Why does mental health matter?   

To put it simply, when we think good, we feel good. And when we feel good, we do good. So, whatever we do in our lives is based on what we think. Every time we think, our thoughts can be positive, negative, neutral, conscious, or unconscious. That thought process is converted into a chemical reaction in the body, and this chemical reaction produces neurotransmitters, hormones, or enzymes, which influence almost all the physiological functions of the body. If the thought process we have is conscious and resourceful, then the reaction which happens in the body will be positive and we remain healthy. But if the thought process is not resourceful, unconscious, and destructive in nature, that leads to a negative impact on health. This negative impact is often referred to as stress, anxiety, or other mental health issues.  

What does stress really mean?  

The most common term that we use in association with mental health is stress and this stress is often associated with our physiological state of being. We also know that stress is a term in physics which means to apply force to an object at rest. When stress is applied, the object could either stretch, undergo strain, or break. Similarly, our body can stretch or accommodate, undergo immense strain or breakdown. When the body perceives some form of danger or an unfamiliar situation, it activates a form of stress response in the body. This response of the body towards danger or threat is called fight or flight response. 

What is fight or flight response?  

Here is a simple explanation about fight or flight response. Imagine a scenario where we are walking through a forest and suddenly encounter a lion. What do we do? We only have two options, either fight with the lion or run away from it. For either of these, the body needs to activate the fight or flight response by increasing the heartbeat, increasing the blood pressure, and increasing the energy production. For either of these situations, the body also needs high energy, and this is achieved by increasing the blood circulation to the muscles in your hands and legs, and reducing its flow to the organs. Most importantly, the body activates decision making for a reflex reaction, and because we have to make a decision immediately, the action will be taken over by the lower part of the brain, which is the activation zone for fight or flight responses.  

Let’s assume the lion is not hungry or not interested and walked away without harming us. What happens? The body starts to calm down. When the perceived danger doesn’t occur, your heartbeat goes back to normal, your BP goes back to normal, your blood circulation which was diverted to the hands and legs will come back to the internal organs, and decision making becomes more intellectual and conscious than reflexive and emotional in nature.  

Let’s continue with this scenario where we are once again walking through the forest. After a few hours, say six hours, we encounter a tiger. What happens now? Of course, the same thing happens. The fight or flight response is once again activated in the body. So, let’s say that this is your lucky day and the tiger is also not interested in attacking you. So, what happens next? Everything goes back to normal.   

Now, since we are living in a forest, the next day we encounter an elephant. Again, the stress response activates and if the elephant is also not interested in attacking us, we go back to normal. This is how our life is. When we perceive some danger, the fight or flight response is supposed to activate to help us escape from that situation. And when that dangerous situation passes, things go back to normal. When this danger-activation-relaxation process happens at longer intervals, say once in an hour, every six hours, or a day, it is well within our control.   

However, imagine facing a threat from a lion, tiger, and elephant every 10 minutes. Then what happens is that we are in a constant state of fight or flight response.  

How does a constant fight or flight response affect our body and mind?  

Now that we are living in a modern world and not in a forest, the stress is mostly internal. The danger of encountering “wild animals” lives in our minds, in our thoughts. These thoughts constantly come to us every second or every minute and do not go away, activating our fight or flight response every time, triggering high BP and a high heart rate. The energy metabolism is faster and blood circulation to the internal organs is low. And most importantly, decision-making is done by our emotional reflex brain and not by our conscious intellectual brain, which again increases the stress we are facing, and this vicious cycle continues.  

Another good example of this fight or flight response is the accelerator of an automobile, which keeps us going, whereas the brakes are the rest and healing mechanism. The fight or flight response is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system, while the rest and healing mechanism is controlled by the parasympathetic nervous system. The relationship between these two is like that of a brake and an accelerator, where only one can be used or activated at the same time. So, what happens if you’re constantly under stress? In such cases, the fight or flight response is on high alert and the rest and healing mechanism can never work.  

How do you address these fight or flight responses in your body and mind?  

