Anxiety and Yoga: The Big Picture (Updated)

by Nina

Several years ago I read a short article Yoga and Mental Health on the Blue Shield website that recommended yoga for anxiety and depression. I was very glad to see this mainstream recommendation for using yoga for anxiety, something I’ve personally found extremely helpful, as well as for depression. But I was a bit baffled at Blue Shield’s explanation for why yoga helps with anxiety:

“The poses are designed to put the body into stressful, sometimes uncomfortable physical positions. By pushing through this discomfort, practitioners are essentially creating their own exposure therapy, forcing their bodies to learn their limits and stay mindful of their body.”

Well, putting aside the totally questionable blanket statement that yoga poses “are designed to put the body into stressful, sometimes uncomfortable physical positions,” I supposed it was possible that the asana practice could be some kind of exposure therapy and eventually I did write a post about it Yoga for Anxiety: Creating Your Own Exposure Therapy.

However, here on the YFHA blog we have some very different ideas about why and how yoga can help with anxiety. In fact, I think the power yoga has to help you cultivate equanimity in the face of uncertainty and/or difficulty can change your life! You not only can learn practices and philosophies that help you dial down your current feelings of anxiety, improving your mental and physical health as well as your quality of life, but you can use yoga to help prevent future bouts of anxiety from occurring. That’s why we have so much material on yoga and anxiety on our blog, something that’s just not available on mainstream sites like Blue Shield.

Because only yesterday a friend of mine confessed that she realized she was experiencing anxiety even though she didn’t think of herself as an anxious person, today I thought it would be a good time to update my previously published guide to all the material we have on our blog about anxiety. These include posts with scientific background about anxiety and yoga, personal stories from practitioners, and our wide variety for practice recommendations (only one of which, by the way, include practicing stressful positions). It’s also worth noting that three of the people who have written for us over the years about yoga and anxiety include a neuroscientist (Dr. Ram Rao), a medical doctor (Dr. Baxter Bell), and a psychoanalyst (Dr Lynn Somerstein). So, I feel like we’re on pretty solid ground with both our analyses and recommendations.

I’ll start by listing the background articles we have about anxiety and yoga, several of which discuss scientific studies. I’ll then list the personal stories of practitioners who have been helped by yoga. Finally, I’ll conclude with a list of posts we have with practice recommendations for addressing and preventing anxiety.

If all that isn’t enough, you can find even more information on yoga and anxiety in my book Yoga for Times of Change (see here for purchasing options) as well as in the on-demand, three-hour workshop on yoga for anxiety I did with Barrie Risman that you can purchase at barrierisman.com/yogaforanxiety-workshop

Background about Yoga and Anxiety

In Anxiety and Yoga: An Interview with Dr. Lynn Somerstein, Nina interviews a psychoanalyst and yoga therapist about her own experiences with anxiety and her general thoughts about how yoga is helpful with anxiety.

In Anxiety, Longevity, and Yoga Ram describes what anxiety is and discusses studies showing the effectiveness of yoga for helping reduce anxiety.

In Anxiety, Yoga, and Brain Chemistry Ram describes from a scientific perspective how yoga helps anxiety discusses scientific studies that explain why.

In Reducing Cortisol Improves Anxiety Nina discusses role of elevated cortisol levels due to stress in causing anxiety.

In 9/11 Anxiety and Yoga Baxter discusses an article that looks at blood markers of anxiety and identifies the particular yoga practices that can lower them.

In The Relaxation Response and Yoga Nina provides basic information about how yoga helps reduce stress (which can be the cause of anxiety).

In Yoga Solutions for Anxiety Nina discusses how yoga solutions for anxiety are not the same for everyone.

Personal Stories

In Comfort with Uncertainty by Nina Rook how yoga helped her manage her anxiety and learn to take a different approach to life.

In Yoga for Anxiety: Krista’s Story Krista Wood writes about her experience with anxiety and how yoga gave her the tools to work with, not against, it.

In The Importance of Stress Management: A Personal Journey Baxter describes his own experiences with chronic stress and anxiety, and how he realized that he needed to take some of his own yoga “medicine.”

In Featured Podcast:  Anxiety, Yoga and Our Truth with Jivana Heyman and Amber Karnes, Bridget shares this podcast episode by Jivana and Amber Bridget with our readers (it is embedded in the post) along with her comments about it.

Practice Ideas

In Taking Charge of Your Stress or Anxiety Nina provides basic advice how to get started if you want to practice yoga for anxiety.

In 4 Ways to Prevent Anxiety, Nina suggests different strategies you can use to prevent future anxiety attacks.

In Stress Management for When You’re Stressed Nina provides general guidelines for practicing during stressful times.

In Walking Away from the Edge Nina provides some background about panic attacks and how to prevent them from happening.

In 10 Ways You Can Soothe Your Anxiety with Yoga Nina lists some simple practices you can choose from.

In Three-Minute Practice for Calming Anxiety and Stress, Nina shares a very simple practice that you can do that help you quickly calm down, which can be done anytime and anywhere.

In Triggers, Self Study, and Emotional Well-Being Nina describes how you can learn to recognize what triggers your anxiety and what you can do about it.

In Yoga for Anxiety: Creating Your Own Exposure Therapy? Nina discusses how you can use your asana practice as “exposure therapy” for anxiety.

In Yamas for Stress and Anxiety, Nina discusses how the yamas are a set of practices that can help you cultivate equanimity and reduce anxiety by reducing the conflict in your life and within yourself.

In Anxiety, Yoga, and the Front Body and Soothing Yourself with Supported Forward Bends and Soothing Yourself with Supported Forward Bends Nina recommends practice ideas based on the concept that for some lying on your back can cause anxiety while prone positions can be soothing.

In Balancing Your Emotions with Your Breath and Friday Q&A: Breath Practices for Anxiety Nina recommends breath practices for stress and anxiety.

In Balancing Your Emotional Body with Counter Poses Nina recommends counter poses you can include at the end of a yoga practice to help balance your tendency toward anxiety.

In Anxiety, Meditation, and Yoga Nidra by Baxter Bell discusses the benefits of yoga nidra for anxiety.

In Meeting Anxiety with Yoga, Amy Weintraub, a well-known teacher and author, shares a few very simple practices she designed to help with anxiety.

In When Relaxing Isn’t Relaxing Nina discusses what to do when a supposedly relaxing practice isn’t working for you and in Breath Practices: If They’re Not Working for You They’re Not Working for You what to do if breath practices—even supposedly relaxing ones—cause anxiety.

In Friday Practical Pointers: Who Should Avoid Backbends Baxter recommends who should avoid backbends and that can include people currently experiencing anxiety.

 

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