7 Mental Benefits of Yoga

Yoga is a holistic approach to living. It provides extreme physical benefits, enhances our mental health, and helps us connect spiritually. 

Yoga draws positivity into our life. The soothing exercises and calming breathes we take, make us more contented and happier. Unlike other exercises, which mainly focus on weight loss or weight gain, yoga sheds light on every part of our life and helps in creating the ideal lifestyle. 

Yoga is beyond poses and twisting. The basic principle of yoga is comprehensive and comprise of numerous life principles. Some of them are mindfulness, breathing, Focus, Moral, self-discipline, etc.

Including yoga in your everyday life makes you feel lighter and happier, it makes you more productive, less anxious, enhances concentration, improves metabolism. In a nutshell, yoga strengthens you physically and mentally. 

Yoga should be learned in-depth with enthusiasm to understand its core principles. Various Institutes provide Yoga teacher training in India to educate people about the “real” yoga and to spread awareness. 

As per the scholars from yoga teacher training in India, yoga provides tremendous mental benefits. It is even used to help drug addicts recover. Listed below are some of the notable mental benefits of practicing yoga regularly

  1. Reduces stress

Stress has become common. Everyone is stressed and tired all the time. Stress impairs both our physical and mental health and creates hypervigilance. Through Yoga Asanas, you will be able to relax and release the stress in the muscles. In the same way, breathing exercises like Pranayama aids in calming down your stress management system. 

Yoga also reduces the extra production of Cortisol ( stress hormone) and adrenaline. This helps in regulating the sympathetic nervous system and soothing our minds.  
2. Helps in reducing depression and anxiety

A holistic approach to yoga helps in the reduction of depression and anxiety. That is, including all the elements of yoga ( asanas, food, meditation, and breathing techniques) can aid in improving our mood thereby reducing depression and anxiety.

Yoga just like any other exercise releases serotonin – the happy hormone that is responsible for happiness in our lives. 

The main reason for depression and anxiety is because worrying too much about the past and future. In this case, meditation can act as a great tool in combating overthinking. Meditation works on the principle of focusing on the present and living in the present. When one starts to focus on the present the past and future miseries will fade away thereby shutting down the mental chatter.

The physical symptoms of depression and anxiety such as sweaty palms, high adrenaline rush, lethargy,etc., can be cured with the help of yoga. 

Yoga can be the greatest way to fight our mental and physical ailments and live a better life. 

3. Improves the quality of life

Yoga is one of the greatest ways to challenge the limits of our body and mind. Having a good grasp on the different principles of yoga ( Yama, Niyama, Pranayama, Asanas, Dhyana, Dharana, Samadhi, Savasana) will give an altogether alternative perspective. This will definitely alter the way of lifestyle and improve the quality of life mentally, physically, and spiritually. 

Many people across the globe have claimed that they have regained their lost health through yoga. People who have gone through Chemo and other serious medical treatments have got back to their normal lifestyle just by practicing yoga religiously.

4. Enhanced sleep quality

Nowadays, half of the world is sleep deprived. There are different reasons for insomnia, one of the main reasons being – an unbalanced lifestyle. Yoga will help you balance the unbalanced lifestyle. It helps in promoting a well-rested, better quality sleep. It also assists in the secretion of melatonin ( the sleep hormone) that induces good sleep.

5. Cures migraine

Severe headaches like migraines can be cured by practicing yoga regularly and rightly. Yoga helps in stimulating the vagus nerve thereby reducing the intensity of the pain check this vagal tone for more info about the vagus nerve.

6.Positivity

Yoga acts like a vacuum cleaner that sucks all the negativity around. Your mind can be calmer, clearer, and positive than ever before if you practice yoga. Positivity is a much-needed element in our lives. In today’s world where toxicity is celebrated, it is necessary to be optimistic to save our sanity. Yoga and meditation are some of the best ways to keep you sane and good going with this life.

7. Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a state of being present at that moment. It is a state where you have control over your thoughts rather than leaving your thoughts to take over your day and even your whole life. 

This state is hard to attain and it requires practice and patience. Yoga and meditation are the greatest tools you can use to achieve a mindfulness state where you can only feel the bliss!