For positive mental health, you must learn to relax to get rid of this imagined sense of danger or stress from your mind, so that you can make more conscious and intellectual decisions. Since your stress is based on your thoughts, the best way to relax is to control the thought process. This is where Yoga Therapy can aid you by switching off this fight or flight response and activating the rest and healing mechanism.  

How does Yoga work to stop fight or flight responses?   

Yoga is used as a therapeutic tool to address mental health issues. Yoga is action with awareness. When you do physical activities with awareness, it is called Yoga Asanas. When you do breathing exercises with awareness, it is called Pranayama. When you become aware of your thought processes, it is called Dhyana Meditation. These 3 fundamental aspects of Yoga help control fight or flight responses, and are used to intervene in reversing, controlling, or modifying mental health issues. In fact, Yoga is one of the most effective modalities to treat and control influences like stress, anxiety, depression, and other stress-associated disorders. 

How do Yoga Asanas work?  

When you do a Yoga Asana, and stretch or bend one or more muscles, what happens is that you are concentrating and bringing awareness to that part of the body and activating the proprioceptors in your body. As we see the external world with our eyes, proprioceptors are sensory receptors that help us to establish internal communication. These proprioceptors are called the eyes of the body. Through Asana practises, the awareness of one’s body increases, and in turn, we are able to recognise the changes in our body before they manifest as a disease or a disability.

How does Pranayama work?  

Pranayama is a slow, deep, and controlled breathing exercise with awareness. When used therapeutically, it helps you to relax and create mindfulness. Your mind is controlled by your breath, and when you control your breath, you can control the mind. We know this from experience. When you are stressed, your breathing becomes faster, and when you are relaxed, your breathing becomes slower. It works vice versa too. If you do deep and slow breathing, the body considers you to be relaxed and activates the rest and healing mechanism on your physical, emotional, and physiological planes. By practising Pranayama, you are training your body and mind to handle stressful situations more effectively. In jest one can say – fake it till you make it. Practise Pranayama to convince your mind and body that you are relaxed.    What happens if you don’t do this? If you don’t do this, your stress hormones will be high in your body. You get into a state of stress, anxiety, and panic, and if that continues, it affects your mental health. 

How does Meditation work?  

Meditation is being aware of your thought processes, which help to bring stillness to your mind. You may be aware that stress-inducing responses in your body is always initiated by non-conscious or subconscious activity, in which you are unaware of what you are thinking. Different meditation techniques equip you with the tools to overcome and cope with stress and heal your body. This in turn empowers oneself to take control of any difficult thoughts that disturb your balance.  

Yogic Chitta Vrittis and Neurolinguistic Programmes  

At Prakriti Shakti, Clinic of Natural Medicine by CGH Earth, we use these Yoga techniques as a part of our therapy, along with Yoga concepts to overcome the perception and attitudes in life that lead to stress. It is these subjective realities or mind chatter that make us react to the people, events, and the external world in general. Yoga is nothing but a cessation of these subjective realities (Chitta Vrittis).   

We behave badly with people because we think that that person is wrong. We react to people without understanding what they really mean. We always say that we are responsible for what we say, not what they understand. But when people say something to us, we take it in a negative sense and react to that based on our subjective realities. In more ways than one, our thoughts are based on memories. Yoga considers memory as subjective reality and mental modification. We react to various phobias like fear of darkness, fear of heights, and even fear of cockroaches based mostly on childhood experiences. Yoga says pure practise and detachment will help you overcome this misinterpretation of information.   

At CGH Earth’s NABH-accredited Naturopathy clinic, Prakriti Shakti, various aspects and methods of Yoga along with Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) are used to overcome the subjective realities in our minds, that make us react in a certain way to the external world. 

Disclaimer

The sole purpose of this article is to provide information about naturopathy. This information is not intended for use in the diagnosis, treatment, cure or prevention of any disease. If you have an acute or chronic health concern, please consult a naturopathy doctor who can fully assess your needs and address them effectively.