Yoga and Mental Health Awareness Month

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and here at Yoga Anytime we recognize and appreciate the many benefits that yoga and meditation can have on not only our overall well-being, but specifically our mental wellness.

In the United States, around 43 million Americans, or nearly 1 in 5, suffer from a mental illness including the likes of depression and anxiety, and research suggests that yoga provides many mental health benefits, from alleviating depression to reducing the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Yoga Anytime teacher Linda Sparrowe, in her Season 2 of Yoga for Depression, offers practices, talks, and tools that merge western research and ancient wisdom to help us understand and ease the symptoms of anxiety and depression.

In the below talk she shares about the basic western understandings of anxiety and depression—how they relate to one another, what happens physiologically in the body, and the many different ways the practices of yoga can help ease the symptoms.

Anxiety, Depression, & Yoga

Breathe Through Anxiety

Here, Linda shares a short breathing practice called rose petal breath to help with the symptoms of anxiety.

Depression Shake Down

Try this short practice to shake off stagnant energy and allow for prana to flow more freely in the body.