Yoga for Anxiety

How should I get out of my anxiety and unnecessary fear?
( 8 Aug 2008)

Yoga can show great results if you are facing anxiety at any point of life. The undesired strange emotions can be got rid of by practicing yoga for quite some time and trying to master the traits of yoga. Yoga is the best treatment for anxiety and it shows great results in short span of time.

Anxiety may cause some kind of tiredness to the patient and hence if you are suffering from unnecessary fear, meditation and yoga can help you to get rid of fearful thoughts and become free from all the negativity surrounding your minds and the bodies. Anxiety affects the body mentally and physically. It does not allow an individual to perform day to day tasks with concentration. The Yoga breathing exercises help the body to rejuvenate in order to provide better strength, vigor and vitality to the body.

Yoga exercises can help to treat panic disorders and rebuilds stamina in the body by slow and steady exercises. You may face anxiety after a trauma or due to a disorder in the body. In case if phobia is a cause of anxiety, yoga helps in improving the concentration and removes fear from the mind of the individual. It increases self confidence so that one can take added responsibilities and work with better devotion and increased concentration thereby showing better results in all walks of life. It provides self control and helps in neutralizing the forces within the body with proper circulation of the blood in various organs of the body.

Various yoga asanas can be highly beneficial in the treatment of anxiety. You can always start with simple asanas like shavasana (dead body posture of asana) and then you can gradually move on to other yoga postures which will also provide flexibility to your body and help your mind to be calm at all times. It will also help to increase your concentration level by keeping the body active with increased metabolism.

Virasana (Hero Posture) for yoga can also serve to be beneficial as it helps the body to relax and come up with increased level of energy in the human body. Nostril breathing exercises along with padmasana (lotus posture) helps in better pumping of blood to various organs of the body so that it calms the mind and makes it free from disturbing thoughts from recurring. It assures proper rest to the mind and the body.

Yoga for Anxiety  

Anxiety, undue stress and fear can be well tackled with different yoga asana. The combination of breathing, meditation and gentle physical activities works very well to curb anxiety and relax the body. The pranayama and asana which helps in anxiety are corpse pose, the shoulder stand, alternative nostril breathing, victorious breathing and deep relaxation.

Corpse pose or savasana – lie on your back flat on a yoga mat with feet falling out on both side and hands alongside the body with palms facing upwards. Relax the whole body, let the body feel heavy. Breathing process should happen naturally. Lie in this pose for as long as you can and use this time to separate all your past experience of fear and anticipated happenings of the future. Focus your mind on this task if your mind clutters then slowly get back in awareness. Relaxations brought by alternative nostril breathing or victorious breathe and deep relaxation will help. To perform alternative nostril breathing close your right nostrils using the right thumb and inhale carefully through left nostril till the count of 4 seconds. Immediately close our left nostril with the right ring finger and release the right nostril. Exhale through right nostril till the count of 8 seconds. This is half round. Now similarly close your left nostril with the thumb and breathe from right nostril till the count of 4 seconds. Immediately close your right nostril, release your left nostril and exhale till the count of 8 seconds. This is one full round. You can practice 3 rounds at a time in the beginning then you can add one round per week.  

Other valuable asana for anxiety are Tadasana Samasthithi, Tadasana Urdhva, Hastasana, Uttanasana , Prasarita Padottanasana, Adhomukha, Salamba Sirsasana, Uttanasana, Utthita Trikonasana, Ardha Chandrasana, Viparita Dandasana, Viparita Dandasana, Ustrasana, Virasana, Adhomukha Virasana, Janu Sirsasana, Paschimottanasana, Upavista Konasana, Baddhakonasana, Supta Virasana, Setubandha Sarvangasana and Viparita Karani.