Yoga Based Interventions For Depression And Anxiety Disorders

Bessel van der Kolk (2014) in his groundbreaking book, “The Body Keeps the Score,” explores how trauma memories are stored nonverbally in the physical body and brain. He recommends yoga as one pathway to release that somatic memory and re-establish equilibrium. Many of the benefits of art therapy are also associated with yoga. They are both experience-based, guided by intention, promote self-awareness, encourage a state of flow, activate the limbic brain, reduce stress, encourage observation rather than judgement, are adaptive, and encourage change and healing (Gibbons, 2015). Yoga stretches can be incorporated into art therapy sessions to address the large muscle movements associated with the ETC kinesthetic component and to reduce tension. Yoga can also induce a state of body-based present-moment awareness and sensory calm.

Of the many techniques people use to reduce stress, yoga is among one of the more popular. Although some may believe that effects of yoga are merely physical, there is research that suggests that yoga has direct impacts on one’s mental state. According to Forbes, in addition to the benefits on the heart and blood flow, yoga helps release dopamine and gaba and serotonin (Walton, 2012). All of these are known to create feeling of happiness in a person (K. W. Brown, personal communication, Sept. 7). For this lab, I decided I would try yoga for myself to test the results.

Yoga has been shown to be effective as an adjunctive treatment for a wide variety of disorders, including epilepsy, diabetes, heart disease, insomnia, and chronic pain (Streeter et al., 2012; van der Kolk, 2014). Streeter et al. (2012) propose that yoga is helpful in such a wide variety of conditions because it reduces allostatic load in the stress response symptom, decreases sympathetic nervous system activity, increases parasympathetic nervous system activity, and increases gamma amino-butyric acid (GABA) levels. Overall, yoga is a practice that may help the body return to a more optimal state of

A growing body of evidence suggests meditation-based interventions have the potential to reduce symptoms and improve well-being (Marchand, 2013 for review; Mitchell et al., 2014). The Stanford University study entitled Breathing-Based Meditation Decreased Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms in U.S. Military Veterans: A Randomized Controlled Longitudinal Study explores the effects of Sudarshan Kriya yoga, a meditation-based therapy, on U.S. military veterans with PTSD symptoms having served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yoga is one kind of exercise which relaxes our mood, body, and mind. It consists of different body movement like stretching, keeping, different posture, and as well as meditation. Within the article "Efficacy of the get ready....a pretest -posttest control group design “the authors are trying to portray the effects of yoga on children with autism. I chose this article because my son also has autism problem. He is in first grade, and he gets occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy in school. Furthermore, this article would be beneficial in helping me understand how to help my son. Moreover, I expect as a future certified occupational therapy assistant that I may do this kind of work.

Yoga and Meditation: Chronic pain changes the brain structure linking to depression, anxiety and impaired mental function. Yoga has a differing effect on the brain and can relieve chronic pain by promoting strength and flexibility while calming the mind to reduce stress. Stress is known to cause muscles to spasm. Practicing asana, the postures of yoga, breathing and meditation, trains your body to

An evaluation of the initial implementation of the chair yoga group provided positive results from both, participants and staff of 5 east. Prior to the activity both the nursing and occupational Therapy (OT) staff expressed interest and appreciation that our group was designing and testing a chair yoga group for the patients.

People encounter various challenges in life ranging from diseases, lack of basic essential needs and psychiatric problems among others. This has given rise to various forms of therapies being adopted by specialists whilst offering solutions to depressed individuals. Group therapy has taken a center-stage in the management of depression. Butler et al (2008) in their article titled "Meditation with yoga, group therapy with hypnosis, and psychoeducation for long-term depressed mood: a randomized pilot trial" show that depression and anxiety form part of the well-known conditions named by individuals seeking treatment using therapies and complementary alternatives. Alternative therapies include yoga, qigong, tai chi, mediation, and exercise. They argue that people are increasingly using these therapies. Butler provides information claiming that yoga and exercise are effective therapies with high rates than uncontrolled activities (Butler, et al 2008). The authors also demonstrate that these therapies can be compared to established anxiety treatments and depression treatments such as sertraline, cognitive behavioral therapy, and imipramine.

