The mind-altering power of yoga could improve your mental health

Yoga has been found to increase grey matter and alter key networks in the brain. Now there are hopes it could be used to help improve people's mental health.

My right arm is shaking. Sweat drips from my forehead as I twist my body from a side plank into a yoga pose known as "Wild Thing" – or "Camatkarasana". It is quite the contortion – I arch my back, stretching my left arm over my head. My right foot is planted on the ground, and I look up to the sky. 

One translation of the Sanskrit word camatkarasana is "the ecstatic unfolding of the enraptured heart" and is said to elicit confidence. And – despite the strain – I feel invincible. 

When I started practicing yoga, I wanted to sweat and to build strength. I saw it purely as a form of exercise – but I found it was so much more.

The practice of yoga dates back over 2,000 years to ancient India. And though today, there are many different types of yoga – from meditative yin yoga to flowing vinyasa – through their use of movement, meditation and breathing exercises, all forms focus on a mind-body connection. And there is growing evidence that yoga may not just have physical benefits but may also be good for your mind too. Some researchers even hope it could be a promising way of helping people with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cope with their symptoms. 

Certainly, research on the physical benefits of yoga is extensive. The first thing anyone who hasn't tried yoga should know is that it can be surprisingly strenuous. It improves strength, flexibility and cardio-respiratory fitness. Studies have found yoga can improve stamina and agility. It can prevent injuries (although it can also be a cause of injuries if not done correctly) and enhance performance in other sports – with advocates including world-class footballers, American footballers and basketball players. 

And there is a growing body of research showing yoga can be beneficial for a wide range of health issues.

In epilepsy sufferers, for example, practicing yoga has been seen to significantly reduce the number of seizures – or even prevent them entirely. Yoga has been used as an intervention to help manage type 2 diabetes, reduce chronic pain, and aid in stroke rehabilitation. It has also been shown to be more effective than physiotherapy at improving the quality of life for people with multiple sclerosis, and one trial even suggests it could be beneficial for cancer survivors.

After experiencing the profound effects of yoga, Mason went on to train in yoga, psychotherapy and neuroscience, before founding her yoga therapy training school in 2009. "I felt there were a lot of claims [about yoga] that were made that had no substantiated evidence. And when you have been hopeless for most of your life, you don't want to be peddled something that might work," she says.

Mason now trains health and yoga professionals in yoga therapy. "I realised that there was an accessibility problem," she says. "[Yoga] is marketed is for young, white, skinny women. If you don't see yourself reflected within this practice, you may not think it's for you."

It can be expensive, too, she adds, "This is why I am so dead set on its integration into the NHS [the UK's National Health System]." Plus, people with mental health issues can often struggle to engage in self-care, she explains. "They have to be motivated to do it. I thought, if we can bring it into the medical paradigm – all that will change."