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Is Yin Yoga Good for Mental Health

Yoga can be an amazing remedy for mental health, Yoga in general has been scientifically proven to create a good heart rate variability and a good heart rate variability is a measure of basic well-being.
A combination of yoga with breathing, especially slow yoga, the slower the better has been shown to have the most benefits.
Yes, yin yoga can be helpful for mental health issues the slowing down, can give someone the time to learn to be in the moment.
With mental health issues it can be difficult at first to sit with their feelings.
This of course depends on the condition.
A person with depression might not feel like moving or doing anything much, so might feel very unwilling to do more of the vigorous forms of yoga. That crippling feeling of a person with depression and the overactive mind that comes with this, can lead Yin Yoga to be one of the best remedies.
The ability to be able to sit and be quiet but also have that permission to sit and be quiet can be invaluable to a person with depression. In Yoga they can learn that it’s OK to be still to be deep in rest, to be held by the yoga pose, also learning to let go of negative thoughts while using the breath, learning to allowing thoughts to come and go, becoming aware of them and watching them. In time realizing that they are only thoughts and not real, actual. For someone with depression they probably have trauma in their body which creates pain and discomfort, to have that feeling of being held and cared for in the yin class, can lead us to a sense of being, that enables us to feel comfortable in time.

*Tracy Myers in her book- Yin Yoga Therapy and Mental Health recommends using heart opening poses including reclining butterfly, supported fish, quarter dog variation, and then laterals and twist including wide-knee child with twist and reclining twists. These poses help shift energy from sadness to more ease and lightness. When using Yin Yoga, we work on the Chinese energy system of the meridians. Each Meridian line has, different health benefits. We need to keep our heart Q1 in balance, to help relive low moods. integrating a yoga and mindfulness practise into daily life can improve quality of life and mood stability.
someone with anxiety, this anxiety may manifest in a way where they’re constantly doing. They deal with their anxiety by always being on the go, always trying to get to the end of everything, feeling that there’s always so much they need to do to sort out their problems, Sort out their life. A lot of our Anxiety can often be in the mind they could stem from a past trauma but feel very real in the moment. These past traumas can create fear that goes over and over in the mind and reflects what they feel will happen in the future, but this future is made-up in the mind. the mind For makes up stories that are not real
No one knows what will happen in the next few hours the next few days the next few weeks or months, they can only make up likelihoods. This is not real, this is not truth, it’s not the here and now. Only the here and now is truth. Even our past experiences are only our own perception of the past.

Yin Yoga

If a person can be held in the present and explore body sensations and mind movements, they get a chance to see how things are. With Yin Yoga, we get the chance to slow down and see for ourselves we get the chance to explore our bodies from the inside we get to notice our triggers, our feelings, and our mind. We get the quiet time, the time we need to heal, the time we need to let go. Letting go of our perceived ideas or stuck feelings or unresolved energy blocks. We don’t get this time in it Vinyasa flow class

That doing can be a hard one to break but again when someone comes to a Yin class they get that permission to stop, to rest, it takes time sometimes with anxiety it can be better to start with something faster and more flowing and then slowly start to come down to the mat unwind and go into a few carefully chosen Yang poses
*Tracy Myers confirms in her studies with people with anxiety at she finds movement and shaking, and energy realize to be helpful for the first few minutes and then coming down to a yin pose

Ying can be the meditation they need. As rather than sitting very still, there is movement, slow subtle movement within each pose. Slow Yoga can be more helpful than a sitting still meditation
Something as simple as slowing down the out breath or being aware of the out breath, in a pose, can helps us activate the relaxing parasympathetic nervous system.

BESSEL van der Kolk, in his book, ‘The Body Keeps the Score
says that heart rate variability (HRV) has recently been discovered to be a good measure of how well the autonomic nervous system is working.
This measures the relative balance between the parasympathetic (PNS) and sympathetic systems (SNS) When we inhale, we stimulate the (SNS)) which results in an increase in heart rate and when we exhale, we stimulate the (PNS) which decreases how fast the heart beats.

He continues to say that in healthy individual’s, inhalation and exhalation produced steady rhythmical fluctuations in heart rate. ‘Good heart rate variability is a measure of basic well-being’

Different energy centres have different energy release and in Yin Yoga we work with the energy of the meridians each Meridian line has, different health benefits.
Learning to stay still and calm enough to notice without judgement, to notice feelings have a beginning, a middle and an end, staying still in a yoga pose helps us to tolerate our physical sensations. Letting them be. Letting them pass

Van Der Kolk, having done a lot of scientific studies with yoga over the years found the slower the yoga the better the results with mental health. He says to his students ‘once you start approaching your body with curiosity rather than fear everything shifts’
Breathing to the edge of where we can and then noticing that edge. If we notice our breath, we are in the present because we cannot breathe in the future or the past. In a slow Practice we have more time to breathe, more time to let what we need to come up come up
So, yes learning to go slow in a yoga practise with yoga often as slow as a snail’s pace has been proven scientifically to benefit people with mental health issues

Working on the heart meridian center through the practice of Yin Yoga can greatly improve mental health by calming the mind. By focusing on heart-opening poses and balancing the heart energy, individuals can alleviate low moods and shift from sadness to lightness. The practice of Yin Yoga allows individuals to explore their inner thoughts and sensations, helping them to heal and let go of past traumas or energy blocks. By staying present in the moment and approaching the body with curiosity, individuals can begin to shift their perspective and find peace within themselves. So, why not give Yin Yoga a try and experience the transformative benefits it can have on your mental health? Remember, taking the time to slow down and be present in the moment is the first step towards healing and finding peace within yourself.

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“The mind creates the abyss, the heart crosses it’. Where the mind worries, the heart trusts. Where the mind is divisive, the heart unifies. When your heart is singing in love with the world, then the mind has no choice but to be quiet.”

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