Yoga for Anxiety Alleviation | Heal Anxiety attack

Author: Randeep Singh / go to all articles on Yoga cure

Yoga for Anxiety:

Anxiety is a ” set of reactions one generates within oneself in response to a perceived, likely stressful situation in the future.

In most of the cases these set of reactions get generated, within an individual, relative to an imagined bad occurrence likely to happen in the near or later future. Yoga for anxiety enables the person to have control on these reactions.

Getting into a defensive mode – tensing up of the muscles in preparation of an attack or defensive action, shortness of breath in response to the fear and nervousness due to the imagined worst case scenario emerging in the mind etc. – to a real threat is considered normal or nature’s way of ensuring one’s survival against the dangers present in the environment.

What is Anxiety disorder?

Anxiety is different in the sense that similar symptoms emerge from just the thought of a possible, imagined danger which causes enough real threshold level stress for those symptoms to manifest. We have all felt anxious while facing a uncomfortable situation or environment some time in or lives, but these feelings had waned away once we were out of that situation.

The mind bounced back to normal. In certain individuals due to various factors the mind loses the ability to bounce back from the condition of being stressed, anxious, worried & fearful of the imagined negative, stressful occurrence in the future, they carry it on them all the time.

They feel helpless in keeping themselves afloat from being weighed down by the posse of these negative emotions. This starts impacting their day to day lives: relations, work, decision making, or meeting daily goals. This condition is known as anxiety disorder in clinical terms.

As per one research an estimated one third of world’s population is afflicted with anxiety disorder, the proportion is much higher for city dwellers across the globe. Genetics, structural changes in the brain, experiencing trauma of any kind are the known contributors, reasons for individuals to experience anxiety disorder.

An anxiety attack expresses itself externally in the form of the feeling of dizziness, worry, shortness of breath, dehydrated mouth, sweating, numbness or tingling in certain areas of the body, intense fear, increased heart rate and insomnia.

Yoga for Anxiety, How Yoga Works on Anxiety?

Yoga asanas and pranayamas infuse relaxation into the flesh of the body more naturally than any other form of medication or alternative treatment known to mankind. First of all know your stressors. The mind gets constricted under the grip of the fear of the impending doom.

This in turn constricts, tenses up the muscles connected to the mind via the nervous system. The yoga stretches mostly expand the muscles area, lengthwise which releases certain stress relieving chemicals inside them. This puts the muscle in a relaxed mode, in turn relaxing the brain.

A relaxed brain / mind is a steadier mind. Its easy to control the thoughts while the mind is steady, now the mind can be mindful of the way it is itself functioning.

The way yoga works, it places the tool of looking at our own mind from the outside with our own mind – mindfulness- by slowing down the process of thinking which keeps the mind occupied most of the time- known as relaxation. This state of mind can also be achieved by using some innovative ideas to relax from day to day living. Today, we have scientifically proven methods to end worrying for life.

One learns to keep the mind in the present- panic or anxiety attacks are the result of the mind wandering in the past or the future most of the times- by simply tying it down to the act of breathing while doing pranayamas. The more one gets used to experiencing the present moment the more one doesn’t care about the future or the past.

This is what reduces any apprehensions related to the future or the past which are the seed for begetting anxiety. Anxiety is just a state of mind, yoga works on it through the mind itself.

Staying in the moment equips one with the ability to look at what one’s own mind is going through at a given moment. Yoga asanas and pranayamas create that space between the mindless, ever going, confusing activities of the mind: the uncontrolled web of thoughts.

When one stands in this newly created space in the mind, one can think, see the other sections of the mind which are buzzing with overwhelming activities all the time; now one has the moment to think and act to change that confusion into a more controlled and positive experience.

Yoga poses for anxiety, or anxiety disorder treatment through yoga include yoga techniques like mindful meditation, meditation with visualization, and simple exercises to improve focus for their proven effectiveness on arresting the mind and looking at it as a third person.

Our personal yoga trainers at home in Mumbai and other locations, and yoga classes at studio in Bandra west provide tailor made yoga programs for individuals suffering from anxiety disorder at various levels.

The reach of the benefits of yoga for anxiety is much deeper than many other alternative treatments; that is why today, a lot of physicians worldwide are openly recommending Yoga as a long lasting treatment for anxiety to their patients.

The set of yoga techniques given here, if practiced regularly, have been found very effective in reducing the occurrence of the state of anxiety in the practitioner.