5 Shocking benefits of yoga for mental health you should know

 Yoga itself is a life-changing habit that can excitedly transform our bodies. It has come up with a lot of benefits for mental health aside from physical health. The meditation and yoga

poses are designed to reduce stress and relieve body aches by improving the breathing quality and blood flow throughout the body.

Yoga asanas that work for the brain health

These are five yoga asanas that will actually improve your health mentally and physically.

Tadasana

Tadasana is a mountain pose. It is one of the simplest asanas in yoga that is considered beneficial for those under 60 or above age though essentially meant to correct the bad posture by working on your abs, legs, backs and core. It improves your blood circulation, relieves stress, works on mobility and enhances the functioning of the digestive system.

 Uttanasana

Upasana, known as the classic inversion pose, is considered an excellent way to deal with problems related to the back. Thus, by standing in an inverted position, this asana stretches your hamstrings, lower, calves back and puts pressure on your hips, ankles, abdomen. It is known to relieve chronic back pain by aiding blood circulation. It lowers down stress levels and makes you more flexible.

Baddha Konasana

Baddha konasana is a butterfly pose. It engages your groin area, which is usually stiff and ignored body parts. This pose is ideally meant to be done early in the morning on an empty stomach. It helps to stimulate the urinary bladder, relieve fatigue and improve the digestive system.

 Bhujangasana

This pose resembles the rising head of a cobra. It has been known for its ability to engage the lower back, chest and shoulders. Those individuals with spine injuries and lower back pain should ideally practice this asana every morning. It helps you deal with the lower back's stiffness and to get rid of hunching problems.

Shavasana

Shavasana came amongst the easiest asanas. It is meant to be done at the end of every session of yoga. This posture involves lying down on your back and uniformly taking a breath. While relaxing every muscle in your body. Shavasana helps to cure insomnia, improve mental health and concentration level.

Benefits of yoga for mental health

Some of the evidence-based benefits of yoga for mental health that provide you with a well-being lifestyle are given below.

Reduction of stress and relief from anxiety

Yoga has been known for its ability to promote relaxation and provide ease of stress. Yoga can be a potent activity to keep these in check. The physical postures in yoga improve muscles' flexibility and strength. Beyond that, it improves blood circulation and uptake of oxygen as well. Thus, the relaxation that is induced by meditation stabilizes the autonomic nervous system. By practising yoga, you can become more resilient to stressful conditions and reduce the risk factors for different diseases.

Anxiety and stress have been cited as contributors to various chronic disorders. EBSCO held a human trial test on 35 persons accessing the role of yoga in improving symptoms and signs of stress and anxiety. All those persons were addressing yoga for the counter effect on the stress they are facing. Among them, 25 had noted a significant decrease in the symptoms of stress and anxiety after the yoga regimen. While the other 14 were reported to be biochemical and physiological markers of anxiety and stress but yielded inconsistent yoga support in relief of stress.

May help inflammation reduction

Inflammations are considered as the normal immune response but chronic inflammation can lead to diseases of pro-inflammatory. Yoga has helped to reduce inflammation to some extent. The individual that follows a yoga regimen tends to have a low level of inflammatory markers than those who didn't.

According to a 2012, 10 days study that includes patients with chronic inflammatory diseases and obese subjects introduced with the regimen of some popular asanas had a reduction in inflammation and stress within 0 days.

86 patients have attended this program, including 44 female, 42 male, 40.07±13.91 years. Hence, this study brief yoga-based lifestyle intervention reduces inflammation as early as ten days.

Provide a sharper brain

Yoga helps our brain build up new connections that develop brain structure and function changes, resulting in improved cognitive skills like learning, memorization, and solving brainy puzzles. Yoga strengthens a part of the brain that plays a significant role in awareness, memory, attention, language, and thought. Thus, think of yoga as the weightlifting of the brain.

Different studies that have used MRI scans and other technologies for brain imaging have shown that yoga is the game-changer for mind games. It showed that the people who did yoga had a thicker hippocampus and cerebral cortex(The parts of the brain) compared to all those who didn't practice yoga. These brain areas tend to shrink as you age, But the old yoga practitioner had shown to have less shrinkage. It was clear that yoga shows that yoga can counteract age effects on the brain.

Build positive psychology

Haven't you listened? Think positive, be positive. Positivity of thoughts comes from our minds. What we think will intellectually affect your life. So, here is the solution to build a positive mindset, only yoga. Yes, yoga is supposed to build a positiveness in your mind.

Thus, to elaborate it, the study was held by Elsevier Ltd. to examine whether yoga meets positive relation with two dimensions of psychological well-being; hedonic and eudaimonic. One hundred and thirty-four participants aged 18 years or above had responded positively after the extent of yoga practices. Therefore, it has shown that there is a positive correlation between yoga and positive psychology.

Improve your mood

 Saying it cannot be wrong that our mood depends on our health. How are we physically and mentally? If our health is not supposed to be good,

 it will surely spoil our mood, and we can go through mood swings. Ultimately, all exercises improve your mood by lowering down stress levels by ensuring blood circulation all over the body, but yoga has additional benefits. It can improve your mood by elevating levels of a chemical related to the brain called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is associated with better mood and decreased anxiety.

Yoga stacks up well if compared to other complementary therapies.

After going through different studies, I have concluded that yoga can improve your mood by providing oxygenated blood directly to your brain, resulting in a good mood.