Yoga: A Scientifically Proven Stress Reliever
Yoga’s Chitta Vritti Nirodhah – A famous aphorism that captures the essence of yoga. This Sanskrit phrase translates to, “Yoga is calming of the mental fluctuations or storms of the mind.”
Mastery of the Mind is Yoga!
Yoga, an ancient practice originating in India, has long been revered for its ability to promote physical and mental well-being. While its philosophical and spiritual aspects are often emphasized, a growing body of scientific research is validating yoga’s efficacy in managing stress.
How Does Yoga Combat Stress?
Yoga helps regulate the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and hypothalami-pituitary axis (HPA), both of which are stress response systems. While stress is an inevitable and necessary part of life, prolonged and chronic stress can lead to dysfunction in these systems, potential negative physiological and physical consequences, and can even contribute to the development of mental health disorders.
Yoga is proposed to exert its benefits through top-down and bottom-up processes, facilitating bidirectional communication between the brain and body.
Top-down mechanisms are conscious and intentional inputs from the brain to the body, such as setting an intention to relax. Bottom up processes are inputs from the body to the brain, where signals travel from the muscles, heart, lungs, and other systems to different parts of the brain. Practices like yoga postures and breathing can change the signals that are carried to our brain, such as assessments of our sense of safety and well-being. Through top-down and bottom-up pathways, yoga can counteract the “fight, flight, or freeze” responses that may persistently arise in the face of stress. Accordingly, yoga has been shown to confer several changes in physiological markers implicated in stress, including cortisol, inflammatory cytokines, heart rate variability, as well as the release of neurotransmitters, such as GABA.
Yoga is a holistic practice encompassing physical postures (asanas), breathing exercises (pranayama), meditation, and ethical living. This multi-faceted approach targets stress on multiple levels:
- Physical Relaxation: Yoga postures help release muscle tension, a common physical manifestation of stress.
- Mental Calm: Meditation and deep breathing techniques in yoga promote mental clarity and reduce anxiety.
- Hormonal Balance: Regular yoga practice can help regulate stress hormones like cortisol.
The Neuroscience Behind Yoga and Stress Relief
There is evidence of changes in both brain structure and function related to the practice of yoga. These include changes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), amygdala, hippocampus, and default mode network (DMN). The PFC manages our highest-order cognitive abilities, such as decision-making and goal-setting. Stress and other strong emotions can negatively impact the abilities of the PFC.
Research shows that regular yoga practice leads to increased activation of the PFC, and thus may counteract deleterious effects of stress on the brain. Further, yoga impacts the activity of the amygdala, which is involved in processing emotions. Yoga may also increase the volume of the hippocampus, which is involved with memory and learning and is known to decrease in size with age.
Finally, the DMN is involved in rumination and mind wandering, which may interfere with cognitive function and lead to decreased well-being. The DMN is implicated in many psychiatric disorders, such as depression and ADHD, and yoga has been shown to modulate the activity of the DMN.
While yoga cannot change our external stressors, it can allow us to respond rather than react to stress. Yoga can counteract the harmful physical effects of stress and lead to changes in the body, brain, and mind that increase resilience and adaptability.
Numerous studies have demonstrated the positive impact of yoga on stress reduction.
- Reduced Cortisol Levels: Research has shown that consistent yoga practice can significantly lower cortisol, often referred to as the "stress hormone."
- Improved Mood: Studies have linked yoga to reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety, both closely related to stress.
- Enhanced Sleep Quality: Stress often disrupts sleep patterns. Yoga has been shown to improve sleep quality, leading to increased resilience to stress.
- Increased Brain Activity: Yoga has been associated with increased activity in brain regions linked to emotional regulation and stress response.
The Numbers Speak for Themselves
- A study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found that yoga reduced stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms by up to 50%.
- Another study revealed that individuals who practiced yoga for eight weeks experienced a 20% decrease in perceived stress levels.
- Research suggests that just one yoga session can lead to immediate reductions in cortisol levels.
Mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, stress, and insomnia are among the most common reasons for individuals to seek treatment with complementary therapies such as yoga. Yoga encourages one to relax, slow the breath and focus on the present, shifting the balance from the sympathetic nervous system and the flight-or-fight response to the parasympathetic system and the relaxation response. The latter is calming and restorative; it lowers breathing and heart rate, decreases blood pressure, lowers cortisol levels, and increases blood flow to the intestines and vital organs.
One of the main goals of yoga is to achieve tranquility of the mind and create a sense of well-being, feelings of relaxation, improved self-confidence, improved efficiency, increased attentiveness, lowered irritability, and an optimistic outlook on life. The practice of yoga generates balanced energy, which is vital to the function of the immune system. Yoga leads to an inhibition of the posterior or sympathetic area of the hypothalamus. This inhibition optimizes the body’s sympathetic responses to stressful stimuli and restores autonomic regulatory reflex mechanisms associated with stress. Yogic practices inhibit the areas responsible for fear, aggression and rage, and stimulate their warding pleasure centers in the median forebrain and other areas, leading to a state of bliss and pleasure. This inhibition results in lower anxiety, heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and cardiac output in students practicing yoga and meditation.
Consistent yoga practice improves depression and can lead to significant increases in serotonin levels coupled with decreases in the levels of monoamine oxidase, an enzyme that breaks down neurotransmitters and cortisol. A range of therapeutic approaches is available for the management of depressive disorders, but many patients turn to complementary therapies due to the adverse effects of medication, lack of response or simply preference for the complementary approach. A number of studies demonstrate the potential beneficial effects of yoga interventions on depression, stress, and anxiety.
Persistent surges of stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol, may damage blood vessels and elevate blood pressure. Research has shown that people who practice yoga regularly have low cortisol levels. Studies have also found that practicing yoga for at least 3 months may lower cortisol and perceived stress, reducing pro-inflammatory cytokines that cause inflammation.
Although most people feel anxious from time to time, anxiety is also a symptom of many conditions, including panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and phobias. Practicing Hath yoga had a promising effect on anxiety. Yoga was also most beneficial in people who had the highest levels of anxiety at the start of the studies. Yoga improved mood and anxiety levels more than walking. The researchers suggest that this was due to higher levels of the brain chemical gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).GABA activity tends to be lower in people with anxiety and mood disorders. The researchers tested GABA activity and found that yoga increased GABA levels in the participants.
According to Buddhist philosophy, the roots of addiction are in the mind and the practice of mindful meditation encourages addicts to accept the basic impermanence of human experience and helps them to develop a detached awareness of thoughts. Yoga and meditation practices exert positive influence on addictive behaviors. Through the practice of yoga, addicts shift from self-inflicted harm and disrespect toward their bodies to more respectful, caring, and loving behaviors. Eating disorders are a specific type of addiction, and yoga appears to be beneficial in improving body image disturbances and useful in the recovery from eating disorders. One study found that female yoga practitioners attribute their positive feelings and sense of well-being to yoga practice and report less self-objectification, greater satisfaction with physical appearance and fewer disordered eating attitudes compared to non-yoga practitioners. Results for the studies demonstrate many of the numerous therapeutic effects, benefits and profound healing power of yoga.