.
And while we’ve known for years that treatment approaches such as psychotherapy and medication are effective in treating depression, research over the last decade shows that lifestyle interventions like exercise can also reduce depressive symptoms and improve your overall mood.
How Exercise May Help Depression
Enhancing your overall mental health is one of the many benefits of exercise. More specifically, physical activity can enhance mood, boost energy levels, and help you sleep better. Here are some other ways fitness improves psychological well-being:
Exercise improves your health and boosts confidence: Participating in a regular exercise program can improve your physical health and lower your risk of developing coronary heart disease, lower blood pressure, manage blood sugar, and lose or maintain a healthy body weight. These improvements can lead to a boost in confidence as you feel better about your overall health.
Exercise distracts the mind: Engaging in regular exercise may also quiet the mind, which allows you to get away from the negative cycle of worries and depressive thoughts.
Exercise promotes social interaction: Taking a group class, joining a running club, or playing a recreational sport gives you the opportunity for social interaction and reduces feelings of isolation, both critical factors in decreasing depressive symptoms.
Exercise releases your body’s feel-good chemicals: When you exercise, your body releases neurotransmitters like endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin that help give your mood a natural boost.
Exercise gives you a healthy coping mechanism: It’s not uncommon to develop unhealthy ways of coping with emotional pain and depressive symptoms. Using food or alcohol or withdrawing and isolating yourself from others are just a few examples. Replacing one of these with something positive like exercise can help you develop new coping strategies.
Scientific Study
A large study out earlier this month found that just 35 minutes of exercise per day significantly reduced the risk of having a depressive episode in those who were at higher genetic risk of depression. Among 8,000 participants, each four-hour chunk of weekly exercise reduced the risk of a future depressive episode by 17%. Even low-intensity forms of exercise—like yoga—were effective.
Understand the Connection Between Anxiety and Depression
While not a specific strategy, understanding the connection between anxiety and depression can help you determine if what you’re dealing with is temporary or a sign of something more serious.
According to Leela R. Magavi, MD, a psychiatrist and regional medical director for Community Psychiatry, anxiety and depression are intertwined and frequently exacerbate each other. Part of the reason, she said, is because the same neurochemicals are implicated in both conditions.
More specifically, Julian Lagoy, MD, a psychiatrist with Community Psychiatry, explained that since decreased serotonin causes both depression and anxiety, it’s common for someone with depression to also feel anxious at the same time. That’s why it’s critical to acknowledge feelings of anxiety and share them with an expert, especially if you’ve been diagnosed with depression or are showing signs of depression.
Take Aways
The best way to discover how yoga can support you through ANYTHING you are dealing with is to practice yoga regularly. You can read about the benefits or the effects OR you can experience it first hand which is what is suggested. Often the effects are not what you may have expected to begin with, but you will never really know unless you try.
What I can personally state is that yoga has changed me and my life for the better. I know that there are experiences that I have been through that yoga has helped me to cope with. In my experience it has helped me to transform the world within creating more peace, grace and trust. I would love to know how yoga has affected you and your life. Please share your experience.
