Practicing Yoga to manage stress and PTSD

Managing trauma and stress day to day with yoga

Many of us experience stress in our everyday life and, unfortunately, many of us have also experienced some sort of traumatic event that has left an imprint on our biology that affects our day to day functioning. Moreso, many of us continue to persist with managing ongoing traumatic situations such as psychological abuse and manipulation of what we think and, thus, how we feel.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is the name given to the lingering effects of trauma that are left unprocessed, suspending us in a state of perpetual and unnecessary suffering. While PTSD refers to a past trauma that affects our day to day life, it is the 'stress' part that relates to the present moment and can be present irrespective of whether a trauma was experienced or not. One does not need a diagnosis of PTSD to be feeling the negative consequences of persistent stress and therefore one does not need a diagnosis to consider how best to take care of our own mental health.

Stress has significant negative consequence to our bodies affecting not only how we think and feel but also our physical health. We think negative thoughts when we are stressed, and, physically, this affects our nervous system to prepare ourselves to react to the negative things we are thinking. Adrenaline continues to be pumped into our body in preparation for reaction but no action eventuates leading to adrenal fatigue and a body that is shallow breathing, tense and over-reactive.

While our body is designed to keep us safe from physical harm in the moment, it is not designed to continue to regurgitate negative thoughts that continue to circulate without resolution. Some call this the 'monkey mind' which serves no other purpose but to keep us in a high anxiety state, unable to relax and unable to rest. Between the thoughts and the physical toll on our bodies, our spirit (emotions, mood, connection to life) is also negatively affected, causing depression and hopelessness simply because we cannot see our way out. Stress negatively affects the mind, body and spirit so, logically, a mind, body and spirit approach seems rationale to attention counteracting the negative stress response.

Access to mental health practices like yoga

Yoga is a mind, body and spirit practice that has been proven to counteract the negative consequences of stress. It is a practice that very specifically calms the 'monkey mind' through the focus of presence in the moment, a connection of the breath and the body, and a calming of emotional response by the act of focused breathing to regulate the nervous system.

A contributing factor to stress is the belief we have no control over our circumstances. When we seek the assistance of another to make us 'better' we continue to hand our power to another to 'fix' us. Yoga, on the other hand, ensures the power to heal is retained with the individual. We take from the practice what we need and tailor the practice to our own requirements making yoga a very personal and effective method of mental health practice.

Access to psychotherapy can be expensive and difficult to obtain whereas yoga is a practice that is readily available everywhere and is comparatively cheaper to other forms of mental health support. Moreso, for those who are significantly affected with PTSD as to cause self-isolation, yoga classes can be accessed online or can be practiced in the privacy of your own home. Once the basic principles of yoga are understood there is no need for an instructor or class at all, making yoga accessible to everyone at all times.

Finding help with yoga practice and stress management

As we continue to explore ways to help ourselves have better mental hygiene and manage the day to day stresses that we face, yoga is a tried and true practice to slow our breathing and reconnect us to ourselves. Practicing yoga is practicing self-care and the more we take care of ourselves, the more peace and harmony we can experience.

There are many yoga practitioners ready, willing and able to help us take care of ourselves. Explore sites such as https://www.naturalmagic.com.au/ to get a feel for what is available.

For more information visit BrightRai.com

Bright Research and Insights