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 Yoga has many proven benefits for a person’s health, from calming the mind to easing an aching back. It helps many people to feel both physically and mentally healthy. Besides being all-round beneficial to a person’s health, Yoga can also be used to target specific illnesses and problems. This article will research Yoga’s potential health benefits related to increasing a person’s self-esteem. Self Esteem can be defined as “the experience of being capable of meeting life’s challenges and being worthy of happiness.” Many people, especially young women, suffer from low self-esteem, which can affect many areas of their lives in a negative way. Yoga can assist a person to increase their self-esteem.
Low self-esteem can be negative as it can lead to the person not taking responsibility for their mistakes, not realizing their personal worth, and trying to prove themselves to others. Also, relationships have been found between low self-esteem and such problems as violence, alcoholism, drug abuse, eating disorders, school exclusion, teenage pregnancy, suicide, and low academic achievement. Although it is noted that there are other factors involved as well that can lead to these problems.
There is a general agreement that the term self-esteem includes cognitive, affective, and behavioural elements. Similarly, Yoga focuses on improving mental, behavioural and emotional aspects of a person’s life and body, and can help to improve all these areas in conjunction with one another. In this way, Yoga can be seen as a perfect choice to help improve self-esteem. The combination of mind and body activities through Yoga seems to be what makes it so effective for problems such as low self-esteem. The meditative aspect of Yoga is probably most likely to increase a person’s self-esteem, although the physical side is also useful. The physical side will also help a person feel more confident about their body and to stand straighter.
“The supreme goal of Yoga is the union of the individual spirit with the universal spirit, the finding of one’s essential nature (Self) beyond empirical ego”. If a person attains this level of Yoga, their self-esteem will definitely benefit. They will shed the ego that is comparing them to the beauty of everyone else and is subject to advertising and messaging that they are not good enough, slim enough, pretty enough. They will get in touch with their true self and with the “universal spirit” and see more of their personal worth.
Yoga practice can help a person become better, stronger, and more confident at doing poses, helping them to feel more competent. It can give a feeling of strength, both physically and mentally. A sense of worth can be found through Yoga as the person goes deeper into the spiritual journey of Yoga, as well as through bettering oneself physically and helping the mind through meditation. Yoga can help calm and quiet the mind, when it is telling you that you are not good enough or thinking negative thoughts. Yoga brings a positive side to life that can increase confidence and self-esteem.
There are many ways Yoga helps to improve a person’s self-worth and self-esteem. Through sleeping better, by increasing their energy, by maintaining their weight, by helping their posture, and improving their self-acceptance and well-being. The improving of the self-acceptance part is very true, in my own personal experience. Through Yoga, a person develops love and acceptance for themselves and the way that they are.
One method to increase self-esteem is to surround oneself with positive people who are supportive. A Yoga class is like this, with Yoga creating more positive outlooks on life. Most students and teachers of Yoga are supportive of all the students, creating a supportive environment to grow. Yoga teaches to respect and listen to your own body. This could help a person be more proud of the body they live in, as well as to physically improve that body. Yoga helps a person want to take care of their body better as well.
Another method is to end constant comparisons to other people, because there will always be something to make a person feel bad about themselves when comparing. Yoga can help with this as well, as Yoga is not competitive. Unlike many other forms of physical exercise, Yoga is based on respecting one’s own body and not comparing oneself to anyone else in the class. The good Yoga class is a safe and accepting place free of competition that would foster self-esteem. I strive to make my Yoga class that kind of place.
Another related suggestion is to take some time in silence and stillness every day. Yoga provides this in the meditation part of the practice. One feels more balanced and better able to cope with the ups and downs of life. The person with low self-esteem becomes better able to mentally and emotionally handle the stress of the outside coming at them, and can better accept themselves within that. The Pratyahara part of Yoga gives the person the ability to turn off the external messages from your eyes, ears, and other sense organs, and tune in to your internal environment.
Physically, posture is one aspect related to working with people who have low self-esteem. Many people with low self-esteem tend to hunch over, with rounded shoulders and neck forward, causing them to suffer from neck, shoulder and back problems. In a Yoga class geared toward self-esteem, part of my focus would be on improving these areas. Many poses help posture in general, such as the Tree and Palm Tree poses. Another example would be the Standing Upright Posture, which would help the person become more aware of the posture of their whole body. The Camel Posture would be especially useful, as it “corrects rounded shoulders and a hump at the base of the neck”. The Fish Posture helps to straighten and lengthen a rounded back.
I would also utilize poses that create a sense of strength and confidence. This could include Warrior I and Warrior II and Mountain pose. I would utilize a well-rounded Yoga session to give the students all the mental, emotional, and physical effects of Yoga.
Yoga is about optimizing the functions of every system in your body from the muscles to digestion, circulation, and immunity. It is about emotional well-being, spiritual resilience, and buoyancy, even joy. In order for Yoga to change the person, the key is repetition and practice, ideally every day. This is what will most efficiently forge new neural pathways and strengthen grooves you’ve already begun to dig. Yoga is something many people find easier to commit to than many other forms of exercise and relaxation. |
