Could something as simple as yoga help you balance negative thoughts and alleviate stress? It could. That’s why one of the types of outpatient services we offer at Willow Creek is yoga-related. Serenity Sessions is a year-round program that teaches this ancient yard. The program isn’t intense, but rather geared towards helping you explore yoga at your own pace and comfort level.
Why does yoga matter in the world of mental health?
How Yoga Supports Mental Health
Yoga is a supportive health approach that promotes both mental well-being and physical health. According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, yoga offers numerous benefits:
- It reduces stress levels by lowering the presence of cortisol in the bloodstream.
- Yoga improves mobility and overall fitness. This can contribute to living a more active lifestyle, which can also support mental health.
- Yoga has been shown to effectively help reduce anxiety and depression symptoms when practiced consistently because of its ability to focus the brain and calm the central nervous system.
- Reduce discomfort from illness and chronic pain conditions, which contribute to mental health stress.
- Aid in the support of healthy recovery from substance use disorders.
That sounds like a lot of great benefits, but why does it happen? If you have never practiced yoga in the past, you may not realize just how transformative this type of experience can be.
How Does Yoga Work Scientifically?
Yoga isn’t a cure for mental health conditions, but it can be a core component of the recovery process. It is a beneficial complementary or alternative method for medical therapy in some situations.
Yoga works because it focuses on the central nervous system. While you are moving your body, you are also breathing at a controlled rate. In doing so, you’ll see marked improvement in your thoughts and overall wellness. Several core components of yoga make it so impactful:
- You’re working your body. The movement of your body through yoga isn’t painful. Rather, it’s more of a stretching and flexing process. That means it’s working out the tension without increasing the physical stress on your body.
- Stretching and holding is an excellent way to stimulate the body’s immune system to target troubled areas. This increases the blood flow to those areas, enabling better performance but also reducing inflammation.
- Yoga can be a form of meditation. This process teaches you how to control your thought processes. For those who face intense anxiety or uncontrollable negative thoughts, meditation with yoga can provide more control.
Yoga provides improvement to your physical body in various ways. It supports proper musculoskeletal function, helps joints work more effectively, and can support natural healing. You may notice changes in your thought processes and your mental clarity from the change in the way you’re breathing, too.
The Importance of Stress Relief in Mental Health
Think of stress as an important tool that you should only have to use in the worst-case situations. Yet, today, stress is a constant and even ever-present part of life. With so many things stimulating your brain and worries that seem to take control of each day, it’s nearly impossible to work on mental health. Seeing through that stress is challenging for anyone.
Yoga creates an opportunity to do just that. Through proper breathing techniques and body movements, you’re working stress out of your body. That opens the door for more effective conversations and, in many ways, treatment for your mental health disorders.
When Should Yoga Be a Part of Your Mental Health Treatment Plan?
Yoga is one component of a bigger treatment plan at Willow Creek. When you enter treatment with us, you’ll work on your needs through an individualized treatment plan. We create this with you when you arrive and ensure it is consistently tailored to your needs.
Yoga can help many people, including those struggling with:
- Depression
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Severe anxiety
- Bipolar disorder
- Schizophrenia
- Panic disorders
- Substance use disorders
To discover how yoga can benefit you, please contact our team. Keep in mind that yoga is just one of numerous alternative and complementary treatment plans we offer for each person who becomes part of our family.
We incorporate our Serenity Sessions into our inpatient treatment as well as our outpatient treatment programs in Green Bay. If you’re considering ways to support your mental health, reach out to our treatment center for guidance. You do not need an appointment to get immediate help.
Set Up a Conversation with Our Mental Health Team Now
Willow Creek Behavioral Health offers the most modern and advanced strategies for improving mental health. Discuss your needs with us now and be confident in your future. Contact us now.
