Benefits

Yoga, mindfulness and meditation have many benefits. The positive impacts of implementing yoga into your lifestyle can be reflected in your day to day life. Take a look at some of the health and wellness benefits below:

Exercise

• Improves strength, flexibility, mobility, and balance
• Improves cardiac health; lowers blood pressure and cholesterol
• Increases working lung volume

Stress

• Yoga can help relieve anxiety, especially for those suffering with mental health challenges
• Increased chronic stress, as measured by cortisol hormone in your blood, is related to decreased mental health, and translates to poor systemic health such as heart problems
• A study found that individuals had lower cortisol levels (stress hormones) after just a single yoga class
• Evidence has shown that yoga increases people’s resiliency and ability to deal with stress in the workplace and to better cope with future stressors

Brain Structure

Consistency:

• Repeatedly performing actions and thoughts over time rewires the brain
• Being consistent with the practice of yoga also leads to increased consistency with other healthy habits that get wired into the brain

Connection

• We can create powerful chains of association of healthy habits that form strong and complex neural networks during the practice of yoga
• With practice yoga becomes associated with healthy habits

Reward System

• When the brain’s reward system is firing new connections in the brain grow even stronger
• The reward system releases “feel good” chemicals, such as neurotransmitters like dopamine and endorphins that reinforce feel good activities and connected activities

Mental Health

• Yoga improves attention in those with mental health difficulties
• Yoga incorporates mindfulness and recognition of one’s own emotions

You, your friends, or your family members may be undergoing addiction recovery. Yoga, when implemented as an adjunct to conventional treatment, allows you to join your loved ones in their journey to recovery. Here are the benefits of yoga for those recovering from addiction:

Yoga Provides a Safe Environment for Social Sharing and Support

• Allows for the development of valuable coping strategies including breathing techniques
• Normalizes feelings surrounding mental health and addiction

Yoga Reduces Stress Levels

• Yoga can help relieve anxiety, especially for those suffering with mental health issues (concurrent disorders)
• Increased chronic stress, as measured by cortisol hormone in your blood, is related to decreased mental health, and translates to poor systemic health such as heart problems
• A study found that individuals had lower cortisol levels (stress hormone) after just a single class
• Addiction correlates closely with chronic stress, which in turn correlates with immunosuppression and vulnerability to developing diseases.
• This is an especially strong therapy for those struggling with substance use or addictive behaviours, as stress is often associated with increased risk of relapse

Yoga Improves Mental Health

• Cortisol levels (stress hormone) were lower for alcohol detox patients when prescribed yoga, than when they were prescribed benzodiazepines, a drug commonly used to treat alcohol withdrawal symptoms
• Yoga is associated with reducing the symptoms of those suffering from PTSD
• Yoga decreases withdrawal symptoms of those going through detox

Yoga is a Great Way to Exercise

• Yoga is reported as being as good or better at improving strength, flexibility, and balance as a workout led by a personal fitness instructor