Worry Thwarts

Mainstream therapists are catching on to what yogis have always known: Yoga is one of the best ways to ease an anxious mind.

By Melanie Haiken

The attack started, as they almost always do, late at night. While my two daughters slept, I paced the darkened kitchen, mentally ticking off an unending list of things that felt like they needed to be done right that minute. My breathing was rapid, my nerves jittery, my stomach queasy. Then I tried the trick a therapist taught me long ago and carefully jotted down my "worry list."

The next day, hoping to assuage my anxiety with action, I raced around trying to take care of everything on the list. But my thoughts swarmed in a vibrating hum and I couldn't concentrate on anything long enough to be effective. I returned an important call, and then couldn't remember what I'd meant to talk to the caller about. I went grocery shopping, but left a bag of groceries in the cart. The absurdity of the situation hit me when my 12-year-old daughter picked up the list and read it out loud: "Pay overdue mortgage," certainly a legitimate concern, was followed by "change lightbulb in closet"—surely not worth losing sleep over.

Although I've sought countless therapeutic remedies for my anxiety, the eventual breakthrough I experienced didn't happen on a therapist's couch. It occurred in a single moment in a yoga class, when I finally managed to get into Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose)—and stay in it for a full five minutes. Something happened: My back arched, my chest expanded, I breathed more deeply than I would have thought possible. And my mind cleared. All that constant, overwhelming clatter was just gone, blessedly gone.

As I discovered later, my yoga breakthrough wasn't unique. More and more anxiety experts are recommending yoga—along with meditation and other mindfulness techniques—as part of an effective strategy for bringing a worried mind under control.

"In the past few years, yoga has gained widespread acceptance among those working with anxiety disorders," says psychologist Christian Komor, an expert in obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD), who directs the OCD Recovery Centers of America, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. "There's a real buzz about it-people are taking it seriously as we see research that validates its benefits."

This is good news, considering that anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States. According to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, more than 13 percent of the adult population is affected. And that's counting only those with a diagnosed anxiety disorder; there are many more people, like me, who struggle with a chronic tendency to worry over anything and everything.

Why Yoga Works

"When you practice yoga, you're able to be more aware of thoughts as they come and go. You can see them in your mind but not chase them," says Lizabeth Roemer, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. Roemer is at the forefront of what she calls a "pretty substantial movement" to harness the power of mindfulness strategies such as yoga and meditation to supplement traditional anxiety therapy. With collaborator Susan Orsillo, Roemer has spent the past four years developing a treatment protocol for anxiety that blends traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy with the mindfulness program of yoga, meditation, and breathing techniques developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn. The study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, wraps up this year, and Roemer says preliminary results are more than encouraging.

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