Nowadays life of people has become quite stressful. To reduce stress people are getting addicted to things like alcohol, tobacco and drugs. People are searching numerous ways to reduce stress. The best way to reduce stress is through meditation and yoga. Meditation and yoga is the complete package through which you can make your life fit, healthy and stress-free. Yoga and meditation when practiced together strengthen the body and mind connection, improving overall fitness and well-being. Both yoga and meditation, when done regularly, has proven to be highly beneficial. Though the practices of yoga and meditation have their roots in ancient cultures, both have become modern day movements.

Cardiovascular disease is a global burden and by changing risk factors such as increasing physical activity and reducing stress by relaxation can lower the incidence of the disease (Hartley, Dyakova, Holmes, Clarke, Lee, Ernst, & Rees, 2014) The study had 800 participants with high risk factors of the cardiovascular disease and were recruited to 11 study trials. After eight months of this ongoing study, Hartley and Colleagues (2014) found that any form of yoga showed reduction in the systolic and diastolic blood pressure, triglycerides, and an increase in high-density lipoprotein. Since patients with the cardiovascular disease are unable to perform rigorous exercises, yoga was concluded to be an ideal choice for them. Participants, who

Yoga has been associated with stress. The larger the amount of stress a person has, the less likely that person is to feel in control of themselves and their surroundings. Yoga has also been linked to a person’s health and wellbeing. During a one week experiment, a researcher did yoga once a day at 7:00 pm for a half hour. A survey was taken twice, in hour intervals, after the yoga session was completed, at 8:30 pm and 9:30 pm. The surveys are what was used to find the data that created the results of the experiment. One type of yoga, integrated yoga, was used throughout the week. The results concluded yoga helps relieve stress for one hour after the session was completed, but was stressed again shortly after that hour was finished. Different styles of yoga classes could be offered and more times could be made available at the Elmen Center. Yoga is currently offered at 4:30 pm in the Back Alley, but more class times could be 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm. Different styles include hot yoga, iyengar yoga, or hatha yoga. To improve evaluations, a person could add questions about their level of stress before and after the yoga class. These improvements will allow researchers to see if the results are true for the majority of people.

Other preliminary research indicated that yoga could be a useful supplementary treatment to reduce the general psychopathology of schizophrenia, and may have positive effects on mental health, although the quality of research to define these effects is low.

Yoga's psychological benefits include; improvement of anxiety, depression, stress tolerance, addictive disorders, bi polar disorders, eating disorders, insomnia and overall emotional balance. Physical benefits include; improvement of chronic pain, reduction of heart rate and blood pressure, increased circulation, and function. The benefits continue; improvement in venous return of the

In today’s environment, many people are suffering with the stress and anxiety of day to day living and are finding themselves unable to cope with life’s little emergencies. Prescription drugs are on the rise due to the increasing need for people to deal with their stress and anxiety. However, many people are searching for ways to be less stressed and live a happy and healthy life without drugs. If stress and anxiety are getting the best of you, then think about grabbing a mat and giving yoga and meditation a spin. With that in mind, this paper will take a look at the benefits of yoga and meditation to create a more peaceful and healthy lifestyle.

The health behavior that was chosen to promote during our campaign was yoga. We encouraged students, staff, and faculty members at Knox College to partake in yoga classes offered by the school in order to reduce stress and target a particular health/illness outcome. The main physical health/illness outcome targeted in this campaign was reduced blood pressure. Yoga is also seen to improve cardiovascular health. We chose to focus on the benefits of yoga to improve blood pressure and cardiovascular health instead of just one or the other because most of the studies that we found while researching mentioned both decreased blood pressure and improved cardiovascular health occurring from practicing yoga.