Yoga Changes the Way the Mind Turns: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Neuroscience

Yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ — Yoga Sutra 1:2

Citta = mind-stuff / consciousness field

Vṛtti = modifications, movements, patterns, waves

Nirodhaḥ = control, restraint, stilling, mastery

How Yoga Can Change Your Mind — and Your Life

This ancient definition of yoga, written over 2,000 years ago in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, describes something modern science is only now beginning to fully understand: Yoga changes the way our mind works.

It reshapes how we relate to stress, fear, thoughts, emotions, and ultimately — ourselves.

When the Mind Never Stops Turning

For most of my life, my mind, like yours too, has been constantly moving.

I have tendency to overthink, over-worry, control and plan every possible future scenario.

I have been fearing loneliness, and failure, and that somehow I am not enough as I am (something I am working on even today)

My mind has felt loud, persistent and restless. Before Yoga, I was seldom completely at ease and less satisfied with it - and very often unaware of those feelings.

When Yoga entered my life, it was a moment when I desperately needed roots & stillness — even though I didn’t yet know how to ask for it, or create it.

Participating in yoga training became one of the most instrumental decisions of my life.

I don’t think I would have figured out how to step out of thinking mind - being able to observe it and not associate with it - and to have tools to listen, without yoga.

I don’t think I would have realized that me too, I deserve all the love & happiness in this lifetime - Something I saw in others, but never really dared to imagine for myself. I might never have met my husband, or even we have had met - it might be that - I wouldn't have been open for it, and trust love to fall in it. I might still be living with a fear of staying alone, sad of never becoming a mother, and never really reach for what I dream, for what I felt passion for and what made my heart to beat.

Yoga didn’t change my circumstances. It changed my mind, and keeps doing so as I go.

How I see it is that when the mind changes, everything else (energy) follows. Therefore for me, yoga really is a practice of the mind...

For a decade now I've been so curious to learn:

What Science Says About Yoga and the Brain

Modern neuroscience now confirms what yogis have known for centuries.

1. Yoga reduces stress and anxiety

Research shows that yoga lowers cortisol — the body’s primary stress hormone — and activates the parasympathetic nervous system (the “rest and digest” state).

A 2020 meta-analysis published in Depression and Anxiety found that yoga significantly reduces symptoms of:

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Chronic stress

  
  

Yoga literally trains the nervous system to shift out of survival mode.

2. Yoga changes brain structure

MRI studies show that regular yoga and meditation practice increase gray matter density in areas related to:

• Emotional regulation

• Self-awareness

• Compassion

• Decision-making

  
  

At the same time, activity decreases in the amygdala — the brain’s forever alert fear center.

In other words: Yoga makes the brain less reactive and more resilient.

3. Yoga improves emotional regulation

A study from Harvard Medical School found that yoga increases GABA levels — a neurotransmitter responsible for calming the nervous system. Low GABA levels are linked to anxiety, depression, and mood disorders.

Yoga helps the brain feel safe again...

And when the brain feels safe, the mind and the nervous system can rest & reset.

Yoga Taught Me to "Sit With it"... and with myself

Before yoga, not knowing was unbearable. Stillness felt very unsettling and uncomfortable. I used to be a freelancer so I kept myself moving from seasons or projects, and felt capable only for short-term goals & commitments. I often thought "It's better to keep the options open - there might be something else out there." This was happening in some extend on my relationships, and also with my traveling plans. It felt I couldn't root down to one decision or place.

This "something else" kept me however from going all - in. My nervous system activates whenever I stretch myself out from comfort zones into growth zones. Before Yoga, I didn't know ( or feel) the difference - and was more likely to under kick myself into something I desired - than give it an honest go. It was better to "save than sorry".

Silence felt vast and scary. I was sure to "go nuts" when I went deep into meditation... I had experienced quite frightening urges of fear in my meditations where I would suddenly "fall" into somewhere really deep, got all sweaty and pale, and my heart would go on full speed even my body was completely still. Yoga taught me to sit with those sensations, and with myself, to breathe through the fear and discomfort, and to observe the thoughts and activations instead of believing in them. How to feel and own my emotions without drowning in or projecting them to someone / something else. How to trust myself and my intuition. How to trust life really.

Through yoga, I realized: I am not my thoughts. I am not my insecurities, doubts or fears. I am the one who observes them... And that realization started to shape everything.

Sitting down with myself became my go-to-practices.

Yoga Gave Me the Courage to Live

I would say that Yoga didn’t make my life easy, but it did made me brave.

It has given me me the courage to:

• Start my own business in a foreign country

• Lead a community with much love and authenticity

• Take a leap of faith even when I have felt the hesitation

• and trust myself when I have had no guarantees

  
  

It also gave me the courage to leave from something I deeply loved — when it wasn't functioning and while I needed some distance and pause instead of keep going.

It has given me compassion in my Postpartum meltdowns (+2 years time)

It was patient with me during and after a global pandemic, which escalated to the end of It's Yoga and the beginning of INBODHI.

It exhaled with me when I was going through different seasons of life - and felt isolated, exhausted and alone.

It surrendered with me when I hit financially at the bottom and felt like I had failed as an entrepreneur (and as a human)

It comforted and kept me surfing through the emotionally overwhelmed waves, communication difficulties and all kinds of turbulence of middle-aged pre-menopausal woman could ever have (LOL)

Yoga didn’t disappear when something felt off or hard. It showed me how to perceive it and where to focus on - It reminded me how to breathe when I felt like I couldn't get any air inside my lungs and felt like drowning. It reminded me how to soften when I felt broken. It reminded me that I am stronger than I think I am.

Yoga Takes Us to Our Safety

While it's keeping our bodies soft & strong, what it really teaching is how to be with our minds.

It is training our nervous systems to feel safe again. It's teaching how to respond instead of react. Like I wrote in a last blog, it's about remembering who we are beneath all the noise on surface (among the noise outside of ourselves).

The Practice of Returning Home

Yoga is the way to find peace and quiet in the the mind's and life's endless turning.

An in that quiet, we meet ourselves on and off the mat, in stillness and in movement - and we find clarity and presence. We remember we are one with the One.

Yoga gave me to myself - and I have full trust it can give YOU TO YOURSELF too - because I know (now) that can make all the difference.

So I feel very grateful to be involved with INBODHI community and to have this practice as a guiding light in this life!

Namaste <3 Salla, from Inbodhi Yoga Fuerteventura

If this resonated with you, I share reflections, science-backed tools, and practical ways to bring yoga into everyday life in my newsletter.

You can sign up here & receive your FREE INNER PEACE - Workbook

I also work with clients through Yoga Off the Mat — a coaching approach based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and yoga philosophy, designed to help you build psychological resilience, clarity, and courage in YOUR LIFE

Reach out <3 and I got you!

@sallavedder

@inbodhiyogafuerteventura