Why Yoga Is Good For Mental Health

Yoga has a lot of great benefits when it comes to a multitude of different health avenues. But maybe one of the biggest is the effect it has on your mental health. When it comes to why yoga is good for mental health, it boils down to the core principles and a few other skills that it utilizes.

Yoga teaches us to stay in the present moment, which has an impact on the neural pathways and the hormones that are produced within our body. Yoga is good for mental health because it helps with serotonin production along with things like creating a more mindful attitude and helping cultivate skills that help with stress responses.

That being said, it's always better to know more when it comes to any type of activity you're looking to invest your time in and build into your daily routine. Because we understand this, we're going to take a look at why yoga is good for mental health, as well as how to get started with the right practice.

How is Yoga Good for Mental Health

First off, yoga is good because it is a physical exercise. Though most people nowadays understand that physical exercise has a massive impact on mental health, it wasn't always that way. The movement in your body allows for you to relieve stress and can help even improve sleep. This of course will inevitably affect your mental health.

But there are a couple of key ways that yoga has been shown to deliver these benefits:

• Serotonin Production - Serotonin is often known as the happy hormone. It is a chemical compound that our brain releases that helps elevate our mood and bring about happiness. It is a mood stabilizer, and this means that it is key to help regulate anxiety and stress, which are key components of your mental health.

• Mindfulness - This is key because it allows you to stay in the present and remove negative thoughts from your mind. In other words, by building a better mind-body connection, you will be able to combat the effects of anxiety and depression.

• Endurance & Stamina - By executing the holding of the postures with extended breathes and yoga, your body is building up mental and physical endurance and stamina. This in turn will help everything in your body work properly, and that includes your brain.

• Managing Stress Responses - One of the key problems when it comes to mental health is the way we react to stressful situations. With less stress put on our body through the use of proper breathwork and techniques to handle certain types of situations, our minds will be able to have more rest and recoup, and that is always good for your mental health.

How to Get Started

If you're looking for a new practice to help with your mental health, yoga is a great choice. Not only is it going to affect your mental health, but it'll affect your physical and spiritual health as well. But there are a lot of things to consider when you get started, and we understand that, so we wanted to give you a few ideas on how you could get started.

You can of course always go out and sign up for a beginner's yoga class at some studio. If you're a little more introverted and a little self-conscious, you may want to look online, as there is a wealth of resources available, especially on YouTube. So until you build your confidence, you could always start with beginner videos there.

When you are just getting started, though, you have to understand that this is a journey and that it is something that you're going to have to develop skills in. This means accepting yourself on all different levels, mentally, physically, and spiritually as well. The best thing we can say about getting started is to sit down and understand what your needs are, and then do research on the different types of yoga so that you can choose the right one.

Benefits of Yoga on Mental Health

Now that you understand the why behind the benefit of utilizing yoga for your mental health, we thought we'd take a look at even more of the benefits. The more you know about what you get from the practice, the more likely you are to embrace it with your whole heart and really dive deep into it.

So here are some of the biggest benefits of yoga, especially when it comes to mental health:

Quality of Life

All of the stress and anxiety of today are caused by not having a balanced lifestyle. This means understanding that your body needs time to rest and recuperate after a hard day's work. By involving yoga in your daily routine, you will see an elevated mood and less fatigue in your life. Oftentimes the skills that are used in yoga as well can help you find ways to navigate through the difficult way and this will lead to a better quality of life.

Reduce Pain

Many people suffer from chronic pain, and this affects our mental health. With our bodies in constant pain, our systems are functioning at a certain level and that will inevitably lead to mental fatigue. With the stretching and movements of the body and the strengthening of those core muscles, the pain will be reduced greatly.

Better Sleep

Sleep is by far the best thing you can do to maintain a healthy body. This is not only true for you physically and spiritually, but mentally as well. Your brain needs the time to re-energize itself, and it can't have that without good sleep. Yoga, through the process of eliminating the stresses of the day and teaching you how to breathe properly, permits your brain to do just that.

Mental Strength

Sure, the physical aspect of yoga helps build flexibility and strength in the body. But the mindfulness techniques in court along with the meditative aspects allow you to build more mental strength. By being able to self-reflect and understand our inner world and how we react to the outer world, we then become mentally tough. This allows us to have reduced levels of stress and anxiety, which in turn will help with our mental health.

Positivity

If you want better mental health, you have to begin training yourself to pull away from the negative thoughts that inundate our minds. It is a human trait that when a situation arrives, we automatically look at the negative aspects. This is an evolutionary process that was built into us in our fight or flight mode system.

But by always looking at the negative, we're stressing our bodies out and allowing our brain to seep hormones into our systems that are meant to help with that stress. By looking at the positive side you'll get more serotonin and that, in turn, will help boost your mental health.

Final Thoughts

There are many reasons why yoga is good for your mental health. From the focus on being in the present to the improvement of your breathing skills, everything is geared towards building a balanced life and aligning your energies with the world.

This alignment allows for you to have a better connection with your mind and body, and that is always good for your mental health. Having a positive outlook and utilizing yoga to help with your mental health is just one aspect that's going to lead you down the path to a happier and healthier life.

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