Can Yoga Help With Anxiety?
Slow Breath, Steady Ground

Anxiety is loud in the body long before we name it. Shallow breath high in the chest, shoulders up, jaw set, a stomach that will not settle. You can be sitting perfectly still and working extremely hard.

A slow yoga practice meets all of that where it is. It offers the body something straightforward to do instead - lengthen the exhale, feel the floor, move at a pace that is easy to follow. Our yoga for anxiety and stress classes are built around that idea.

Start With the Exhale

If you remember one thing, make it this: let the out-breath be longer than the in-breath. In for four, out for six, for a minute or two. No pose, no mat, nothing to learn. It is the most portable tool in the whole practice, and it works on a train, in a car park, or two minutes before a meeting you are dreading.

Shapes That Tend to Settle Things

The theme here is low, supported and unhurried. Nothing that asks you to balance, nothing upside down, nothing that needs effort to hold.

• Child's pose - forehead supported, back rounded. Small, contained, and often the first place the breath drops.
• Legs up the wall - three minutes of doing genuinely nothing, with the legs resting up.
• Reclined butterfly with cushions - chest open, hips supported, entirely passive.
• Reclined twist - slow rotation while lying down, one side and then the other.
• Lying still with a hand on the belly - feeling the breath move something is often steadier than counting it.

Slow Beats Strong Here

A fast, sweaty flow has real value, and plenty of people find it clears their head beautifully. When the system is already revved, though, the practices that tend to help most are the slow ones - long holds, plenty of props, a teacher setting an unhurried pace. Save the strong flows for a day when you want energy, and let this kind of session be about settling.

Little and Often Wins

Five minutes most days will do more than an hour when things get difficult. Part of what makes a practice useful in a hard moment is that it is already familiar, so practise on the ordinary days too. Anchor it to something you already do - after brushing your teeth, before you open your laptop - and keep the bar low enough that a tired version still counts. Results vary. A slow evening practice often pairs well with this.