What do you think of when you think of yoga?
This: OR This:
Thanks to the rise in "insta" yoga poses we have come to think of yoga as often unattainable to the average person. And yet the word yoga is sanskrit for "yoke" or to still the mind.
What are the general benefits of Yoga?
•Yoga improves strength, balance and flexibility.
•Yoga helps with back pain relief.
•Yoga can ease arthritis symptoms.
•Yoga benefits heart health.
•Yoga relaxes you, to help you sleep better.
•Yoga can mean more energy and brighter moods.
•Yoga helps you manage stress.
Yoga can be an effective treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and may help with the following:
Reducing physiological arousal
Yoga can reduce the body's stress response by downregulating the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis.
Improving body awareness
Yoga can help people learn to reflect on their emotions and physiological states, which can help them regulate their emotions.
Increasing resilience
Yoga can help people build resilience and enhance their mind-body awareness.
Improving emotion regulation
Yoga can help people become more aware of and accept their emotions, which can improve their ability to regulate them.
Helping people tolerate physical and sensory experiences
Yoga can help people learn to tolerate the physical and sensory experiences associated with fear and helplessness.
"Yoga has been shown to reduce physiological arousal in PTSD patients and is believed to affect the pathology of PTSD by improving somatic regulation and body awareness, which are imperative to emotion regulation" (van der Kolk et al., 2014)
Results from studies:
Effects of yoga on sleep, memory and concentration:
•Individuals with PTSD report social, emotional, and cognitive problems related to living with this disorder. Overactivity of the stress response contributes to these problems. Research examining the therapeutic effects of yoga identifies positive changes to the stress response that are associated with improvements in daily functioning (e.g., sleep, memory, concentration). The current study offered trauma-sensitive yoga to Veterans with PTSD and found improvements in response inhibition, depression, sleep, and life satisfaction after participating in yoga. These findings add to the body of literature supporting yoga as a promising intervention for symptoms of trauma with widespread benefits to functioning.
Yoga for Veterans With PTSD: Cognitive Functioning, Mental Health, and Salivary Cortisol - PMC (nih.gov)
Overcoming preconceived ideas:
•the students who we interviewed who were involved in attending yoga classes and had participated with other veterans or active duty felt there was more work to be done by the military and general public to develop a better holistic understanding about the importance of a yoga practice.
Yoga therapy for military personnel and veterans: Qualitative perspectives of yoga students and instructors
Work supported by the Aust Govt. Research Training Program Scholarship.
•Evidence on effective prevention of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is sparse, particularly among first responders. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a Tactical Mind–Body Resilience Training program on PTSD symptoms in first responders.
Method: Active-duty first responders (n= 80; Mage= 41.8 years, 82.5% men) were randomized to the intervention group or the waitlist control condition. PTSD symptoms as measured by the PTSD-8 were the primary outcome assessed at postintervention and at 3- month follow-up. Secondary outcomes were cognitive and emotional coping strategies, resilience, somatic symptoms, work performance, and sickness absence.
Results: At postintervention, the intervention group had significantly reduced PTSD symptoms compared to the control group; however, this difference was attenuated at 3-month follow-up. The intervention group had significant improvements in cognitive reappraisal and resilience at postintervention compared to the control group, which were sustained at 3 months. The remaining secondary outcomes had statistically nonsignificant improvements. Conclusions: This workplace-delivered intervention shows potential in preventing the development of PTSD in first responders.
PTSD in first responders. Further research is needed on maintaining long-term benefits of this training. Yoga Resilience Training to Prevent the Development of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Active-Duty First Responders: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial
However, not all Yoga is created equal!
•For someone experiencing PTSD, anxiety, depression and other mental health conditions attending a normal yoga class can be overwhelming and potentially detrimental.
•This is where Trauma aware yoga is important.
•Trauma aware yoga is different from “normal yoga” by its presentation and the use of common language and focussing on poses or moves that assist in the mind and body connection.
•The focus is on it being your practise and how it makes you feel.
And not all Yoga teachers are Trauma aware trained!
If you or someone you know is experiencing PTSD or trauma and are considering yoga as a treatment please be very sure of the teachers qualifications and experience. In the minimum 200hr yoga teacher training, trauma aware yoga is touched upon but to present a trauma aware class requires specific training and qualifications.
This is where Yoga Therapy can be invaluable.
Yoga Therapy
•Uses the tools of yoga to empower individuals to improve their mental and physical wellbeing.
•Yoga therapists can work in a small group or one on one setting.
•A yoga therapist has undertaken over 1000 hrs of training; studying the impact of yoga on a variety of mental and physical conditions, to gain a Graduate Diploma in Yoga Therapy.
Finding trauma aware yoga classes:
•Frontline Yoga – provide free yoga classes for first responders and their families, others welcome by donation https://frontlineyoga.com.au
•Irest – uses yoga nidra meditations https://shop.irest.org
Be free to live your best life
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