Yoga comes in many styles, shapes and intensities. Hatha yoga poses, particularly, may be a great option for stress management. Hatha is one of the most familiar styles of yoga and is particularly good beginners yoga due to a slower rate and gentle moves. You may want to modify the yoga postures to suit your personal abilities and if you're not sure how to modify the yoga moves, there are yoga workouts online or on DVD that already show you how to modify the poses so that you reap the benefits without contorting into a pretzel. Selecting a #yoga program and teacher who understands your needs is crucial to safely and effectively practice yoga. If you end up going to a yoga class, just know that each teacher and style is different as all classes have their own unique techniques and methods of teaching.
1. Yoga Balances Brain Chemicals
In a study released in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, the assistant professor of psychiatry and neurology scanned the brains of yoga practitioners and found that yoga boosts brain chemicals associated with mood enhancement better than walking.
Moreover, according to the mayo clinic, yoga poses help decrease stress and anxiety levels. Yoga can also improve your strength and flexibility, help you manage chronic stress conditions (think work stress). Yoga, including beginners yoga helps relax your body and balance your brain chemicals. Because doing yoga releases serotonin, (serotonin is the neurotransmitter that improves your mood and helps you focus), yoga is a healthy alternative to drugs and studies show yoga helps relieves depression as much as pills without the side effects of drugs. Of course if you have depression, you really need to see your doctor and get the right treatment for you. While you're there ask your Doctor about yoga. Not all doctors know about the effects of yoga though, they get 0 training on yoga in medical school, However, if you do need some medicine to help get you through, your doctor is the one who can prescribe whats best for you.
Yoga Releases Muscle Tension
Another way beginners helps helps relieve stress is by relieving muscle tension. You can check if you have muscle tension by doing this simple exercise: bring your right ear to your right shoulder, (keep your shoulders down) as demonstrated in the video below. Now bring your left ear to your left shoulder. Does that feel uncomfortable? If yes, you have muscle tension. During stressful times, we often tense the muscles around our neck and back. When you are stressed, it's a natural reaction that you're not even aware of to tighten up your muscles.
Your 1 Minute Yoga For Stress Release Video
In a national study, around 85 percent of people who did yoga reported that it helped them relieve stress. And while all exercise is a really important way to treat stress, yoga is distinct from spinning class or weight-lifting in that it strongly combines both physical fitness with the inherent belief of self-compassion, breathing and awareness. One of the important yoga practices is being non-judgmental toward yourself and others, which helps remove the focus from being hard on ourselves or frustrated with others. Self doubt can cause stress. So if you ever experience feelings that you're not good enough, take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth and start counting your blessings. As you begin to feel better, you'll notice that you are more confident and less stressed. The benefits of yoga include: Increased energy levels, deeper sleep, decreased anxiety, reduced depression, lower blood pressure lower, stronger body and yes, stress relief. So give it a try, you owe it to yourself to feel your best by spending time with a very important person - YOU! So make time to be Healthwise and Exercise:)
Sources:
MacMillan, A. (Mar. 2017). It's Official: Yoga Helps Depression. Time. Retrieved from http://time.com/4696933/yoga-breathing-depression-2/
Walton, A. G. (Aug. 2017). New Studies Support Yoga's Potential Role In Treating Depression. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2017/08/05/new-studies-support-yogas-potential-role-in-treating-depression/
Ducharme, J. (May. 2018). This Type of Exercise May Help Relieve Depression. Time. Retrieved from http://time.com/5271079/resistance-training-depression/
(Jul. 2018). Yoga. Britannica. Retrieved from www.britannica.com/topic/Yoga-philosophy
(Jul. 2018). Depressant. Britannica. Retrieved from www.britannica.com/science/depressant