resilience, yoga + mental health

“Untreated mental illness costs more than 200 billion dollars a year in the United States.”

— AMA Journal of Psychiatry

“Untreated addiction costs more than 365 billion.”

— National Council

Nervous System-Focused Yoga Targets Mental Health while Integrating Physical Health Benefits

Yoga practices that focus on the nervous system can play a significant role in addressing mental health issues by promoting resilience and overall well-being.

  • Stress Reduction: Yoga techniques like deep breathing, meditation, and relaxation exercises directly impact the nervous system, particularly the parasympathetic branch. By activating the parasympathetic nervous system, yoga helps reduce the body's stress response, lowering cortisol levels and promoting a sense of calm and relaxation. This can mitigate the harmful effects of chronic stress, a significant contributor to mental health issues.

  • Emotional Regulation: Nervous system-focused yoga practices can enhance emotional regulation by promoting self-awareness and mindfulness. Practitioners learn to observe their thoughts and emotions without judgment, which can help manage conditions like anxiety and depression.

  • Resilience Building: Through consistent yoga practice, individuals develop greater physical and emotional resilience. Yoga encourages adaptability, patience, and a positive outlook, all of which are key components of resilience. As a result, individuals become better equipped to cope with life's challenges, reducing their vulnerability to mental health issues.

  • Enhanced Well-being: Yoga has been shown to improve mood and overall mental well-being. This is attributed to the release of endorphins during physical postures and the reduction of stress hormones. A balanced nervous system achieved through yoga contributes to emotional stability and an increased sense of happiness.

  • Community and Support: Many yoga classes and communities provide a sense of belonging and support, which can combat social isolation, one of the contributors to declining mental health. Participating in group yoga classes can foster connections and reduce feelings of loneliness.

  • Improved Sleep: Sleep disturbances often accompany mental health issues. Nervous system-focused yoga practices can enhance the quality of sleep, leading to improved mental health outcomes.

Nervous system-focused yoga can have several positive effects on physical health through its influence on the autonomic nervous system.

  • Stress Reduction: Stress is a major contributor to various physical health problems, including cardiovascular issues, gastrointestinal disorders, and immune system dysfunction. Nervous system-focused yoga, which emphasizes relaxation and stress reduction techniques, helps reduce the production of stress hormones like cortisol. This, in turn, can lower blood pressure, enhance immune function, and alleviate tension in muscles.

  • Pain Management: Chronic pain conditions, such as lower back pain or arthritis, can be improved with yoga. Nervous system-focused yoga includes gentle movements and stretches that increase flexibility and reduce muscular tension, helping individuals manage their pain and improve their physical comfort.

  • Digestive Health: The parasympathetic nervous system, often targeted in these yoga practices, plays a crucial role in digestion. By promoting relaxation and reducing stress, yoga can help with gastrointestinal issues such as irritable bowel syndrome and indigestion.

  • Cardiovascular Health: Yoga can improve heart health by reducing blood pressure, heart rate, and promoting overall cardiovascular fitness. Poses that emphasize deep breathing and relaxation support healthy circulation and may lower the risk of heart disease.

The Nervous System Resilience Building Benefits of Slow, Mindful Yoga Postures

  • Slow, mindful yoga posture practice has health benefits (in addition to the usual exercise benefits) that can help to build resilience in the nervous system. Yoga posture practice can:

    • Enhance muscular strength 

    • Enhance flexibility

    • Promote and improve respiratory and cardiovascular function

    • Promote recovery from and treatment of addiction

    • Reduce stress, anxiety, depression and chronic pain

    • Improve sleep

    • Enhance sense of well-being and quality of life  

    • Build awareness 

    • Improve function of attention networks

    • Increase interoception and proprioception and the function of the insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and sensorymotor cortex

    • Improve memory and the function of the hippocampus

    • Improve self-regulation and emotional regulation 

    • Reduce reactivity of the amygdala which correlates with reduced stress response

    • Improve hemispheric communication across the corpus callosum which correlates with improved brain function

    Resources:

    • Villemure, C., Čeko, M., Cotton, V. A., & Bushnell, M. C. (January 01, 2015). Neuroprotective effects of yoga practice: age-, experience-, and frequency-dependent plasticity. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9.

    • Woodyard, Catherine. (2011). Exploring the therapeutic effects of yoga and its ability to increase quality of life. Medknow Publications Pvt Ltd.

    The Brain Optimizing Benefits of Meditation Practice

    A robust body of research has emerged over the past couple of decades touting the brain optimizing benefits of meditation practice. Here are some of the ways that scientists understand meditation helps the brain:

    • Reduce pain, high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, anxiety, depression, menopausal symptoms, inflammation, and insomnia

    • Increase gray matter in the frontal cortex which is associated with working memory and executive function

    • Activate frontoparietal attention networks

    • Deactivate default mode network which is associated with reduced rumination

    • Improve the function of the left hippocampus which assists in learning, cognition, memory, and emotional regulation

    • Improve the function of the temporoparietal junction which is associated with perspective taking, empathy, and compassion

    • Decrease amygdala reactivity which correlates with reduced emotional reactivity and a reduction in stress levels.    

    Resources:

    • Goleman, D., & Davidson, R. J. (2018). Altered traits: Science reveals how meditation changes your mind, brain, and body.

    • Lazar, S. W., Kerr, C. E., Wasserman, R. H., Gray, J. R., Greve, D. N., Treadway, M. T., McGarvey, M., ... Benson, H. (November 28, 2005). Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness. Neuroreport, 16, 17, 1893-1898.

    • Hölzel, B. K., Carmody, J., Vangel, M., Congleton, C., Yerramsetti, S. M., Gard, T., & Lazar, S. W. (January 01, 2011). Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 191, 1, 36-43.

Source: Subtle® Yoga