By Sharon Thiel
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-around 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. The National Association for Self-Esteem (NASE) defines self-esteem as “the experience of being capable of meeting life’s challenges and being worthy of happiness.” (www.self-esteem-nase.org). 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 (NASE). Also, “a close relationship has been documented between low self-esteem and such problems as violence, alcoholism, drug abuse, eating disorders, school dropouts, 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 (NASE).
“There is general agreement that the term self-esteem includes cognitive, affective, and behavioral elements.” Similarly, Yoga focuses on improving mental, behavioral 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 seem 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” (Hewitt, p. 371). 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, skinny enough, pretty enough. They will get in touch with their true self and with the “universal spirit” and see more of their personal worth.
NASE finds that self-esteem is intertwined with a personal sense of worth and with the feeling that one is competent. 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 (www.worldwidehealth.com). This website explains that Yoga does this by helping the practitioner sleep better, by increasing their energy, by maintaining their weight, by helping their posture, and improving their self-acceptance and well-being. (www.worldwidehealth.com). 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 the NASE uses 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. “What the practice of yoga does is challenge you wherever you need it, transforming liabilities into strengths, making you a more balanced person” (McCall, p.8).
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 (NASE). 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.
The NASE also suggests to renew and develop personally each day, by doing something like meditation or visualization. Yoga is definitely a way to provide this, as it includes some form of relaxation and meditation in every class. Similarly, they suggest to turn your home into a sanctuary from the stress and impulses from the outside world. Yoga at home can provide this as well, as it helps the practitioner to escape the outside world during their session, and the effects can also extend beyond the session. “Yoga meditation promotes psycho-physical poise and a quiet mind that protects against the stress of modern life, which destroys health and happiness, and is indeed a major killer in civilized society” (Hewitt, p. 373). Hewitt points out that Yoga helps the nervous system, which helps the person’s physical and mental health well beyond that one Yoga session.
Another related suggestion is to take some time in silence and stillness every day. Yoga provides this in the meditation part of the practice. “Gradually one feels more balanced, better able to endure the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” (McCall, p.8). 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” (McCall, p. 16).
A number of studies have been done linking Yoga to increased self-esteem, although there is definitely a need for more research. McCall shows that “Yoga has been shown in a variety of studies to improve a number of measures of psychological health, including mood, self-esteem, and sense of equanimity” (p.44). A 2007 study by Elavsky and McAuley found that although Yoga was not necessarily better than walking in terms of increasing self-esteem in menopausal women, Yoga did increase their self-esteem just as walking did. The study followed 164 menopausal women between the ages of 42 and 56. The women who did Yoga practiced Hatha Yoga for 90 minute sessions twice a week for four months. Yoga can also benefit self-esteem in kids. A 2003 study from California State University that followed children from kindergarten though 8th grade, found that Yoga increased self-esteem in 20% of the students who practiced.
Specifically related to setting up a Yoga session for those with low self-esteem, I would include certain poses that would benefit and increase their self-esteem. For the mental and emotional side of this problem, I would include meditation, utilizing poses such as Easy Posture, Lotus Posture, or any pose where the person is sitting up with their back and neck straight (Hewitt). Although the book recommends sitting postures for meditation, in my personal practice, I find that corpse pose leads to wonderful meditation. This pose has often lead me to very deep levels of meditation, without falling asleep. I prefer to use this pose with stage-by-stage relaxation throughout the body. I find that after I do a full Yoga session, when my body is properly tired, I do stage-by-stage relaxation for every part of my body in Corpse Pose, and my mind becomes calm and relaxed. During this point, I feel as though my mind leaves my body and I go to a much deeper level of relaxation and of meditation. When I come out of this state, I feel very calm, relaxed and refreshed. I have often felt as though an answer to a problem I was having at the time came to me during that period of meditation. Hewitt quotes the Gheranda Samhita, saying “this posture destroys fatigue, and quiets the agitation of the mind” (p. 227).
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” (Hewitt, p. 311). 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” (McCall, p.4). In order for Yoga to change the person, the “key is repetition…practice, ideally every day. This is what will most efficiently forge new neural pathways and strenghten grooves you’ve already begun to dig” (McCall, p.24). Yoga is something many people find easier to commit to than many other forms of exercise and relaxation.
Through personal experience, I can relate to this topic. Throughout my teens and early twenties, I had very low self-esteem. I started doing Yoga in college, and it was definitely one of the things that increased my self-esteem. Through Yoga, I became more secure in my own skin. I gained confidence with other people. I felt more mentally and emotionally stable to better deal with negative or controlling people, who previously would affect me too much. Most powerfully, I had amazing experiences through meditation, which I believe came from the “universal spirit”, that helped to show me my place in the world, my personal beauty and worth. Now that I have gained a lot of confidence and self-esteem into my late twenties, I would like to help other people in that way through Yoga. I consider at some point adding a specific self-esteem Yoga class to my repertoire, as I feel it would be very beneficial to many people, especially young women.
Sources
6 Reasons to do Yoga. www.worldwidehealth.com
Elavsky, S., McAuley, E. (2007). Exercise and self-esteem in menopausal women: A randomized controlled trial involving walking and Yoga. American Journal of Health Promotion, 22(2), 83-92.
Hewitt, James. 1977. The Complete Yoga Book. New York: Schocken Books.
McCall, Timothy, M.D. 2007. Yoga as Medicine. New York: Bantam Bell.
Naud, Rachel and McKinnon, Teri. 2003. “Kiddy Yoga hikes self-esteem, health and grades”. www.edmontonjournal.com
National association for self-esteem http://www.self-esteem-nase.org/
Sharon Thiel teaches Yoga classes in Coconut Creek, Florida.