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Have you ever wondered how yoga changes your brain? It turns out that the feeling of happiness after exercise that you experience is not just in your head.
Using brain imaging, scientists can now show that yoga truly changes the chemistry of your brain. And for the better.
Just as practicing tai chi movements, using yoga as a form of exercise and meditation can help naturally heal a range of health problems, especially those that originate in the brain and are related to memory.
How yoga changes your brain
While natural therapies, including yoga, do not have the amount of funding for large studies compared with the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, we are beginning to witness the emergence of compelling scientific evidence.
Some of the best scientific findings to date show how yoga changes your brain, and also its impact on anxiety, depression and pain tolerance.
Yoga releases the substance GABA
Did you know that yoga is a natural remedy for anxiety? That’s because it acts on the levels of GABA in your brain.
GABA is the abbreviation for gamma-aminobutyric acid, which is sometimes referred to as the inhibitory neurotransmitter of your body. It is very important for suppressing nervous activity.
Your GABA neurotransmitters create a similar calming effect as drinking alcohol (without the harmful side effects).
And of course the calming effects of alcohol are only temporary; after the drunkenness wears off, anxiety often increases anxiety .
Yoga increases the production of natural GABA in your brain without traditional anti-anxiety drugs whose role is to help your body release GABA. The problem, however, is that stopping these benzodiazepine drugs can lead to severe withdrawal syndrome.
Yoga sounds better than insomnia, seizures and, ironically, further anxiety associated with stopping the medication.
Get the asanas involved!
Although walking for weight loss does work, it may not be your best protection against anxiety.
According to a 2010 study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, practicing yoga in the brain’s thalamus releases more calming GABA than walking.
Compared to an hour of pleasant reading, a 60-minute yoga session increases GABA levels by up to 27%. Because of its combination of breathing, meditation and movement, yoga could therefore be one of the best exercises for suppressing anxiety.
Yoga creates healthier gray matter in the brain
According to the National Institute of Health, yoga can actually prevent the effects of chronic pain on the brain or even reverse the pain. People suffering from depression may actually have reduced amounts of gray matter as a result of chronic pain.
Gray matter is located in the cerebral cortex and subcortical areas of the brain. Its loss can lead to worsening memory, emotional problems, poorer pain tolerance and reduced cognitive function.
However, yoga and meditation have the opposite effect on the brain compared to chronic pain.
And you know what? People who practice yoga regularly have thicker layers of gray matter in their brains in regions that are involved in dampening pain.
This means that yoga could be an effective remedy for certain kinds of depression – and one of the best natural pain relievers you can rely on.
In pregnant women susceptible to depression, yoga can even act as a natural antidepressant.
A 2012 study published in Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice found that meditative yoga significantly reduced symptoms of depression in at-risk women.
Final reflections on how yoga changes your brain
Thanks to its unique breathing, meditation and stretching exercises that one incorporates into practice, yoga could be the most important form of exercise for fighting anxiety.
There are indeed many different forms of yoga, but I recommend you start with the gentle kind and experiment to find the style that suits you best.
Medical research tells us that yoga changes our brain in amazing ways. These include flooding our brain with calming GABA and the growth of gray matter in areas that make us capable of tolerating pain.
This is very important for those who live with chronic pain. Too many doctors will very quickly prescribe you painkillers. Try yoga instead of them. Your brain will thank you.
