Chronic stress is a leading cause for headaches, insomnia, depression, high blood pressure and numerous other health issues, and it is held physically in our body. If we are feeling that dealing with problems become more intense then we can handle and we are on the edge, or feeling exhausted and nagging over most tasks, overreacting, then the good news is that we can develop ways to navigate through stress so that it isn’t troubling and traumatic at every turn. We can learn to respond with the right level of inner calmness through our yoga practice. Yoga postures, breathwork, meditation and visualisations will help to release the physical manifestation of stress, anxiety and worry.

Scientists have long known that with every inhalation, the nervous system shifts a bit toward sympathetic activation, and the heart beats faster. With every exhalation, it shifts toward parasympathetic -activation, and the heart beats more slowly. People whose heart rate differs widely between inhalation and exhalation are said to have high heart-rate -variability—which is a good thing. It means that the nervous system has the flexibility to go from an engaged or aroused state to a relaxed state quickly. High heart-rate variability—both at rest and in the face of stress—is considered an indicator of a person’s physical and emotional resilience. Low heart-rate variability is associated with an increased risk of stress-related disorders such as cardiovascular disease and depression.

According to David Shapiro, a professor of psychology at UCLA, “Yoga helps balance the two systems as needed by each individual.”

This is the real story of how yoga can help you manage stress and anxiety. It doesn’t just provide ways to burn through stress or escape from it. It doesn’t only offer stress-reduction techniques for anxious moments. It goes deeper, transforming how the mind and body intuitively respond to stress. Just as the body can learn a new standing posture that eventually becomes ingrained, so the mind can learn new thought patterns, and the nervous system can learn new ways of reacting to stress. The result: When we roll up our mat and walk out the door, we can more skillfully take on whatever life brings.

Certain poses, breathwork, visualisation and meditative techniques really help with insomnia.

Insomnia and stress are a vicious circle. We often have trouble falling asleep or we wake up during the night and early morning hours because we are worried and anxious, and in turn, the fact that we did not get enough sleep makes us stressed the next day.

By lowering stress levels, calming and learning how to focus the mind, relieving and developing a mindful attention to tension in the body, the soothing practice of yoga can be an effective natural sleep remedy.

Yoga is a tool that works profoundly in the body, mind and spirit. Through the work with each of these and the deep connection and inner communication, tremendous benefits arise.

Breathwork and a mindful attention to the moment create space between the ‘trigger’ for the example the thought the ‘action’ for example taking the piece of cake.

This process coupled with loving kindness practices which help create deep inroads to self acceptance and unconditional love, may bring about very positive results.

The purpose of the body is to communicate love. All other purposes of the body are in vain. Use your body to shine spirit into the world and it will be happy and healthy!

Yoga may help you if you are suffering from cancer.

Many of us have heard of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition experienced by some soldiers returning from war, or by people suffering from a life-threatening accident.

Cancer patients and survivors experience similar stress. We feel bombarded by frightening information, subjected to invasive procedures, and endure cold clinics and blank stares.

Not everyone though manages stress with the same success, and a 2009 study by Costanzo, Ryff, and Singer developed and tested a concept that measures how we respond to post-traumatic stress growth, the positive flip side to suffering with stress.20 The researchers categorized the elements of surviving stressful events in three ways: survival with impairment, survival with resilience, and survival by thriving. Surviving with impairment, a survivor may blame her trauma on everything wrong with life. Surviving with resilience means she may recover from the trauma and live a serviceable life. Surviving by thriving though occurs when people make the traumatic event a pivotal point in life, changing their situation by making lemonade out lemons—ultimately thriving after cancer, for instance. The thriving survivor enjoys her blissful moments, which can lead to further change and the ability to find positive ways to manage stress.

About managing stress and cancer, Suzanne Danhauer of Wake Forest School of Medicine says, “Given the high levels of stress and distress that cancer patients experience, the opportunity to feel more peaceful and calm is a significant benefit.” She goes on to describe results of random trials studying the effects of yoga on emotions. Her research, conducted in 2009, found an increase of positive emotions such as calmness and a sense of purpose in over 50 percent of her subjects.

So, a growing body of research shows that yoga provides emotional benefits. Whether we use yoga to lose weight gained by taking medication, to detox our body following chemotherapy, or to regain the use of our arms, practicing yoga helps us feel better. As these benefits become more apparent, we experience increased well-being and, more importantly, feel more empowered than before. A positive spiral toward health results; as we continue to feel better, we make even better decisions about how to bring balance and ease to our lives.

Often, survivors with a yoga practice are surprised to find self-healing and empowerment in addition to their newfound well-being. Yoga empowers us to define life on our own terms. A solid practice can help reduce drug dependency or leave us feeling like we had a great massage. Ultimately, yoga helps us create a sense of balance between body and mind, the physical and the spiritual.

A final point: The first obstacle to exploring the great promises of a yoga practice is accepting that things are never going to be the same—and that is okay. Learning how to practice self-compassion is the most important benefit of all, what is called the bliss benefit.