Mindfulness and Mental Health: Exploring the Connection and Benefits

You definitely get your stretching in, with Downward Facing Dog and Uttanasana in particular working your hamstrings and Raised Arms Pose doing the same for your shoulders, arms, and back. Keep doing what you love (as long as its a healthy handstand and not smoking) - that is what will keep you alive. Moving in a way that is different to our daily patterns helps the brain work harder and can help keep the brain healthy. Yoga helps us tune in with our rest and digest nervous system response, instead. Yoga supports all the systems of the body and helps them to work together in partnership. It helps the digestive system absorb nutrition; the respiratory system to bring in oxygen; the circulatory system to transport oxygen and nutrients; and the lymphatic system to clean up and transport white blood cells. Increased blood flow and oxygen delivery to the brain also support the growth of new brain cells and connections between them, leading to improved cognitive function.

This can be challenging, but with practice and support from loved ones or therapists, individuals can learn to form deeper connections and enjoy more fulfilling relationships. What do you bring with you to your mat and how can your practice support you? We are rarely the same person each time we step on our mat, so the practice needs to be adaptable to how our day, week, year is going. Flowing movement releases and eases physical tension and manages pain, while at the same time a deepened breath, particularly the exhale, stimulates the vagus nerve in the throat and the diaphragm. Flowing movement helps stimulate the whole digestion system. This helps you build a malleable nervous system which can be active when needed and relax when needed. By practicing present-moment awareness and mindfulness techniques, individuals can lower perceived stress levels, increase stress resilience, and experience a greater sense of calm and balance.

Yoga, however, can also help achieve better mental clarity, inner peace, and balance of the body and mind. When the body is firing from all guns the immune system can do its important job of producing immune cells. It is an old system that includes the practice of asanas (yoga postures) and pranayama (breathing exercises), which help bring peace to the mind and body, preparing the body for deeper spiritual practices such as meditation. Yoga was first mentioned in Rigveda, Upanishads, and the Yoga Sutras In Patanjali to help people understand the importance of health and inculcate a practice of well-being. But people fail to realize the immense benefits Yoga offers in uniting the body, mind and breath. Often we see pictures on social media of people doing headstands, but Jonelle emphasised how misleading this is. I was told I should not doing arm or hand stand because I may get a stroke because of my age. I am now in my 70 ’s I have been doing hand stand every other day for the past 10 years. There are endless benefits to practising yoga, some are evidence based, and others are observations from the long history of yoga practitioners over the last 5,000 years.

Stand straight, lift your left foot and cross it over the right one. Although there are many more, this is a cross section of my favourite benefits that I use personally, and as inspiration for my sequences and classes. Bondy says. Many yoga styles use ujjayi, a deep, slow, audible breathing through the nose. "The whole point of yoga is to be able to move your body and checking in," she said. Thus, yoga is a miracle and once followed, it will guide you the whole life. Both flowing movement and pausing in poses increases strength in many of the muscle groups of the whole body. Flowing movement, taking time to pause, What are the benefits of yoga consciously breathing and consciously relaxing all stimulate the main nerve of the parasympathetic ‘rest and restore’ nervous system response - the vagus nerve. This triggers the parasympathetic ‘rest and restore’ nervous system response with all the benefits listed above. It downregulates the nervous system to the rest & restore response.