Power Yoga for mental stability
Many years ago I read a quote from Brad Ramsey on Ashtanga Yoga that stated: “It’s addictive and that’s the way it works. Nobody would go through that unless it was addictive.” I didn’t get what was so great about this odd form of extended stretching. Little did I know, a little bit of time went by and this practice changed my understanding of the relationship that truly exist between my body and my mind. “Yoga can supposedly improve depressive symptoms and immune function as well as decrease chronic pain.” This claims have all been made by yogis over the years. Surprisingly, however, everything is supported by scientific research.
Maybe it sounds a little ‘hocus pocus’ to believe that standing on your head or your hands, doing certain breathing exercises could be so good for your mind but is NOT. It’s called neuroscience and it comes down to this: your mind can change your brain. Moving trough a posture can change your brain’s activity.
Yoga postures or asanas can put pressure on parts of the body helping them to reach the balance that is needed to fe...
Streeter, C. C., Gerbarg, P. L., Saper, R. B., Ciraulo, D. A., & Brown, R. P. (2012). Effects of yoga on the autonomic nervous system, gamma-aminobutyric-acid, and allostasis in epilepsy, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Medical hypotheses, 78(5), 571-579.
Yoga, as a way to achieve higher self-awareness, was around as early as 200 B.C. in India and has been gradually growing in popularity in the western world over the past four decades. Traditional styles of yoga, including Hatha yoga, which consists of thousands of poses, have long been studied as an effective form of complimentary or alternative medicine (CAM).
Yoga was originally practiced to meditate, pray, heal and restore energy nearly five thousand years ago in India. It was typically practiced by Hindu monks of the Hindu religion. They practiced forms that consisted of physical posture, chanting, meditation, and spirituality (Powder Blue Productions). However, Yoga now has various branches due to the numerous practices and applications that have evolved. Yoga is a mind-body therapy that aims to unite the body, mind, and spirit. Moreover, Yoga is more than just the uniting of the mind and body through exercises and breathing, “it is also viewed as a “tradition of lifestyle, health, and spirituality” with practices integrated into daily life to create balance, health, and harmony” (Foul...
Anxiety impacts approximately 25% of 13-18 at some point (Merikangas et al., n.d.). Anxiety that no longer signals danger can become pathological when it is excessive and persistent (Upadhyay, 2016). According to Upadhyay (2016), this type of pathological worry known as anxiety is a major component of an unhealthy lifestyle. Excessive worry is an indicator of anxiety and it is believed that yoga is effective due to its emphasis on focusing on the present moment rather than focusing on the past or future (Khalsa et al., 2011). Yoga outside of psychotherapy can improve emotional regulation and mental health functioning in youth. Participants obtained skills to breathe and use movement to calm down and learned to pay better attention to their thoughts, body, and feelings (Beltran, et al., 2016). Another study conducted by Upadhyay (2016) found that after a 12-week yoga program adolescents saw a decrease in anxiety scores on Becks Anxiety Inventory and reported a decrease in tension, depression, and anger. Another unique form of therapy that is utilized for anxiety is Yoga-Enhanced Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Y-BT) (Khalsa, et al., 2011). Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a theory used in a clinical setting that targets maladaptive thought patterns to seek behavioral change. Y-CBT uses this therapeutic process and also incorporate yoga during the process. This is because CBT trains the individual to identify and replace maladaptive thoughts and yoga and meditation often reduce the tendency for the thoughts to happen in general. The study utilizing Y-CBT saw a significant improvement in anxiety levels and a significant decrease in symptoms of comorbid depression and panic in participants diagnosed with ...
This qualitative case study is an approach to research how yoga can affect the human mind in a positive way and lead to a healthy lifestyle using 2 sources one being a book called The Science Of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards by William J. Broad 2012. And the other being a private interview with a 22 year old male Yogi. This ensures that the issue is not getting explored through one side, but rather a variety of sides which allows for different inputs to be reveled and understood. There are two key approaches that help determine if yoga helps affect the human mind in a positive way. One flourished by William J. Broad (2012) which explores different factors on how yoga contributes to a healthy lifestyle and interviews fellow yogis who give there insight on the matter. And the second being a personal webcam interview conducted by the researcher ...
Participants participated in two, one hour yoga classes a week for 31/2 months were the class data was recorded by the yoga instructors in terms for attendance, engagement, and behavior in every class session for every participant. The measures for this study included pre-and post-intervention assessments and questionnaires for the participants, teachers, parents, and yoga instructors. These assessments assessed the improvements of behaviors, impairments, and...
