Yoga & Mental Health

Introduction

• Research and success stories are profound tools when teaching about any topic. They may serve as the motivation for a person to act. But no matter what has been reported by others, it is, of course, personal experience that makes an actual difference in a person’s life. This concept is inherent in all yoga philosophy: belief is not necessary. Become your own experiment and try it for yourself.
• This is particularly relevant with mental health concerns since the nature of such issues can easily lead people to think that they are inherently unstable, hopeless or incurable. By sharing research and success stories, you might help to expose such incorrect assumptions, and provide the motivation that prompts students to experiment with practices.
• Or a person may try yoga having had no awareness of its track record with mental health, and find that they feel more balanced as a result of yoga practices. This may then prompt them to want to learn and try more.

Success Stories

Research and anecdotal evidence of yoga’s effect on mental health abounds. Bo Forbes reports on this topic quite clearly. She is a practicing psychotherapist with a doctorate in clinical psychology who incorporated yoga techniques into her practice. For example, she reports:

Certain practices increased energy for people with depression, and other [practices] grounded and calmed individuals with anxiety. The results were hard to dismiss: people got better more fully and rapidly when I integrated yoga postures and breathing exercises into psychotherapy than they did with traditional psychotherapy alone… It can feel like anxiety and depression are permanently wired into you, but they are not…. the mind, brain and body, and therefore our emotional patterns, are capable of change. – Bo Forbes PsyD