Published February 4, 2026 12:46PM
You know what it’s like when you’re experiencing anxiety. Your body is here in the present, feeling every single one of your emotions, yet your thoughts are racing ahead to some imagined future.
Anxiety disorders affect more than 40 million adults in the United States, yet many more of us experience chronic nervous system activation without a formal diagnosis. Interestingly, the suggested antidotes to anxiety, as prescribed by decades of contemporary research and Ayurveda, are quite similar.
From a contemporary scientific perspective, anxiety is deemed increased activation of the body’s stress response (sympathetic nervous system). This results in that familiar fight or flight response. According to the ancient science of Ayurveda, the experience of being anxious is associated with an imbalance in vata, which is one of three doshas, or body types, that is commonly linked with quick movement, airiness, and change. When vata is aggravated or unbalanced, the mind can feel scattered, restless, and ungrounded. Sound familiar?
Science shows that slow, rhythmic breathing, gentle movement, and sustained stillness regulate the stress response. Ayurveda recommends grounding activities and stabilizing routines to pacify excess vata. In both cases, the emphasis is on creating steadiness in body and breath to soothe the mind.
Any way you approach it, practicing yoga can help.
How Practicing Yoga for Anxiety Levels Your Vibes
Research suggests that yoga helps address the symptoms of anxiety through slowing the breath, engaging in gentle movement, and lingering in sustained stillness. Rather than targeting a single nerve, yoga appears to influence multiple pathways involved in emotional regulation, including respiratory patterns, brain health, and heart rate variability (a measure of how well your body adapts to stress and returns to calm).
One frequently studied mechanism of practicing yoga for anxiety is the effect on gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a neurotransmitter that plays a key role in calming neural activity. Lower GABA levels have been linked to anxiety and mood disorders. Practicing yoga practice has been shown to increase GABA levels even more than walking, resulting in improved mood and reduced anxiety.
From an Ayurvedic perspective, holding steady and sustained postures cultivates the opposing qualities of excess vata. Instead of unleashing your energy in ways that are upward, erratic, and mobile, these poses invite stability, rhythm, and steadiness that are the very conditions that help quiet an anxious mind.
Whether you experience sustained anxiety or infrequent encounters with it, you can help your nervous system quiet down by working directly with the mind, body, and breath through yoga.
5 Ways to Practice Yoga for Anxiety
Andrea Powers, yoga teacher and founder of Powers Yoga, explains that practicing mindful movement in grounding postures supports the body’s natural relaxation response, which in turn helps shift us out of stress mode and into a stronger sense of safety and ease. She recommends the following poses, including Child’s Pose, Legs Up the Wall, and seated forward bends.
Each of the following poses for anxiety support various mechanisms that regulate the parasympathetic nervous system to help reduce the symptoms of anxiety. You can do one or all of the following poses anytime and anywhere you need to feel calmer when anxiety pays a visit.
If your thoughts intrude—which they probably will!—let your breath be your anchor. Keep your inhalations and exhalations relaxed and unhurried and simply focus all your awareness on the sensation of your breath.
If you prefer, you can try box breathing or sama vritti (equal breathing), in which you inhale for 4 counts and exhale for 4 counts. If equal breathing feels stressful, simply focus on breathing slowly. As you exhale, think of releasing tension in your jaw, forehead, and shoulders.
1. Child’s Pose (Balasana)
Forward-folding postures, such as Child’s Pose, help reduce stress by turning your attention inward and giving your body permission to rest.
How to:
Come to your hands and knees, bring your big toes together, and sit your hips back toward your heels. Lean forward and let your forehead rest on the mat or a block. Allow your arms to rest alongside your head, palms resting on the mat, for a slight stretch.
Or you can release them along your legs, palms facing upward.
Focus on:
Let the weight of your body release toward the mat so gravity does the work for you. No effort, just ease.
2. Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Karani)
Supported, low-effort postures, such as Legs Up the Wall, allow your body to linger in a space of not having to “do” much at all. With the wall supporting your legs, you can let go of effort and settle into therapeutic stillness.
How to:
Sit sideways next to a wall and gently swing your legs up as you recline onto your back. Try to get your hips as close to the wall as feels comfortable. Separate your legs about hip-distance apart and let your heels fully rest against the wall, allowing the wall to hold the weight of your legs and rest your arms comfortably on your sides.
Focus on:
Let gravity do the work. Feel the weight of your legs rest against the wall.
3. Cat–Cow (Marjaryasana-Bitilasana)
Slow, rhythmic movement coordinated with steady breathing helps your mind and body release tension, allowing you to let go of stress and settle into a sense of calm and ease.
How to:
Begin on your hands and knees. Inhale as you lower your belly and lift your chest in Cow Pose.
Exhale as you round your spine and let your head release toward the mat in Cat. Move slowly between the two.
Focus on:
Let each breath be your guide to moving in rhythm with it. Linger in each pose for longer than a single breath if you like. As you transition between the two poses, feel how your body wants to intuitively move and let yourself follow that, whether that means moving more slowly, swaying sideways, or making wider circles by shifting your shoulders forward over your wrists and then shifting over to the right side before taking your hips back over your heels and then over to the left and repeating.
4. Seated Forward Bend (Paschimottanasana)
Lingering in a forward-folding posture in conjunction with finding a slower, more relaxed breathing rhythm signals the body to relax, unwind, and find a quiet, grounded space.
How to: Sit with your legs extended and bend your knees as much as needed. Hinge forward from the hips and allow your spine to soften. Rest your hands on your shins, ankles, or a bolster.
Focus on: It’s not about how far you fold forward. It’s about your quality of breath and how much ease you can create in your body with each exhalation.
.
5. Bound Angle Forward Bend (Baddha Konasana Uttanasana)
This pose, also known as Butterfly Pose, combines gentle hip opening, forward bending, and slowed breathing lets your muscles melt and your mind drift into ease and rest.
How to: Sit upright and bring the soles of your feet together, allowing your knees to fall away from each other. Support your thighs with blocks or folded blankets if needed. Bring your heels as close or as far from your hips as feels comfortable; sliding them slightly away from you can make the pose gentler and easier to spend more time here.
On an exhale, hinge forward from the hips and let your chest and head fold toward your feet. Breathe here.
Focus on: Let your body release without any effort or force. It will let go in its own time.
