Science-Backed Psychological Benefits of Yoga
A growing number of people are beginning to pay more attention to their mental health, including conditions like anxiety, depression, and lack of focus. This has resulted in the discovery of various ways to improve mental health, including yoga, whose multiple psychological benefits have been supported by research.
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 40 million adults in the United States (i.e., people 18 years old and older) live with an anxiety disorder, making it the country’s most common mental illness. These disorders encompass social anxiety, phobias, and generalized anxiety disorders.
Due to its combination of relaxation, meditation, and exercise, yoga is an effective way to diminish anxiety and depression. No matter how rough your day was, yoga can facilitate the restoration of peace and balance in your life as it enables you to focus more on the present, temporarily forgetting your worries, and calm your nerves.
A 2016 study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) indicated that hatha yoga could effectively treat anxiety disorders, depression, and stress. Fifty-two Iranian women aged 35 to 65 participated in the study, and all practiced hatha yoga in 60–70-minute sessions three times a week for four weeks.
Results showed a significant decrease in anxiety, depression, and stress after the exercise. Researchers concluded that yoga could serve as a complementary medicine due to this positive effect. Another NCBI study showed that yoga nidra and seated meditation also help to lower anxiety.
Many people find it difficult to concentrate on a task because they are easily distracted, a characteristic necessitating correction since it often compromises performance. People with this kind of problem can solve it by practicing yoga, as yoga is an effective means of boosting concentration and memory. This is so because doing yoga requires focus; more specifically, it involves paying attention to your body so that you avoid injuring yourself by going further than you can manage. Additionally, you have to find a focal point when trying to balance your posture.
When performing some challenging yoga poses like handstand scorpion or formidable face pose, it is virtually impossible to lose concentration as you’re trying to avoid injury. In the long run, continuing with such poses would have a positive impact on your attention and calmness. Additionally, clearing your thoughts and focusing on your posture would also help make space for better memory.
Practicing yoga can also help to improve self-esteem. Negative body image is one of the most common causes of low self-esteem, especially among teenagers and young adults. However, a 2018 PubMed study showed that constantly practicing yoga can lead to positive body satisfaction among youths and, ultimately, improved self-esteem.
Studies have also shown that yoga can help to improve sleep. Usually, people get tired and sleepy after exercise, but yoga adds mental calmness and stress relief to improve sleep quality and quantity even more; indeed, a 2020 study published by BMC Psychiatry supported an earlier NCBI review showing that yoga is an effective means of increasing sleep quality and quantity by demonstrating that the practice can quicken sleep and improve sleeping deeply.
Additionally, yoga reduces the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which refers to the inability to recover from the experience of a horrifying event and is a condition affecting many Americans, especially those who experienced combat while serving in the military.
