Tuesday: Mental Benefits of Yoga

Mental Benefits of Yoga

This week, I will be focusing on evidence based outcomes and benefits of Yoga. It is my hope that with this information, you can see how accessible self care and healing is through something that is inherit to you (movement, breath, and rest). Along with me hosting this challenge, is my yoga teacher and a yoga classmate of mine!

☕️ Feel free to brows our posts as we hope to educate, support, and inspire those who may be on the fence about trying mindful based movement and integrative self care.

- Today we focus on The Mental Benefits of Yoga.
Today's topic I'm becoming more and more passionate about because, it hits close to home for me. Between my autistic son (in the pictures), to witnessing the effects war does to the military, to depression running in my family, and suicides, my ears went up when my education of yoga began. "It only takes one family member to break ancestral debt. Clearing their entire blood line." - The Divine Crown LLC

- The need for stress management is extremely important, especially right now. So, I really wanted to share with you proven facts about yoga being a great tool for mind/body management. Let's begin.

- Stress is the number one focus here on this post. Stress kills and activates illness/disease in our bodies. Stress is what the brain does to itself and other parts of the body. Something that is perceived as a separation, threat, or challenge.

- A lot of organic factors come into play here. You've got your genetic factors (depression, autism, and the stress that comes from that), and added on factors such as work, life transitions, even this pandemic and more world wide chaos. These all create stress in the body which can result in illness or disease. But, it can be prevented if you listen to your body and work with it.

- The Cells in our bodies have jobs to do and they do a great job at trying to keep us healthy, but what can keep them from being their best, is if you constantly stress and constantly arouse certain parts of the brain which can weaken the prefrontal cortex. You need that part of your brain to be well and healthy so that you self regulate properly. If not, (this is where the military example comes in) you will not be able to mentally function properly. This is what happens to some military men and/or women who come home from war and because they were always feeling threatened, detached, stressing, and on high alert, in the flight or fight mode, they are constantly arousing parts of the brain that will actually weaken the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that helps you to adapt well to changes, the area of which you perceive the world, and your ability to make clear decisions will be thrown off. It goes offline when you go into that flight or fight mode. They come home and they still feel like they are in war, thinking that a soda can on the floor is actually an explosive.

- With all that, you have your hippocampus part of the brain that is then being depleted. This effects your memory and is said to be related to dementia (studies are still being done to see if there is a relation to how dementia comes about and this area of the brain). Your hippocampus becomes exhausted after so much stress. It wont regulate normal if your prefrontal cortex is always going offline.

- We need to start recognizing that the mind and body ARE NOT separate. Evidence has shown that the way we think, what we believe in, and our emotions influence our health. "Stress is like rust for our cells", my teacher once told me.

- We need to learn to adapt in a way that will influence out health in a positive way. When you look at plants, if one plant is suffering but the plant next to it is thriving, the unhealthy plant will naturally, little by little, move its roots to connect with the healthy plant. Even in the way that plants tend to lean toward vitality and life (the sun), they can recognize when they need help to survive and that's what we need to be doing and teaching our children, especially those with learning disabilities. What can they do to regulate in a positive way and deal with what Is going on around them.

- This takes me to my son with autism, and autism as a whole. You have a sensory overload when you have autism. This creates constant stress, and a study has shown that yoga has benefited those with autism after about the 25th session and being consistent. They showed an improvement of calming themselves, being able to stay on task longer, and making transitions easier (simply from going to one classroom to the next, like in school). A 3 year old with autism showed amazing progress only after about the 9th session. So I'm guessing the older the child, the longer it takes to see improvement, which makes sense. My son, has been doing yoga with me at home and I notice that after a few grounding poses, he's ready for rest and relaxation. His concentration during the movement is awesome and I know that he will be with me on this spiritual journey.

- Yoga takes you through Asana, breath work (relates directly to nervous system) , the mind (subconscious rewiring), teaches you to befriend and know your body, changing of your demeaner, teaches self awareness, rewiring of the subconscious (thickening prefrontal cortex), and ultimately leads to positive attachments and solutions. Studies show that yoga improves the way the brain functions and bonus, you become more in tune with your spirituality, however that looks and feels to you. This is why it is, after all, an ascension practice. (becoming one with yourself, inside and out, and your authenticity.)

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Interact with me and share you experiences or, if you would like to add to this post!

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Example:
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