Elevate Your Life: How Yoga Can Help Anxiety

Yoga isn’t just a popular fad: its roots run 5,000 years deep within Indian culture. Among Buddhist and Hindu philosophies, yoga can be a wonderful compliment to traditional psychotherapy to help alleviate a variety of symptoms, specifically anxiety.

SLOW YOUR THOUGHTS

Strength and flexibility can be great benefits of a regular yoga practice, however, they are usually not the central focus. Breathing, and more specifically mindfulness, is one of the key components: learning how to breathe and using your breath to encourage a more mindful state can help to slow that mental rollercoaster and bring you back to a more centered, balanced place. When we approach our day from a more balanced place, anxiety and worry drift further from our consciousness, allowing us to be present in each and every moment.

BECOME MORE EMBODIED

Connected to the experience of mindfulness is the enhancement, or embodiment, of our physical body with our minds. With attention given to how each part of our body feels and aligning that process with mindful breathing, we can become more attune to our body’s needs and the messages it sends. Pain, stiffness or even the absence of a particular sensation might be ways our body tells us what it needs. Listening to our body allows us to approach our health from a preventive space; one that gives us the opportunity self calm before anxiety takes a strong hold.

TRAUMA - SENSITIVE YOGA

Yoga can also be an essential practice for those who have lived through significant trauma. With mindfulness and embodiment as benefits, adopting a regular yoga practice in a setting that allows for support and contained vulnerability can be healing for many. We can learn to reconnect our minds with our bodies and release emotional content related to past trauma in a healthy way. And with guidance from a qualified yoga therapist, we can begin our journey to healing.