Yoga: The Cure for Period Pain & Moodiness? 

When God was inventing the World, he made women have monthly periods and give birth. Why? Because he knew that guys weren’t strong enough to handle it. But why period pain? Why can’t Mother Nature just text me and be like “What’s up, girl?! You are not pregnant. Have a great week. I’ll see you next month!” 

Many women, like myself, experience very painful periods and many women, like myself like to end that struggle. Yoga might be one of those methods. For thousands of years, people have practiced yoga for spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being. But from a scientific perspective, how exactly does yoga affect our bodies? Does it really do anything to relieve our menstrual cramps? Let’s find out, shall we?

Yoga 101: It All Starts Within

At some point between the 1st and 5th century CE, the Hindu sage Patanjali began to codify the ancient, meditative traditions practiced throughout India. He recorded techniques nearly as old as the Indian civilization itself in 196 manuals called the “Yoga Sutras.” 

These texts defined yoga as the ‘yoking’ or restraining of the mind from focusing on external objects in an effort to reach a state of pure consciousness. Over time, yoga came to incorporate physical elements from gymnastics and wrestling. Today, there is a multitude of approaches to modern yoga — though most still maintain the three core elements: physical postures, breathing exercises, and spiritual contemplation. 

This blend of physical and mental exercise is widely believed to have a unique set of health advantages, such as improving strength and flexibility, boosting heart and lung function, and enhancing psychological well-being. Is it enough to cure period moodiness and cramps? Keep reading to find out. 

Periods Are Red, You’re Feeling Blue, Can Yoga Be the Cure for You?

Yoga has truly a handful of widely celebrated benefits. Still, the best one is the most difficult to prove: its psychological effects. So, can yoga be the powerful psychological tool women need to end the rollercoaster of emotions? 

Despite the longstanding association between yoga and psychological well-being, there’s little evidence on how the practice affects mental health during menstruation. Let’s forget all of the evidence for a bit, shall we? I want to take you back thousands of years to the ancient world of India where Yogis would leave their towns, villages, and everyday distractions to find solace in the forests. There, in isolation, they studied their own inner experience. As they looked within, they found a myriad of thoughts and emotions. These thoughts seemed to cause anxiety with no real practical purpose, as PMS and menstruation do so. 

But the Yogis found a cure. They realized that when they stopped feeding them, the thoughts would eventually get quieter and quieter. They called this practice ‘Vipassana,’ which means clear seeing. Today, we call it meditation. 

The Yogis in India intuited that bodily postures and meditation have profound effects on a person’s state. They believed that tiny channels called ‘nadis’ run through the human body carrying lifeforce called ‘prana.’ If these ‘nadis’ were kept aligned, the flow of the prana would be smooth and unhindered, contributing to overall health — kind of like a well-oiled machine. The Yogis saw the body and mind not as separate entities, but as a single continuum both influencing each other. If the body was kept energetically balanced, the mind would follow — that’s when flexibility and strength come into play. 

Yoga for Period Cramps: Twist & Turn To End the Internal Burn

Twisting your body into yoga’s physical postures stretches multiple muscle groups. In the short term, stretching can change the water content of these muscles, ligaments, and tendons, thus making them more elastic. Over time, regular stretching stimulates stem cells, which then differentiate into new muscle tissue and other cells that generate elastic collagen. 

Frequent stretching reduces the body’s natural reflex to constrict muscles, thus improving your pain tolerance for feats of flexibility. In addition, studies have shown that regular stretching can reduce PMS symptoms and period pain, yay for us!

Here are some basic yoga techniques to end the pain:

• Supta Badrasana — releases the tension of your groin, lower abdomen, and inner thighs; 
• Matsyasana — releases the strain on the lower abdominal region;
• Supt Vakrasana — releases hip muscles;
• Setu Bandhasana — exercises the pelvic floor muscles;
• Ushtrasana — releases the congestion of the abdominal muscles;
• Shavasana & Makarasana — to relax your entire body;
• Baddha Konasana — soothes the digestive system & revives energy;
• Supta Baddha Konasana — relaxes the abdominal muscles;
• Balasana — releases tension from the back, neck, and shoulders;
• Upavistha Konasana — stimulates the abdominal organs;
• Bharadvaja — relaxes the hips and stimulates the digestive organs;

Other Health Benefits From Practicing Yoga

Yoga has been shown to be a potentially powerful therapeutic tool. I recently read a study involving patients with a variety of musculoskeletal disorders, and surprisingly enough, yoga was more helpful at reducing pain and improving mobility than other forms of low-impact exercise. 

Adding yoga to an existing exercise routine can improve strength and flexibility for hard-treat conditions like chronic lower back pain, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoporosis. Yoga’s mix of physical exercise and regimented breathing has proved similarly therapeutic for lung health.

Lung diseases like chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma shrink the passageways that carry oxygen while weakening the membrane that brings oxygen into the blood. Breathing exercises like those found in yoga relax the muscles constricting those passageways and improve oxygen diffusion. 

Increasing the blood’s oxygen content is especially helpful for those with weak heart muscles who have difficulty pumping enough oxygen throughout the body. For those with healthy hearts, this practice can lower blood pressure and reduce risk factors for cardiovascular disease. 

In Conclusion

In today’s day and age, we can’t go a mile without running into a yoga studio. It seems like it’s a trendy new thing to buy a pastel yoga mat and pink leggings and get a cute Instagram story of how “woke” we are. Honestly, I truly hope that my readers don’t relate to this new trend. 

Yoga is much more than having an excuse to wear yoga pants. I hope that with today’s article you’ve learned its potential to cure something we, as women, have been struggling with for centuries — period cramps & moodiness. And most importantly, it will lead you to be more mentally alert, aiming towards being a happier, and healthier you. 

Do you exercise yoga? Do you like to meditate? What’s the impact of yoga on your period pain been like? I would love to hear your stories down below.