Yoga for mental health

A group of researchers from the University of South Australia published a study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine titled "Effects of yoga on depressive symptoms in people with mental disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis", on 5 April 2020.

The study was done to assess whether movement-based yoga is helpful in alleviating depressive symptoms in people diagnosed with mental disorders. For the study, the researchers defined movement-based yoga as any form of yoga where the practitioners are physically moving or active for at least half the duration of the session. Being active or moving in this context means holding poses during complex asanas or flowing from one asana to another or through an entire sequence of asanas.

The research involved as many as 1,080 participants from six countries—India, USA, China, Japan, Germany and Sweden—who were already diagnosed with mental disorders such as anxiety and depression.

For the purpose of the research, only the asanas and movements that fit into the researchers' description of movement-based yoga were made a part of the study. Meditation techniques, breathing exercises or similar movements were not made a part of the research, as previous studies that did include those practices yielded mixed results.

The results

Yoga poses or asanas, as they are known in Sanskrit, have long been known to ease tension in the body, freeing up the muscles and tendons of the body and correcting the posture in the long run. Yoga has also been known to reduce symptoms of mental illnesses, and the new research corroborates that.

The research included as many as 19 studies and included a large number of patients with different mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), bipolar disorder, and those with alcohol dependency. 

According to the findings of the study, yoga helped reduce symptoms of all the underlying disorders. Patients who did yoga felt better compared to those who were on the waitlist to be clinically treated, undergoing medical treatments or attention control techniques.

The study also found that greater reductions in the symptoms of depression and other disorders when there were more yoga sessions per week. The number of hours in a session was not taken into account; however, the frequency of the sessions during the course of a week made a difference, according to the researchers.

The research was conducted during the outbreak of COVID-19, an infectious disease that necessitated unprecedented public health measures like nationwide lockdowns. Self-isolation, one of the buzzwords to have emerged from the global pandemic, was one of the reasons behind the research, with growing concerns over people not being able to physically connect, leading to feelings of loneliness.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought about drastic changes in people's lives, including having to deal with the anxiety of living through a pandemic and working from home during the pandemic. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of India also recommended some simple yoga asanas to help deal with such feelings.

Read more: Yoga for stress management during COVID-19

Here are some yoga asanas that can help you to manage stress and mental fatigue during these times of pandemic, as well as otherwise. 

• Balasana (child’s pose)
• Adho Mukha Svanasana (downward-facing dog)
• Uttanasana (Standing forward bend)
• Paschimottanasana (seated forward bend)
• Baddha Konasana (bound angle pose)
• Tadasana (mountain pose)
• Vrikshasana (tree pose)
• Setu bandhasana (bridge pose)
• Savasana (corpse pose)

Try to incorporate breathing based yoga exercises such as the different varieties of pranayama, such as anulom vilom, Kapalbhati Pranayama and other deep breathing exercises as well.

If you haven’t performed any of these movements before, follow the instructions, and if possible, refer to yoga instructors, manuals as well as videos to perfect them. If you have any underlying health problems, always consult a doctor before putting strain on a particular part of the body.