Yoga is an ancient Hindu practice that originated in India over 6000 years ago. Its practice was and still is used today to promote good health, flexibility, mindfulness, and spirituality. The word yoga itself is translated into “union” of the body, mind, and soul. It is a joining method of oneself and the Divine Spirit, Universal Spirit, or Cosmic Consciousness (Dupler 2917). Because yoga is a well-known practice and promotes improvement in its three targets, yoga has been thought and proven to be a form of natural and spiritual medication. But some say that this may not be the case. Many researchers argue that yoga does not promote good health, mentality, or spirituality and that it’s all a placebo. A placebo, or the placebo effect, is a term for when something is believed to do something to the patient and make him or her feel a certain way when in reality, the effects are just all in his or her head. It is psychobiological and can be attributable to different mechanisms, including expectations of clinical improvement and pavlovian conditioning (Benedetti, Fabrizio et al 10390). Does yoga really promote improvement of its three targets or is it just another placebo effect? I argue that yoga not a placebo effect and that it does play a genuine role in patient development and improvement.
Yoga is a very ancient practice that has been proven worldwide to promote improvements in human development. According to Scientific American, yoga promotes growth in regions of the brain for self-awareness (Sutherland 2014). This has been proven through research and MRI scans of a yoga patient’s brain compared to a non-yoga patient’s brain. The brain, depending on what one is practicing during a yoga session, tends to grow in certain regions, leading to the dampening of stress, improves vision, and heightens attention span. Enlargement of these region of the brain leads to promotion of feel-good chemicals such as GABA, serotonin, and dopamine, which are responsible for feelings of relaxation and contentedness, and the way the brain processes rewards (Walton 2011). The practice, however, does not revolve just around physical activity. Yoga is partially a mental and breathing exercise as well.
The yogis dedicated on average about 70 percent of their practice to physical postures, about 20 percent to meditation and 10 percent to breath work, typical of most Western yoga routines (Sutherland 2014).
Also, regions in your brain will grow more according to how frequently you practice yoga. “We found that with more hours of practice per week, certain areas were more enlarged (Sutherland 2014).”
The regions of the brain that were enlarged in yogis – yoga practitioners – were the somatosensory cortex, the superior parietal cortex, and the visual cortex. Respectively, these areas of the brain are responsible for containing a mental map of one’s body, directing attention, and vision. Also, the hippocampus, responsible for dampening stress, was also enlarged (Sutherland 2014). This is because of visual techniques, relaxation postures, breathing exercises, and meditation.
While visual techniques are self-explanatory on how it enlarges the visual cortex, yoga postures help balance the body and gain awareness of one’s body parts. Also, poses relax the body. Normally, the body is stiff, unsteady, and lacks flexibility (Art Of Living). In order to successfully get into a yoga pose, one must start with yoga stretches to make the body more stable and light. If one is new to a yoga pose, or certain type of yoga, the body part that is being used is unsteady at first. This is the body’s way of demanding attention (Art Of Living). By practicing that yoga pose repeatedly, one is forced to pay attention to that body part. This causes the uneasiness in that body part to decrease, thus relaxing it and making it more steady. The more a yogi practices, the steadier and more relaxed the body will become. As you can see, there is an exact cause and effect. Because the yogi practiced yoga poses frequently and time-effectively and is now used to the routine, the yogi is not only more aware of his or her body parts, but is also more relaxed.
Next, breathing exercises — called pranayama — helps calm the mind. Because the eyes are closed during these exercises, less thoughts cross the mind. This is because when someone’s eyes are opened, he or she sees many thought-provoking things in his or her environment. This is why — referring to thoughts — when someone is witnessing something scary, such as a scene in a horror film, he or she looks away or covers his or her eyes so he or she won’t be so scared. This is also why, in most cases, yoga sessions are held in blank rooms that are free of visual distractions and even sounds. The mind is more clear and free of excessive thoughts (Art of Living).
Finally, meditation in yoga can be out into place. Meditation is the primary part of yoga that makes it work. Of course, one doesn’t simply jump into meditation and automatically become focused. Meditation cannot be forced or done effortlessly. At first, the mind may wander off and become distracted. The mind settles into meditation when it is good and ready. Meditation clears the mind similarly to breathing techniques. Meditation, however, is not about how a person feels during the session, but afterwards. “The mind doesn’t shut off but it does stop chattering, letting you be 100 percent in the moment and enjoying it completely (Art of Living).
