Yoga For Anxiety

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Everyone sometimes feels anxious for no identifiable reason. At these times we think, "Something is happening-I must stay alert." Panic victims share these feelings, but for them the stakes are higher. Their distress is so overwhelming that the fearful possibilities take on mammoth proportions. "I'm having a heart attack," they think, or "I'm losing my mind." We all experience periods of vague anxiety, which often pass without our ever discovering or having to acknowledge the causes. Panic anxiety, however, is the cue for a determined (and often desperate) search for a source.

Panic attacks are characterized by rapidly escalating and overwhelming anxiety. In the beginning, people who panic are rarely able to identify what has made them anxious, describing the episodes as occurring "out of the blue." The attacks are triggered by frightening physical sensations that occur suddenly, much like an unconscious reflex. Among the most common are shortness of breath, a rapid heart rate, heart palpitations, sweating, trembling, a feeling of choking, chest pain, nausea, and dizziness. Frightened sufferers develop painfully sharp sensitivity to these sensations, often making several trips to the emergency room before they finally realize that their symptoms are panic-related.

Physical sensations alone are not the core of the illness. Fearful thoughts, unpleasant emotions, avoidable behaviors, disturbing sensations, and deteriorating relationships all collude with one another to maintain panic. Thoughts such as the fear of dying or of having a mental breakdown are common. Even mild anxiety can trigger an attack, and any disturbing emotion can be interpreted as a precursor to full-fledged panic.

Yoga tells us that before searching for a cure it is important to look deeply into the nature and causes of illness. It is also important to get an idea of how things will be when symptoms have been removed, because otherwise we may have illusions about what recovery will be like. For example, eliminating anxiety is not the outcome of treatment for panic-the outcome is the ability to manage anxious feelings.

Yoga training can be particularly useful here, for yoga teaches us how to interact with the nervous system. If we want to soothe and strengthen it, we need to learn deep, relaxed yogic breathing. Regardless of the pathways of arousal, breathing is the language of nervous system balance and control.

Practicing yoga is a good way to learn breathing skills, for it is a gradual process, often needing considerable support over a period of time. Yoga teachers quickly recognize when a student is having trouble (as is often the case with people who panic), and they know a wide variety of alternate practices that will help the student master breathing skills.

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