Stay zen: Yoga can help to improve your mood, research reveals

The busyness of our lives can often have an overwhelming impact on our mental health. The stress and never-ending intensity can leave you feeling extremely down.

One thing that can help boost your mood is exercise. People are exercising more than ever before and it looks like it is helping a lot more than our fitness levels!

One form of exercise that has been hugely beneficial for many is yoga. A study has found that yoga can help people with mental health disorders like depression, panic disorders, stress, generalised anxiety disorder and schizophrenia.

The team explained,  “Consideration of yoga as an evidence based exercise modality alongside conventional forms of exercise is warranted, given the positive results of this review. Yoga may provide an additional or alternative strategy to engage people experiencing depression in meaningful physical activity.”

The study, which was published in British Journal of Sports Medicine, analysed 13 studies involving 632 participants.

The participants practiced yoga for 20 and 90 minutes for two and a half months. The team found that yoga had a moderate effect in reducing the symptoms of disorders like depression. 

The more they practiced yoga, the more it helped ease symptoms.

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