Anxiety is one of the most common mental illnesses in the nation, affecting 40 million adults in the United States alone. Many people are aware of what it feels like to be overcome by anxious thoughts, to feel nauseous, to be unable to control your breathing, to feel like your life is spinning around you. Anxiety stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, but the beauty of yoga is that it calms this same system. All yoga inherently is healing for those that deal with anxiety, but this flow in particular is designed to be especially grounding, centering, calming, and tension-releasing.
In the most basic sense, these poses fight against anxiety’s physical manifestations, the most common being high, tense shoulders. Notice how the tutorial encourages practitioners to roll the shoulders back and down, attaching the scapula onto the back. This motion will likely feel very satisfying for those with anxiety that tend to hold much of their stress in their shoulder areas.
Also notice that this tutorial is a very athletic, active practice. You may think that relaxing stretching is the best option to combat anxiety, but that’s actually not the case. Yin yoga, or passive poses, are threatening to such practitioners because they can cause restlessness and invite overthinking. This is a Vinyasa flow, which is active. Not only does this encourage yogic breathing, which calms the body, it also asks a means for meditation because yogis must focus on the flow. It is incredibly difficult to think about anything else. Instead of overthinking about the past, or worrying about the future, we are centered, grounded in the present.
**Disclaimer: This tutorial is presented by a student currently undergoing 200 hour training to become a yoga teacher. She is not a certified yoga teacher and is not responsible for any associated injury or pain that may follow the tutorial.