Yogic support for anxiety
IAYT-certified yoga therapist Veronica Zador, featured in this video, puts it like this:
“When we relax our body, oftentimes we find it’s easier to relax the way we think as well.”
Danielle Foley, now a yoga therapist in training herself and also featured in the video,
“turned to yoga therapy to help manage anxiety and an eating disorder that she’d been dealing with since she was 10 years old. She’s been behavior-free for three years.
‘I’ve been able to see [that] I’m holding a bunch of tension. And if we’re not aware of it, we can’t let go of it,’ she explained.”
According to Foley, yoga therapy allowed her to step out of her thoughts and actually begin to change behaviors.
As another student who has used yoga to cope with anxiety (and PTSD) explains here, yogic practices helped her to identify symptoms of a panic attack much sooner, before she found herself in the middle of one. In this clip, the psychologist who founded Australian charity The Yoga Foundation describes yoga as “a powerful tool to overcome mental health issues.”
“Certain relaxation techniques, meditation, mindfulness and positive psychology all have their own independent bodies of research to support this…And yoga has all of these features—it’s a package deal.'”
Although they do not diagnose or treat diseases unless they are otherwise licensed to do so, IAYT-certified yoga therapists are trained in anatomy, physiology, and mental health. Yoga therapy can be a helpful complementary adjunct to mental healthcare services and provide an empowering way for people to actively participate in their own healing and well-being.
