overcome anxiety with yoga and pranayama

Anxiety and Panic Attacks

Anxiety is a pervasive emotional problem. There is no one who doesn’t have the feeling of anxiety at some point in their life. When anxiety spirals out of control and becomes more than “a little nervousness”, it can cause debilitating symptoms, including obsessive thinking, insomnia, migraines, intestinal problems, dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath, and heart palpitations. According to Ayurveda, excess vata is the major cause of anxiety. So a vata reducing regimen is prescribed.

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How Yoga Can Help

Yoga can help with anxiety in a number of ways. It offers specific techniques that can reduce symptoms, both in the short and longer term. Because of its focus on tuning in to inward states, yoga can help you get beneath the surface of anxiety to figure out what might be triggering it, such as unresolved conflicts or habitual thought patterns,

One of the key yogic techniques use to counter anxiety is to focus on the breath. Perhaps nowhere is the connection between the mind and the breath more obvious than in anxiety. During anxious or fearful moments, breathing is disturbed in a wide variety of ways. It may become quick and choppy, rigid and constricted, or even stop altogether for periods of time. When you are calm, on the other hand, breathing tends to be smooth and rhythmic.
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Helpful Yoga Poses and Breathing Exercises

• -  All forward bending postures
• -  Using a sandbag on lower stomach during final resting pose to feel grounded
• -  Ujjayi breath
• -  Alternate nostril breathing
• -  1:2 ratio of breathing. Ex: inhale for 4 seconds, exhale for 8 seconds
• -  Daily meditation

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