This 30 minute yoga flow reduces stress & anxiety…
yes, Yoga is better than doing nothing and general physical activity if you want to reduce stress and anxiety….
Introduction
A study by Phansikar & Mullen, (2022) investigated whether a single session of flowing yoga (sun salutations) improves mental state AND cognitive performance.
71 participants were randomly assigned to either:
· Yoga group → 30 min sun salutations (video-guided)
· Aerobic exercise → e.g. walking
· Control → watched a video (no movement)
Measures:
They measured the following outcomes, before and after the session:
Cognitive outcomes (Executive Function)
Working memory
Attention
Processing speed
Psychological outcomes
Stress
Anxiety
Mood
Enjoyment/flow
Results:
1. Yoga reduced stress & anxiety (significantly)
· Better than both: Aerobic exercise and the control group
· Strong effect for immediate emotional regulation
2. No improvement in cognition (executive function)
· No difference between groups on: memory, attention, processing speed
· One session did NOT benefit brain performance
3. Subjective experience was better in yoga
· Yoga participants reported:
o Increased: flow/absorption, positive feelings
o Greater self-efficacy
o More internal focus
Why did stress and anxiety improve?
Likely mechanisms:
Bottom-up regulation (Body → Brain)
Integrating breath and movement:
· shifts physiological state (slow breathing, heart rate)
· move from sympathetic to parasympathetic activation
Controlled Breathing:
· One of the few systems we can consciously control, breathing is linked to arousal systems and emotional regulation pathways in the brain.
· Controlling your breathing can change your mood.
Attention control & reduced rumination:
Yoga demands continuous attention to: movement, breath and body position. This reduces:
· mind-wandering, less default mode network (DMN) activity and self-referential thinking (“overthinking”).
· anchors attention in the present: practising mindfulness interrupts rumination loops.
“Flow state” / absorption
Participants reported: greater absorption, higher enjoyment and more engagement.
Repetitive sequences (sun salutations) and balancing challenge and skill with continuous movement may have induced a flow-like state in participants.
Flow state can:
Reduced self-consciousness
Reduced stress perception
Increased positive affect
Interoception (awareness of the body)
Yoga enhances the awareness of internal sensations such as the breath, muscle tension, and movement. Insula and the salience network in the brain are constantly talking to each other to figure out if what you are experiencing internally is appropriately matched to your internal sensations.
The more you train these networks, the better you become at detecting stress signals and, therefore, are better able to regulate them.
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Why was no cognitive improvement experienced?
· Executive function changes require repeated training
· Depend on neuroplastic changes, not acute state shifts
· Longer-term practice may be needed for cognitive benefits
Strengths & limitations
Strengths
· Randomised controlled design (strong evidence)
· Compare both active and passive control, you can answer:
o Is the intervention (yoga) better than doing nothing? (passive control)
o Is there something specific about yoga versus normal movement that causes change, beyond general activity?
· Realistic intervention (30-min flow)
Limitations
· Single session only → no long-term insight
· Small sample (~70 people)
· Mostly female → limited generalisability
· “Video-guided” → not the same as real class experience
Bottom line
This study demonstrates that a single 30-minute sun salutation session improves emotional state (↓ stress, ↓ anxiety) but not cognitive performance, suggesting yoga’s immediate effects are regulatory, not cognitive-enhancing.
Yoga may work through a combination of bottom-up physiological regulation and top-down attentional processes, creating rapid changes in emotional state but not immediate changes in cognitive capacity.
See my Instagram (@sophia_flows) for more yoga flows and instruction on Sun Salutations.
Sophia
References
Phansikar, M., & Mullen, S. P. (2022). Cognitive and psychosocial effects of an acute sun salutation intervention among adults with stress. Mental Health and Physical Activity, 22, 100431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mhpa.2021.100431
