Yoga for Mental Health: Overview, Types & Benefits

Introduction

In today’s society, maintaining your mental health is equally important as maintaining your physical health. The fast-moving and stressful life have led to people ignoring the importance of giving time to sustain mental health and physical well-being. Millions of people in India and across the world experience depression and anxiety-related disorders.
Yoga improves both your physical and mental health. Regular yoga practice can boost serotonin uptake, a hormone that regulates mood, concentration, sleep, and pain. It has been demonstrated that yoga practice enhances ethical values, awareness, discipline, religious beliefs, concentration, and meditative practices.

Benefits Of Yoga For Mental Health

Reduces Stress

Yoga is an effective technique for managing daily work and home pressures and helps strengthen the coping mechanism. The practice of yoga facilitates calmness and lowers tension by reducing cortisol levels (stress hormone). Additionally, it enhances the quality of life and mental health.

Reduces Anxiety

Many individuals practice yoga for mental health to reduce anxiety. Yoga helps individuals who are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). People who perform yoga can overcome their fear of the stressful incidents in their past. Yoga focuses intensely on the significance of staying in the present time and experiencing serenity, which helps reduce anxiety and maintain good mental health.

Enhances Quality Of Life

Yoga for mental health nowadays is commonly employed as an adjuvant therapy to assist people over the world to live a healthy life. People who practise yoga daily say they feel happy and less stressed. Yoga has succeeded in minimising side effects like vomiting and nausea from medications or different treatment approaches associated with different diseases (for example, post-chemotherapy side effects), which improves life expectancy. A feeling of appreciation, calmness, and enthusiasm are all increased by yoga.

Fights Depression

Yoga produces a relaxing effect and helps in reducing depression symptoms. Yoga practice reduces cortisol secretion, which is a stress hormone. Sudarshan Kriya is type of a yoga posture for steady breathing. Yoga can be used as a stand-alone treatment for depression or in conjunction with other types of conventional therapy.

Enhances Sleep Quality

Poor sleep quality is caused by depression, obesity, and elevated blood pressure. Yoga, however, facilitates better sleep quality when practised regularly. Yoga makes it easier to fall asleep quickly, sleep soundly, and wake up feeling refreshed. Yoga treats sleep problems and eliminates the use of sleeping medicines. Melatonin production is enhanced by yoga which regulates sleep and wakefulness.

Types Of Yoga To Improve Mental Health

Sukhasana

It is the standard meditation pose that involves sitting on the ground with your knees crossed and an erect spine. You can regain the resilience necessary for coping with mental health conditions like anxiety, sadness, and excessive stress with the help of this easy yoga technique.

Balasana (Child’s Pose)

Balasana, also known as the child’s pose, is a healing position that promotes calmness, stability, and relaxation. It reduces stress, improves your posture, reduces pain, and boosts general and mental health. The child’s pose is considered to be one of the best peaceful and soothing yoga poses.

Adho Mukha Svanasana

This is a very common practice in Yoga. It increases blood flow to your head while also strengthening and stretching your spine, arms, shoulders, and thighs. By increasing blood flow to this region, we can gain more energy as well as mental focus, which will help us deal with problems that cause stress or anxiety.

Savasana

The meditative posture is excellent for regulating your thoughts, relieving tension, depression, and improving mental health. This position is typically performed at the end of each yoga class to allow you to completely soak up all of the positive vibes gained during the session.