Benefits of Yoga for Mental Health

In our day to day we are exposed to an immense amount of stimuli and situations that make our mind suffer.

Mental health is something very serious and there are more and more cases of people suffering from problems that affect their mind.

Science tries to find solutions to these problems, but it is not so easy.

One of the activities that has been seen to help free the mind from stress and improve mental health is yoga. Throughout this article we will talk about yoga and the proven benefits of this activity to improve mental health.

5 psychological benefits of yoga 

Yoga is a sports activity that aims to improve our physical and mental condition through controlled exercises.

In this article we will focus only on the benefits it brings to the mind, although it also has many benefits on a physical level.

The mind is a very complex thing and, if you are interested, you can read a professional essay on psychoanalysis or any other field of psychology to learn a little more about it. 

Below are 6 proven benefits of yoga on mental health: 

1. Reduces stress: it is probably the best known psychological benefit of yoga and the reason why more people start practicing this activity. A 2013 study shows that practicing yoga reduces cortisol levels, a hormone that is released in stressful situations.
2. Improves Sleep: Getting a good night’s sleep is a must for a healthy and quick mind. The relationship between yoga and sleep is the release of serotonin . Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that regulates part of the brain’s activity and, among other things, increases the production of melatonin, a hormone that helps control sleep cycles. It has been shown that the practice of yoga increases the levels of serotonin production, helping those who practice it to sleep more and better.
3. Prevents degenerative diseases: many studies have been done around yoga to prove its benefits and in a study at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Hospital it has been proven that meditation and yoga promote the increase of telomeres , some structures present at the ends of chromosomes and that are related to aging and the appearance of degenerative pathologies. The study includes that the practice of yoga and/or meditation, for just 15 minutes a day, are enough to cause biochemical changes at the brain and neuronal level.
4. Improves the relationship between couples and sexual activity: the stress situations to which we are continuously subjected sometimes have repercussions on life as a couple and, with it, on sexual life. Research published in “The Journal of Sexual Medicine” indicates that yoga can help prevent and treat premature ejaculation and improve sexual satisfaction. The reduction of stress thanks to yoga can bring about an improvement in sexual libido and, therefore, in the sexual life in general. Although it does not have to, an improvement in sexual life can be key so that the relationship as a couple also improves.
5. Improves mood: work, family problems, life in general, can make our mood not as good as usual and yoga can help us improve this. The reduction of stress due to the practice of yoga and the increase in serotonin will help improve mood. Low serotonin levels are associated with bad moods and obsessive, depressive, and impulsive behaviors. It also seems that the GABA neurotransmitter is also related to mood and that yoga practitioners experience an increased release of this neurotransmitter, making the mood of the people who practice it improve considerably.

conclusion

The world is becoming more competitive, more stressful, we have to face more and more problems and that makes having good mental health not easy.

Yoga is a sports activity, but also a tool that everyone should practice to be healthier, both mentally and physically.

It is not necessary for a person to have problems or stress to practice yoga, but it is also a very good way to prevent them.

If you have never practiced yoga, this may be the article you needed to read to get started in this practice and start enjoying all its benefits