Power altering the spirit of yoga could improve your mental health

Yoga has been found to increase gray matter and modify key networks in the brain. There are now hopes that it could be used to help improve the mental health of people.

My right arm is shaking. Sweat flows from my forehead while I turn my body with a side board in a yoga installation known as “wild thing” – or “Camatkarasana”. It is completely contortion – I shed my back, stretching my left arm above my head. My right foot is planted on the ground and I look at the sky.

When I started practicing yoga, I wanted to sweat and strengthen strength. I only saw it as a form of exercise – but I found it to be so much more.

And there is an growing set of research showing that yoga can be beneficial for a wide range of health problems.

Yoga can also help you live a healthy life longersaid Claudia Metzler-Baddeley, cognitive neuroscientist at Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Center (Cubric) in the United Kingdom.

Metzler-Baddeley’s research focuses on the cognitive and neural mechanisms of aging and neurodegeneration. “We believe that inflammation accelerates aging – which can be caused by chronic stress,” she said. “Stress hormones like cortisol cause inflammation, which can cause increased blood pressure. They are, of course, risk of unhealthy aging.”

Meditation and mindfulness, she adds, are an integral part of the practice of yoga and “seem induce changes in brain networks which are important for metacognition, meta-consciousness and the regulation of emotional responses to stress “.

“We know that there is potential (for yoga) keeps us healthy as we age,” she said. “There are studies that have found a number of structural differences (in the brain of people who practice yoga), and that certain areas important for metacognition and problem solving seem to be larger.”

“I did not want to continue. Life was too difficult,” said Heather Mason, founder of the Yoga Therapy Training School The Minded Institute. “Yoga has transformed my life – helping me manage depression, anxiety and SSPT.”

After having experienced the deep effects of yoga, Mason trained in yoga, psychotherapy and neuroscience, before founding his Yoga training school in 2009. “I thought there were a lot of claims (on yoga ) which had not been confirmed proof. could Work, “she said.

Mason now trains health and yoga professionals in yoga therapy. “I realized that there was an accessibility problem,” she said. “(Yoga) is marketed for young people, white and meager women. If you do not see yourself reflected in this practice, you may not think it’s for you.”

This can also be expensive, she adds: “This is why I am so dead on its integration into the NHS (the national health system of the United Kingdom).” In addition, people with mental health problems can often have trouble getting involved in personal care, she explains. “They must be motivated to do it. I thought that if we can bring it into the medical paradigm – everything that will change.”

“With the meditation and deepening of breathing, you go from parasympathetic nerve activity to parasympathetic nerve activity. So you trigger the relaxation response,” explains Metzler-Baddeley.

When a person knows a stressful event, their sympathetic nervous system – the part of the autonomous nervous system which controls the functions of the involuntary body such as breathing and our heart rate but also helps to govern our response – is triggered. Genes are activated to produce proteins called cytokines which cause inflammation at the cellular level. In a dangerous situation, this allows the body to protect itself from injury or infection. However, if someone feels persistent stress, long -term inflammation can be harmful and increase the risk of Cancer, accelerated aging and depression.

“”SSPT Resistant to treatment is a big problem, “explains Rachel Bilski, a yoga therapist and director of UK non -profit SSPT.” At the age of about 11, I was given a handful of therapy by Prozac and Cognitivo-Covenant. Nothing worked. At my adolescence, I was suicidal. I felt more broken because the treatment did not work. It was as if it is supposed to work and it does not work, so there is something intrinsically bad with me, and there is no way that I will never be repaired. “”

For years, Bilski has suffered from panic attacks, nightmares and feelings of low self -esteem. Until she discovers yoga.

During a “classic” post-university trip to Southeast Asia, she said to herself: “Okay, let’s try this yoga thing. It’s probably for hippies.” Every day, during Savasana – at the end of the course when the participants are lying on the floor in relaxation – “I cried and cried,” explains Bilski. “I was crying in places that I did not even understand. I felt different things. I felt security in my body in a way that I did not know that I needed. It was a huge change in a week. ”

Bilski canceled all his plans to party and, instead, “went from Yoga retreating in Yoga, then ended up training, then ended up entering yoga therapy”.

In addition, most yoga teachers, says Bilski, are not equipped to deal with trauma. “You need a teacher focused on trauma. There are many yoga teachers who could potentially provide courses that end up triggering people.” If your body is not like a safe place, for example, but that a yoga course brings a high level of consciousness to your body, “then you can end up being triggered”.

“Yoga therapists are following much more training (than ordinary yoga teachers),” said Bilski. “Yoga therapy is considered a health profession and is supported by a biomedical understanding and psychotherapeutic training.”

Yoga therapy, explains Bilski, is generally done on an individual basis, adapted to the specific needs of the participant, and focuses on the “Earthly Earthly skills” and respiratory practices. “(By) The monitoring sensations in the body, we can decouple the safety signals of danger signals. We use a posture as a vehicle for this type of exploration and self -regulation by breathing,” explains Bilski.

Metzler -Baddeley notes, however, that a large part of research focuses on the aspects of mindfulness and yoga breathing – and not on poses, stretching or movement.

But, she adds, synchronizing the poses with breathing is an integral part of the yoga. “You can’t really tease them,” she said. “It is difficult to know exactly what (causes these changes in the brain). Is it stretching? Or is it breathing? Or relaxation. I don’t necessarily know if the whole package works.”

It is an area that will require more research to fully fray. But in the meantime, with the two feet planted firmly on the ground, my line of view on my major, my arms stretched in the installation of Virabhadrasana 2 – or Warrior 2 – I feel calm and strong and present in the moment.

“Yoga can move the whole body-spirit complex.” said Mason. “It’s a long road but it has this power. I think that is probably why it has been practiced for thousands of years.”

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