Yoga has many benefits, but it's especially beneficial to highly sensitive people looking to stay healthy and grounded in their daily lives. Yoga can help you with everything from dealing with stress and staying calm to lowering your blood pressure and boosting your immune system.
Here are the ways yoga can help highly sensitive people.
Benefits And Challenges Of Being A Highly Sensitive Person
Highly sensitive people are often empaths. This means that they can feel the emotions of others as if they were their own. Highly sensitive people are natural caretakers and may often sacrifice their own needs to meet those of others. While this can be a great gift, it can also be overwhelming. Being an empath can be difficult because it is impossible to turn off your feelings, even when you want to.
They may also struggle with chronic fatigue and depression due to feeling other people's energies too deeply and not knowing how to keep them at bay or deal with them effectively. Highly sensitive people can get relief from being so in tune with others through practicing yoga, specifically restorative yoga, which teaches relaxation techniques.
How Yoga Can Help?
For highly sensitive people, yoga can be a form of self-care. Yoga has been shown to increase mindfulness and self-compassion in some research studies. It also provides many benefits for the body, like increased flexibility, muscular strength, and decreased stress levels.
Restorative yoga is an easy way to reduce stress. It encourages deep breathing, decelerates heart rate, and increases relaxation by gently stretching your muscles while supporting you with props such as blankets or bolsters.
1. Overstimulated Nervous System
For sensitive people, yoga can be a game-changer. If you're unfamiliar, highly sensitive people (HSPs) make up 15-20% of the population and tend to be overstimulated by their environment. This means that their nervous system is constantly on high alert, which can lead to anxiety, overwhelm, and even depression yoga is an excellent way to regulate the nervous system.
2. By Breathing, You'll Help Your System Return To Its Original Level
When you're feeling overwhelmed, your sympathetic nervous system is in overdrive. This fight or flight response is designed to help you deal with a threat. But your body is supposed to return to its normal resting state when the threat is gone. Unfortunately, for highly sensitive people, this doesn't always happen. The good news is that yoga can help! By focusing on your breath and connecting with your body, you can begin to bring your system back into balance.
3. Practicing Yoga Makes You Focus Inward Instead Of Outward
This is a very good thing for highly sensitive people. When we focus too much on the outside world, we can easily become overloaded and overstimulated. This can lead to anxiety, depression, and a host of other problems. But when we focus inward, we can connect with our true selves and find a sense of peace and calm. This is one of the most important benefits of yoga for highly sensitive people.
4. It Improves The Circulation Of Your Sensitive Body
Yoga is a great way to help highly sensitive people. It helps nourish your sensitive body, like improving your circulation. It also helps you to become more aware of your body and how it feels in space. Additionally, yoga can help ground you when you feel overwhelmed and provide a sense of calmness. Lastly, yoga can help increase your self-esteem and confidence.
Yoga Asanas For Highly Sensitive People
HSPs are often overstimulated by their environment and can benefit from yoga asanas that help to ground and center them. Yoga can also help HSPs to become more aware of their bodies and how they are feeling in the present moment. Asanas that focus on breath work and relaxation can be particularly helpful for HSPs.
#1. For Better Energy Flow
Yoga postures like Child's Pose, Bridge Pose, and Deep Lunge help HSPs to regulate their body's energy flow better.
#2. For Relaxation
Yoga poses like Standing Forward Bend, Half-Lotus, or Seated Forward Bend can help reduce stress hormones by activating the parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS). In this relaxed state, oxygen levels increase, reducing muscle and nerves tension.
#3. To Relieve Pain And Discomfort
Yoga poses like Camel Pose, Forward Fold, and Supported Downward Facing Dog are excellent ways to release muscle tension in the back while increasing flexibility. These asanas will relieve sensitive people suffering from pain or discomfort caused by long periods of sitting.
#4. For Insomnia
Yoga poses like Legs Up The Wall or Supported Shoulder Stand with a bolster under the neck and forehead can be useful for those who experience insomnia due to sensitivity.
#5. To Improve Blood Circulation
Yoga poses such as Cat/Cow Pose allows HSPs to improve joint mobility and coordination while improving blood circulation throughout the body.
#6. For Mental And Physical Equilibrium
Yoga poses like Triangle Pose and Extended Side Angle Pose will give HSPs a great stretch in the hamstrings, hips, and outer thighs.
Conclusion
Yoga can help highly sensitive people in many ways. It can help them relax and feel more comfortable in their skin. It can also help to increase their flexibility and strength, both physically and mentally. Yoga can also help to improve their concentration and focus, and it can help to reduce stress levels. Overall, yoga is a great way for highly sensitive people to improve their health and well-being.