Still, there has been arguments and even research explaining how yoga is just a placebo. According to research done by Justy Reed of Chicago State University, common reported exercise related affective changes include an improved sense of enthusiasm, energy, and lower tension, anxiety, and fatigue (Reed 269). In Reed’s researched, he gave one group of yoga students a biomagnetic silicon bracelets and were told that it gives off a safe radiation that produced health benefits (positive placebo group), another group was given the same bracelets but were told that it was just an ordinary bracelet (anti-placebo group), and the control group received no intervention at all (Reed 272). The procedure was for them to attend an introductory hatha yoga class for 15 weeks. The results showed that placebo had played an effect on the experimental groups as they had a higher placebo effect displayed in the bracelets than the control group.
The research stated above is inaccurate because it showed a heightened sense of enthusiasm and lower stress level from the experimental group. Enthusiasm is not an effect brought on by yoga but rather by the individual. Yoga however does promote lower stress level which was shown by all of the groups in the experiment. What the research did not show was that yoga does not revolve around physical activity, but around the mind and mental state of the yoga practitioner.
“Unfortunately, Yoga is considered as just the physical exercises. It is just a beginning, physical exercise is just one part of it. But, then comes the breath and the mind. Tapping the inner source of energy is important. Yoga is never complete without meditation. Sudarshan Kriya takes you to the deepest meditation where body, mind and breath comes in the rhythm connecting to the source of life deep within.” – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (Art of Living)
Yoga is not a placebo because it has an exact cause an effect process. One does not expect for yoga’s effects to happen, but experience them on his or her own. Yoga helps with managing your mental wellness in terms of concentration and stress relief. “Practicing yoga requires intense concentration on the breath and body, which means that during yoga, unhealthy thought patterns are stopped or redirected. As a result, thoughts and worries are relieved and soothed. Furthermore, yoga postures and breathing release tension from the body, and a relaxed body makes a relaxed mind possible (yoga.com)” Yoga practices such a Dharana and Dristi, respectively being the process of focusing the mind on one point, and fixing your gaze on that one point, helps you enable yourself to remember things much better than before. It removes external distractions so you’re better at recollecting things clearly (yoga.com).
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Works Cited
“4 Non-Physical Benefits of Yoga.” Yoga. N.p., 22 May 2015. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
Benedetti, Fabrizio, et al. “Neurobiological Mechanisms of the Placebo Effect.” Journal of Neuroscience 25.45 (2005): 10390-402. Web.
“Breathe Your Way to a Calm Mind with Yoga.” Breathe Your Way to a Calm Mind with Yoga. Art Of Living, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.
Dupler, Douglas. “Yoga.” The Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health. Ed. Brigham Narins. 3rd ed. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale, 2013. 3591-3595. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
Reed, Justy. “Effect of Placebo-Induced Changes in Expectancies on Self-Reported Affect Associated with Yoga Practice.” Journal of Sport Behavior 37.3 (2014): 268-85. ProQuest. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.
Sutherland, Stephani. “How Yoga Changes the Brain.” Scientific American Global RSS. Scientific American, 1 Mar. 2014. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
Walton, Alice G. “Penetrating Postures: The Science of Yoga.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 16 June 2011. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.
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Dear Corey,
My argumentative paper was about yoga and whether or not it was connected to the placebo effect. The paper was designed to be a definition argument. My argument was that it was not connected to the placebo effect and that yoga genuinely played a role in positive patient development. So far, I think that I did an okay job with my paper but I am really not sure. I did have some problems with finding some good citations for my topic and even considered switching my topic because no one really writes about yoga in researched scholarly papers but I stayed with it in the end.
The learning outcomes that I grew in the most was my ability to write an argumentative paper in under twenty-four hours after a break. I admit that I have procrastinated a great deal and I could have done better on this paper but I chose not to. My second learning outcome was that I am better at finding research to back up my claim in a definitive argument. before college, I was a debater and would be handed evidence to use without even considering the time that it could have taken the researchers to find it. Now, I am capable of looking up my own research effectively and quickly.
The thing that I am most proud of about my essay three project was that I was able to write it on time. Even though it may not be the perfect, I am just glad that I got it done on time without a problem. Like I said in my first paragraph of this letter, I procrastinated on most of it. Because of this, I am completely fine with what ever grade that I receive from this project,
Sincerely, Robin Spiller
Spiller English 1020 