Three Ways Yoga Relieves Anxiety

Loads of people I’ve connected with recently have told me they’re dealing with anxiety so I wanted to share the powerful ways Yoga can ease, soothe and remove it. If you’re reading this you’re probably no stranger to it – in fact, if you can breathe you’ve likely felt the tendrils of angst in your gut. Just knowing you’re not alone and that there are reliable practices you can use is itself powerful medicine.

Anxiety can be defined as ‘…a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, that can be mild or severe’ (NHS online). It’s a very normal physiological response to the perception that we are unsafe. Feeling safe is fundamental to our well-being and happiness and if we want to move beyond survival mode into thriving mode, we have to learn how to overcome anxiety and the fear response.

Our fear response can be triggered in endless ways; day to day stressors like relentless bills, a claustrophobic commute, the face of Nigel Farage, and big things like loss, grief or the pressure to remain hopeful in a world which seems doomed (if you stay too long with the mainstream media)  can all culminate in a profound feeling of dis-ease.

Obviously nerves are normal when something huge is on the agenda like exams and marriage, but when anxiety can’t be linked to anything tangible - if you can't seem to shift it, it deepens and becomes ever present then we got ourselves a problem.

Before it peaked into full blown panic attacks I’d been dealing with anxiety for about three years. I had no words for what was happening to me, I just thought it was how I was. My inner critic was savage, I had intensely dark thoughts about myself and the world, I struggled to stay still and was constantly in pain. I didn’t understand my place in the world or how I could possibly build a life for myself in it, everything was impossibly large and confusing. Alcohol and drugs became my medicine, they soothed me when I needed comfort and gave me a sense of connection and toxic as they were they helped - but they also took me on a ride of self hatred and abuse that endured for years.

The lime juice in the wound of anxiety is the loneliness of it. Despite the huge leaps we’ve made to de-stigmatise it and remove the shame, it can still be really hard to talk about what we’re experiencing mentally. As painful as this solitude can be, it gives us an incredible opportunity to learn to draw upon our own vast inner resources, it’s how we build strength and resilience - but first we need coping strategies.

This is where Yoga comes in. Here are three ways Yoga helps with anxiety:

·        Grounding. 

     When my anxiety was at its worst I was living almost entirely from my head. My mind had the steering wheel, was laughing maniacally and careening along at 100 mph. I wasn’t laughing. In Yoga we work to draw the energy down into the body and consciously connect with our roots and breath. We practice feeling supported and with this comes great relief and relaxation.

·         The Breath. 

       Your mind and breath are directly linked. When we’re in the fear response our breathing can become shallow and erratic but when we feel safe, we relax and our breathing slows down and deepens. In Yoga we practise establishing a firm connection to our breath, the bridge between our mind and body. When we consciously manipulate the breath we send powerful signals to the body that we’re safe, and the nervous system relaxes and calms.

·        Movement

Feelings of anxiety and excitement are very similar on the emotion spectrum but differ depending on whether or not we feel safe. The anxious buzz, tingles or any other manifestation of it is just energy which we need to remove or discharge to come back into balance. A yoga practice, particularly a Vinyasa Flow practice where we move in sync with the breath is an incredibly effective way to release the intense symptoms of anxiety, discharging the energy and bringing us back into harmony.

We are complex Beings and often our own inner nature is obscured from us. Yoga gives us practical ways to begin to contact our extraordinary complexity, and gives us great relief from carrying unnecessary stress and fear so you can live a life rich with peace, clarity and joy.