Yoga is considered to be among the best antidote to depression, stress, and anxiety. Why? Because it changes our body and brain in numerous ways. The primary mechanisms that are behind improving our mood through yoga are two in total. First, the power of meditation and mindfulness in itself is a huge contributor to a better mood. Also, deep breathing plays a healthy role in physically activating the happy hormones in our body. Another thing would be to consider the way our muscles get stretched, which ultimately helps us to feel more confident, fresher, more energetic, more active, and livelier.
Let’s see some of the ways through which yoga makes us happy. These are the following:
Yoga Improves Oxygen Supply
Yoga helps the body to get a better supply of oxygen because we are mindfully breathing in practice. With full inhalation and exhalation, our body gets a good supply of oxygen, and we end up getting a good supply of our brain cells as well. It helps in the generation of healthy and new brain cells and also helps in the repair of damaged ones, decreasing neuroinflammation and other responses that work to elevate depression in our body. This is the way through which yoga drastically helps us in improving the oxygen supply to our bodies.
Yoga Improves Serotonin
Yoga helps us in improving serotonin in our body, which is a chemical neurotransmitter helpful for improving our mood and making us relaxed. When it is low in amount, we end up getting grumpy or sad. When our body stretches and we do mindful breathing, there is a release of serotonin and other happy hormones in the body, such as oxytocin, which help us to feel better, and eventually, we feel active, happy, and fresh. This is how yoga helps us improve our mood through serotonin.
It Decreases Muscle Tension
Yoga helps in decreasing the muscle tension in our bodies. When we stretch, our muscles feel relaxed. The stress hormone cortisol, which was once released as a response to stress, is now controlled down due to negative feedback from the stretched muscles, and now we attain a better, more relaxed composure. Muscle tension and stiffness, which add to our bad mood and stress, are now alleviated to a significant degree as we get a little more flexible with our bodies. It spares us from the enormous physical stress that was aggravating our low mood and mental stress. When you stretch for some minutes, you get a wave of freshness going down through your whole body. You know here that your mood is now significantly improved.
Final Word
These are some of the factors which help us to understand how yoga really helps us in improving our mood and makes us feel more alive, fresher, more active, and healthier by the day. So, if you are someone who is struggling with stress, anxiety, low mood, or even depression, do consider doing yoga and making it an integral part of your daily routine to see added benefits of it.
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