Many people say that after starting yoga they feel mentally stronger, more relaxed, less depressed and more level-headed than before. Heck, I’m the first to admit it’s the best therapy I’ve ever had. So to discuss how and why these changes occur, I turned to two well-recognized and seasoned practitioners.
Stephen Cope, director of the Institute for Extraordinary Living at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, explains that yoga itself is a form of meditation, and herein lies its power. “Yoga provides attentional training and self-regulation,” he says. “In practicing yoga, we’re training our awareness to attend to the flow of thoughts, feelings and sensations in the body – and to be with these different states without self-judgment or reactivity.”
In other words, yoga teaches a new kind of attention. People who practice yoga learn how to accept all the stress-inducing thoughts that flit around in one’s head – negative self-talk, worries, snap judgments – as just that: thoughts, and nothing more. Since reacting to our thoughts is typically what gets us into trouble, learning to attend to them and accept them nonjudgmentally is key. Then we can let them go, says Cope, and “make wise choices – not based on reactivity to these states, but on our best interests.”
This idea of paying attention to one’s thoughts in a nonjudgmental way is what mindfulness meditation, or mindfulness training, is all about. This ancient practice has gained a lot of interest from researchers (and regular folk) in recent years. Scientists have studied how mindfulness courses can change people’s reactions and behaviors, and how they can literally change the structure of the brain. Attentional training and mindfulness have been shown to provide major benefits in treating everything from stress and depression to serious addictions. And yoga seems to work in much the same way.
Photo copyright holder © Ogres Ziņas
Elena Brower, Anusara® yoga teacher, and co-founder and owner of the Virayoga studio in Manhattan, tells me about the personal changes she’s witnessed in her own mind as she’s practiced over the last 15 years. She starts by explaining the shift in attention that yoga can bring: “We each have two aspects of ourselves; one that is inward-drawn, super focused and alternately afraid; one that is expressive, open, ready, available and downright brave. In our mind, yoga helps us create a patient relationship between those two aspects of ourselves. Yoga brings a level of patience and listening I’ve never found with any other discipline.”
Both experts agree that there’s something powerful and fundamental about syncing the mind and body as yoga does. Researchers, too, are beginning to grasp the depths of the mind-body connection. As Cope explains, “yogis came to believe that the mind and body are linked in every way, and indeed, that the mind is just a subtle form of the body, and the body a gross form of mind.” What we do for the one benefits the other. And as Brower articulates, “when fed and led well, a strong body helps us see the mind’s hilarious machinations more clearly.” Indeed, life is a lot more pleasant when we learn to see our thoughts not as grave realities to be reacted to, but as harmless, almost comical, little clouds that float in and out of consciousness.
Brower also points out that you don’t have to practice for hours on end to reap the mental benefits that yoga can bring. “Even 15 minutes, consistently, shifts my ability to be present. My daily practice consists of 15-20 minutes of asana and 5-10 minutes of meditation, and to keep that promise to myself creates a rich quality of presence in everything I do. And I notice when I don’t do it.”
To people who are on the fence about trying it out for the first time, Brower offers this: “Know that it may take some time to find the teacher who really speaks to YOU in a way that you can hear, but once you do, be prepared to feel stronger, more secure, and, in many cases, ridiculously fortunate and thrilled to know the strength in your body that comes with a consistent practice.”
The bottom line is that aside from its obvious physical benefits, yoga is great for those of us who are in our heads all the time. “When you have a few yoga classes under your belt,” says Brower, “the first thing you’ll notice is the space between your thoughts. Literally, a pause is revealed, through your breathing, that grants you a moment of time between one thought and the next.”
If you’re ready to get out of the tangle of those pesky cogitations, I’d highly recommend giving yoga a try.