How Yoga Reduces Stress

Not only does stress not feel good, but chronic stress actually puts you at an increased risk for other health problems. According to the Mayo Clinic, long-term increased level of cortisol and other stress hormones can increase your chances of having:

• heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure, stroke

• anxiety

• depression

• digestive problems

• headaches

• muscle tension and pain

• sleeping problems

• weight gain

• memory and concentration impairment

We have all heard about how stressed people should do more yoga...but why?

What about yoga reduces stress?

Yoga has been shown in various studies to reduce stress both psychologically and physiologically. This means it has been proven to make us feel better mentally and biologically.

Some of these examples include:

• increasing mindfulness

• increasing self-control

• improving spiritual well-being

• increasing interoceptive awareness (example: noticing how you hold tension in your body)

• increasing self-compassion

• decreasing heart rate

• decreasing blood pressure

• decreasing cortisol levels

• releasing endorphins

• regulating the hypothalamus (the area in your brain that sends stress responses and chemicals throughout your body)

So, what does all of this mean?

It means that yoga not only makes us feel better and less stressed, but it also changes our bodies to better react to stress. It's not all in our heads! Studies have shown that in one single session, people can reduce stress (lowered heart rate, blood pressure, salivary cortisol levels). You may have heard of the "after yoga glow". This is a similar feeling to a runner's high. Additionally, practicing yoga regularly for months shows overall increases in mindfulness, self-compassion, self-control, and spiritual well-being.

Yoga has been seen as "alternative medicine", nonsense, crazy, and old-world. But science has proven that it causes actual changes in our bodies.

Practicing yoga regularly can help reduce stress. It may not erase the source of the stress, but it allows you to handle it better and shows you ways to cope.

Want to start now? Here's a free, short yoga class for beginners to relax before bed: