Yoga For Anxiety And Depression

 Have you ever felt like you need to destress and need to get rid of the depression or some of your anxiety you may have from everyday life? Well, maybe yoga is the right avenue for you. Yoga is a modern day exercise that many people have taken up. Yoga usually focuses on breath control and meditation. Yoga is usually practiced for health and relaxation.  According to the Havard mental health news letter (https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/yoga-for-anxiety-and-depression), a wide range of yoga practices may help reduce the the impact of exaggerated stress responses. This can be helpful in relieving anxiety and depression. You may be asking yourself just how exactly is exercising or practicing yoga going to help me with my anxiety or depression? Well, Yoga can function as a self soothing technique. Self soothing techniques help a person to stay calm and regulate a person's body.

Some other examples of self soothing techniques are meditation and exercise. By reducing what a person may consider stress. Yoga can modify and control the whole stress system on a person. For example, Yoga may lower a person's heart rate and blood pressure. Which makes yoga a natural stress relief. You can relieve your stress without putting anything into your body . For example , vitamins, herbal supplements and teas that may have toxic chemicals i n them.  According to the Harvard mental health

newsletter(https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/yoga-for-anxiety-and-depression), There was a study done at the University of Utah that provided some insight on  the effects of yoga on the stress response of people. By looking at the participants' responses to pain researchers discovered many of things. For example, it was discovered by the researchers that people who have a poorly regulated response to stress are also more sensitive to pain. According to the study their subjects of study were 12 experienced yoga practitioners, 14 people with fibromyal, and 16 healthy volunteers. When the people with fibromyal were given painful thumbnail pressure, they perceived pain at lower pressure levels compared with the other subjects. MRIs of the different subjects that were being studied also showed they also had the greatest activity in areas of the brain associated with the pain response. 

However, the yoga practitioners had the highest pain tolerance and lowest pain-related brain activity during the MRI.  over all the study proved that yoga can help a person regulate their stress and pain responses. Yoga practices can be hard on the body for people who have stiff joints or limited mobility. But it is proven according to this study that yoga can help a person out with stress and anxiety. Before you decide to start a yoga practice you may want to consult with a doctor to make sure yoga is the right choice for you and the benefits will help you with you stress and anxiety.