Thus, the katha Upanishad describes yoga as, ‘when the senses are stilled, when the mind is at rest, when the intellect wavers not-then, say the wise, is reached the highest state. This steady control of the senses and mind has been defined as Yoga. He who attains it is free from delusion.’ Yoga and its Practices
The different types of yoga allow fast and slow breathing techniques that can be learned while performing different postures. Breathing techniques are learned when doing different types of yoga, so when in labor the women can use them to breath comfortably. These techniques help with inner thigh stretching as well as thigh stretching. They also help with learning various breathing techniques and yoga also helps in reducing various diseases that are harmful for our health. These techniques originated in India during the 15th century and have been progressively gotten popular through out the years. Chiara Fucarino a yoga specialist and blogg...
Yoga affects the academics by keeping the positive thoughts running and having more energy for the next day to come. Not only does doing yoga keep the mind focused or keep the positive thoughts rolling it but it helps relieve the stress a person might be dealing with. It can help you relax and manage stress and anxiety. “Concentration is a leading contributor to success in school because our ability to concentrate is akin to the ability to make the most of our education.” Yoga may help you achieve peacefulness of body and mind. Things such as exercise, yoga or mediation have been proven to help reduce anxiety and stress levels and even keep a person healthier and more focused on their life. “Yoga and college have a few things in common. College is intended to harness our tremendous potential to change the world. It encourages us to focus on what we want to learn, to broaden our horizons, and cultivate new understandings. The point of college is to train us to engage
Becoming a healthier person interests us all, from young to old, being fit is something we strive for. Nowadays, one means of achieving that goal is through yoga. Though the use of breathing exercises, meditation and strength postures, people have actually lowered their blood pressure, aches and pains fade away as their body becomes more athletic.
In a world full of skepticism towards the alternative, Yoga has created a place of growing belief for itself. As Timothy McCall, M.D. states in his book Yoga As Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health & Healing: A Yoga Journal Book:
In addition to the fitness components, there are also many benefits for people who do yoga. The first way that it benefits people is, yoga encourages health and fitness. Yoga is not all about working out, it is mainly about obtaining a healthy life style. Yoga’s meditation style and deep breathing techniques help people unwind and leave behind all the stress they have currently in their daily lives. The second benefit is that yoga has many faces. What this means is that there are different t...
They noticed that the conditions related to their muscular system, respiratory system, nervous system, and the digestive system improved notably. It has been studied and suggested that regular practice of Yoga increases the brain gamma-Aminobutyric acid levels which helps in regulating the excitability of the nervous system and muscle tone as well. This helps in reducing anxiety and improving mood functions, letting people lead much more emotionally balanced lives. Apart from the abovementioned advantages, yoga also helps in keeping cardiovascular diseases in check. The three principles of yoga: asana (exercise), pranayama (breathing), and drishti (meditation) help in monitoring heart activities and keeping it functioning healthily. It does so by reducing blood pressure, speeding up recovery related to heart failures or cardiac arrests, and lower other cardiovascular risk factors that some people might have genetically imbibed in them. Similarly, it helps people with chronic back aches. Regular practice of yoga can bring relief over a period of time, than medications alone. Pain medications for back ache or spine-related spasms generally have dangerous side effects such as gastric problems, nausea, and the relief they provide last for a very short period of time. Yoga on the other hand gives back pain sufferers a much necessary relief through stretching exercises and also by meditating which plays a major role in alleviating any kind of
This week’s analysis is associated with the yoga class provided online to help with stress reduction. The first term that I came across was psychophysiology and how this principle is based on the mind and body being one and how our thinking affects all physiology. This principle was the perfect definition of yoga because yoga focuses on how the mind and body connects with each other. It gives you a sense of relaxation throughout your mind and body together. Furthermore, the yoga that was in the video was a yoga style called hatha. Which practices asana (yoga postures) and pranayama (breathing exercises). According to the book, this practices helps bring peace to the mind and body and prepare our body to do deeper exercises. The art of breathing was mentioned during the exercise and in the book. Breathing is very important when trying to unite the mind, body, and spirit. So, having slow, deep breathes was a main focused during the exercise. Another term that was used in the video was the art of stretching, which allows us to become aware of our flexibility of our muscle while moving. Lastly, the art of balance is significant because it allows us to move into the next form of position on both sides of our body. Some of the workouts pose that was mention in the textbook that I did was two knees to the chest, cobra, and head of cow. Overall, hatha
The goal of this study was to identify the ways in which engaging in yoga practices would alter psychological well being, and allow people to engage more fully in their lives and flourish in health and happiness. The pre and post test set up of this study allowed the researchers to see the ways in which students had been affected by their participation in the yoga teacher training. Yoga training students were engaged in a four week program. They were administered tests and the beginning of the study, prior to engaging in the program, at the end of the program, after completion, and then again at a 3 month follow up. Multiple factors were assessed, however the significant and important ones which relate directly to our understanding of healthy, happiness and wellness and the course content are extremely