The Nootropic Benefits Of Yoga

Contents hide

1 Emotional Benefits Of Yoga

2 Yoga And Breathing

3 Yoga and Stress Relief

4 Mental Health Benefits Of Yoga

5 Yoga’s Benefits For Depression

6 Yoga’s Benefits For Anxiety

7 Yoga’s ADHD Benefits

8 How Often Should You Do Yoga

9 Biohack Your Brainpower

nootropic benefits of Yoga, yoga and nootropics,

In the last 30 years, the practice of yoga has gained popularity in cities all around the United States.

Mainstream American culture has not only adopted this 4000-year-old practice but has become obsessed with it.

Yoga studios are popping up all over the country and fostering active, thriving communities of yogis of all experience levels.

While yoga’s physical benefits are well documented, it’s mental benefits may be the reason it has become so popular.

Yoga’s poses combined with controlled breathing offer you a meditative and mentally restoring benefit unlike any exogenous substance on the market. [fl_builder_insert_layout slug=”video_1″]

Emotional Benefits Of Yoga

The beauty of yoga is that there are so many styles and variations that it really leaves the door open to do it for different reasons.

Many people love the physical benefits that come from a 90-minute sweaty yoga session.

There’s no doubt that most styles of yoga can give your body a physical tune-up.

However, the biggest payoff may be the emotional and psychological benefits that come from yoga.

Most yogis can attest to the ancient practice’s uncanny ability to remove stress and put you in a state of calm and relaxation.

Even beginners can get this benefit. And for many beginners, it’s this emotional switch that gets them hooked.

While most exercise is meant to jack up your cortisol and pump you full of energy, the charm of yoga is its ability to settle your nerves put your body at ease.

Yoga And Breathing

The basic idea of yoga is to force you to control your breath while holding poses that challenge the body.

The meditative benefits that come from simply learning how to control your breath can be incredibly profound.

While you may rarely find yourself needing to resort to a Down Dog or a Birds of Paradise pose to deal with a real-life challenge.. (different strokes for different folks)

You may often find the skill of slowing your breath down to control your thoughts and reactions to situations life-changing.

Breathing retraining including diaphragmatic breathing techniques have been used in treating many psychiatric disorders.¹

This is where the magic of yoga really shines.

These unconscious, stress-relieving habits are what keep people coming back to the mat and bending beyond their known capacity.

Pranayama Breathing

The specific style of breathing in yoga is referred to as pranayama.

Pranayama comes in a number of different forms. Pranayama is the breath during or between poses. It can also be the action of holding the breath or even speeding up the breath like a panting dog.

This controlled, alternating breathing is what gives yoga it’s ability to shift the body into the parasympathetic nervous system and lower stress.²

Yoga and Stress Relief

There are a number of physiological reasons for yoga’s stress-relieving benefits.

One of the main reasons is the practice’s ability to lower the production of stress hormones in the body.. most notably cortisol levels.³

The action, depth, and frequency of breath can have a direct effect on your autonomic nervous system.⁴

In the course of a 90-minute class you can physically transform yourself from a stressed out, rushing ball of panic and worry, to a total pile of deep-breathing, all-loving mush.

Mental Health Benefits Of Yoga

Yoga has a direct, positive influence on the mind-body connection which translates into a direct positive effect on mental well-being.

The movements and poses in yoga have been designed in a way to encourage your body’s physiology to promote mental optimization.

Many people who suffer from mental health issues use yoga therapeutically to help their conditions.

Simply learning how to control breathing can help improve mental health.

We know that those who have a condition that affects breathing suffer from high rates of anxiety and depression.⁵

In fact, a number of studies have been conducted that highlight yoga’s effectiveness in treating and alleviating mental health conditions.

Yoga’s Benefits For Depression

There has been quite a bit written in the medical literature about yoga’s anti-depressant effects.

In fact, this meta-analysis reviewed 18 randomized-controlled studies on yoga’s anti-depressant effectiveness and of the 18, 17 showed yoga significantly improved subjects’ symptoms of depression.⁶

In many cases, more so than anti-depressant drugs.

This can be for a number of reasons.

One of which is yoga’s ability to promote parasympathetic activity and heart health.⁷

These heart-healthy benefits include:

Significant decreases in heart rate
Decreases in blood pressure and rate pressure product
Significant increase in heart rate variability

These heart benefits are important because we know that heart health can directly influence mental health.⁸

Yoga has been successful in lowering levels of oxidative stress, which underlies inflammation which has been implicated in most chronic diseases including depression.⁹

Yoga has also been shown o significantly increase levels of antioxidants in the body including glutathione, superoxide dismutase, vitamin C and vitamin E.¹⁰

Yoga’s Benefits For Anxiety

One of yoga’s most popular benefits is its ability to lower anxiety. This may be a reason why it’s so popular in a place like New York City. If you can calm anxiety there… you get the idea.

One of the biggest reasons for the anxiolytic effects are yoga’s ability to increase GABA in the brain.¹¹

GABA competes with other excitatory neurotransmitters like glutamate in the brain to promote calm and relaxation.

It’s very possible that this is what you feel after lying in savasana and rolling up your mat after a good class.¹²

Yoga’s ADHD Benefits

A hidden benefit of yoga may be its ability to increase focus and lower symptoms of ADHD.¹³

This makes sense since direct, intense attention to detail is necessary to perform many of the asanas.

I’ve personally noticed that when I place my focus on something as simple as feeling my toes on the floor or gripping the mat with my fingers I improve my ability to perform difficult poses.

This may also be a reason why yoga has become so popular amongst successful working professionals. Improving focus and attention can sometimes be the difference between success and mediocrity.

Not to mention, yoga makes a great alternative to ADHD pharmaceutical solutions.

How Often Should You Do Yoga

It’s important to remember that yoga is a practice.

It takes time to get good, and even “good yoga” is highly subjective.

It’s one of the few physical activities that you can’t get better at for competition purposes.

While at the same time, there are plenty of mental health and nootropic benefits to be gained at the beginner’s level.

While yoga is not for everyone, I highly encourage everyone to at least try it.

Taking a class is the best way to start, but there are plenty of free, online videos to help you get started.. and those come without the stress of running late.

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