Improve Your Mental Health

Since I was a child, I have been dealing with depression and anxiety. For many years I have been trying to find ways to improve my own mental health. I have tried many different types of therapy and techniques, and I came across Yoga about 8 years ago, a few months before I moved to Australia. Last year I completed my first Yoga Training course, and since then, I began to be more consistent with my personal practice. I started to notice a significant improvement in all symptoms. This is the reason I became more interested in this topic.

The World Health Organisation says that half of the world's population is affected by mental illness, which is actually more common than cancer, diabetes or heart diseases. Mental illness affects people's self-esteem and relationships, but it also costs a lot of money because it impacts people's performance at work.

To understand how Yoga can have a positive effect on our mental health, we need to know how basically our nervous system works. The nervous system has two main divisions, which are the sympathetic and the parasympathetic. Together, they create the autonomic nervous system, which work independently of volunteering control. The sympathetic part of the nervous system is also known as the fight and flight. When we are in a dangerous situation, we get a flood of hormones that will get us ready for a fight or to run for our lives. The heart rate increases to send extra blood to our muscles, and more oxygen is sent to the brain. The parasympathetic side has exactly the opposite effect. It is also known as rest and digest. It decreases the heart rate and improve the digestion system when stimulated, and it allows the body to recover.

Unfortunately, in our modern society we tend to stimulate the sympathetic part of the nervous system more. Unfortunately, danger is not the only thing that can stimulate our nervous system. Any type of stress, for example stress at work or even in traffic, relationship problems or problems with money can also stimulate the sympathetic nervous system. This overstimulation has a bad effect on our mental and physical health.

Yoga integrates mind and body in holistic way. During a typical yoga class, we will hold postures and also use breathing techniques and many different types of meditations. The parasympathetic system is intentionally stimulated. It has actually been proven that simply a conscious breath can activate your parasympathetic system.

The National Institute of Complimentary Medicine at West Sydney University conducted an experiment with over one hundred participants, all of whom suffer from depression and/or anxiety. There were two groups. One group was given yoga and continued with their normal mental health care. The other group continued with their mental health care without the yoga. They had 6 weeks of regular practice of 12 minutes 4 to 5 times a week. The group that yoga was given to compared to the group that was not given yoga had the following results:

• The depression scores went down by 33%
• Anxiety scores went down 26%
• Psychological distress went down 34%
• The frequencies of negative emotions went down 17%
• Frequency of positive emotions went up 19%
• The scores of resilience (very important factor in mental health) went up 13%
• On average mental health went up by 20%

The mind and body are not separated. If we do something that benefits the body, it will also benefit the mind. Evidence shows that yoga makes us happier. I encourage you to try it!