Yoga. Yes, it’s a thing.
So is Tai Chi. So are hiking, taking walks, lifting weights, running, swimming, dancing, stretching, and massage. All things. Good things!
Are they good for anxiety? Are they good for recovery? The answer to that is … they absolutely can be, but these are not magic activities.
People often ask me if I did (or do) yoga or if I used any other physical activity as part of my recovery plan. I did buy a Tai Chi DVD once hoping that it would wipe away my anxiety. I was wrong, but Tai Chi is a lovely form of movement. I kinda enjoyed just being graceful, or at least trying to. That’s not usually my jam. I’ve done a little Yoga here and there, but never with any kind of consistency. I keep saying I’m going to get into it, then I don’t. Maybe at some point it will be interesting enough for me to really commit. But I did walk, stretch, and lift weights all during my recovery. I did those things and I am really happy that I did.
Just walking slowly on the treadmill was a start. Walking casually around my neighborhood. That was once a challenge. But doing those things helped to teach me that I could do things, even when I was sure that I needed to treat my body like it was really fragile. When I started lifting weights again, that was a whole different kind of useful experience. Gentle walking is great, but I really had forgotten what it felt like to be totally out of breath with my heart pounding so lifting weights got me back in touch with that experience and helped me acclimate to those sensations that I feared so much. Lifting really helped me learn to trust my body again, even when I was lifting weight that I might kinda laugh at now. It counted and it counted in the big way.
As I increased the intensity of my exercise, I found that stretching felt pretty good and helped to make me more capable in the gym and just in life, so I started doing that too. I found that the few minutes here and there that I would spend stretching became almost a form of meditation and focus practice. Who knew it would be helpful in that way?
So what about yoga? And all those other things. Are they “good for anxiety”. They’re just good for physical and mental health in general. I do not like when people look at movement and physical activity only as good or bad “for anxiety”. That’s missing a big part of the benefit.
Do you want to try yoga or something else because you are trying to recover? That’s as good a reason as any to try, but be realistic. Do not expect your physical activity to be a magic anxiety eraser. And by the way, exercise and movement do not “burn off adrenaline”. When we exercise we literally make more adrenaline. We just use it as we make it. So that whole adrenaline burning thing is a red herring. Just saying.
When you introduce movement and exercise, be open to the experience and allow it to teach you that you are capable even when convinced that you are not. Let it show you that you can still do life things, even when you don’t feel OK. Yoga, dance, running, and all of these things are activities that humans regularly engage in for health reasons and even for enjoyment. Allow your experience with exercise and movement to be a look at just doing human things again without basing everything on how anxious you may or may not be at any given time.
So … what about yoga? I don’t know. Give it a try. You might discover that you can do yoga, or even enjoy it, without demanding to be a fully recovered person as an automatic result. Imagine that?
172. What About Yoga?