Last updated on November 29th, 2023.
In today’s fast-paced world, finding inner peace and managing anxiety has become increasingly crucial. Fortunately, the transformative practice of yoga offers a powerful antidote, and the digital age has made it more accessible than ever. Welcome to “The 5 Best Online Yoga for Anxiety Courses,” your guide to a calmer, more centered you. In this curated selection, we explore top-notch virtual yoga courses, designed to soothe your mind and spirit, and help you navigate life’s challenges with grace. Whether you’re a seasoned yogi or a beginner, these courses offer a path to tranquility, right from the comfort of your own home. Join us on a journey towards a harmonious mind and a healthier, happier life.
Here is a quick glimpse of the five best online yoga courses for anxiety are:
- My Vinyasa Practice
- Mindwalk Yoga Academy
- Yoga Anytime
- Yoga International
- Yoga International
Thinking about dealing with your anxieties in a cool, zen way? Well, these courses got your back! But hold up, don’t just dive in blindly. Picking the right course is crucial because a bad one might scare you off yoga for life. So, keep reading to learn how yoga can actually be your anxiety-busting sidekick, which types work best, and which courses are the real gems if you’re on a mission to conquer anxiety through yoga.
Article Topics
How does yoga help with anxiety?
In the symphony of life, where stress often takes center stage, yoga emerges as a gentle yet powerful conductor of calm. Its magic lies in its ability to harmonize body, mind, and spirit. Through a mesmerizing ballet of postures, yoga invites the anxious soul to dance in a soothing rhythm, unlocking the tension that confines it. Each asana paints a masterpiece of relaxation. The breath is harnessed like a breeze, guiding the practitioner into tranquility. In the sacred space of meditation, the mind’s waves find serenity in the stillness. Together, these elements create a symphony of solace, where anxiety is fleeting.
Yoga’s prowess in anxiety’s exorcism lies in its holistic approach. It not only addresses the physical symptoms of anxiety through gentle stretches and mindful movements but also goes deep into the psyche. By encouraging introspection and fostering a connection to the present moment, yoga becomes a sanctuary where worries lose their grip. The union of breath and movement calms the nervous system, soothing the racing heart and calming the anxious mind. Beyond the physical realm, yoga cultivates resilience and balance, teaching those that feel anxious to better navigate life’s tumultuous waters with grace and poise. In the world of yoga, anxiety is not an adversary but a fellow traveler, a gentle reminder that amidst life’s chaos, serenity can still be found within.
Which types of yoga are best for anxiety?
In yoga, where each style is unique, certain varieties stand out when it comes to anxiety relief. Among these, the gentle, flowing Hatha yoga invites serenity with its unhurried pace and graceful postures. Hatha eases tension with each unhurried breath.
Vinyasa, merges breath with movement in union. It’s the poetry of poses set to the music of your own breath, an enchanting symphony that works beautifully to dissipate anxiety. For those who seek introspection, Yin yoga, a tranquil contemplation in stillness, holds the key. Its deep, passive stretches unravel anxiety, while its meditative essence guides the mind toward inner stillness.
However, it’s Restorative yoga that cradles anxiety. It encourages the body to surrender, inviting profound relaxation and a gentle release of tension. In this form of props and support, anxiety finds solace, and the spirit finds rejuvenation. Within yoga, each unique style beckons but ultimately leads to the same destination: a tranquil heart and a peaceful mind.
The 5 Best Online Yoga for Anxiety Courses
Embarking on a journey towards inner peace and emotional well-being, our curated selection unveils the five best online yoga courses to alleviate anxiety’s grip. We’ve meticulously scoured the digital landscape to present you with a collection of courses that transcends virtual classes, offering solace, serenity, and a pathway to transformation. Whether you’re an anxiety warrior seeking solace or simply looking to infuse more tranquility into your life, these online yoga courses are poised to guide you on a transformative odyssey towards a calmer, more centered you.
1. My Vinyasa Practice
My Vinyasa Practice offers courses from many different teachers. Although yoga teachers frequently have many different credentials, such as being certified by the Yoga Alliance, it is normal to have a preference in teaching style in addition to these qualifications. You can search for a teacher on My Vinyasa Practice that has the qualifications you are looking for, such as being trauma-informed or of a certain gender.
Yoga Therapy for Anxiety is a course taught by Michelle Young that is designed specifically to educate you on anxiety and how to use yoga as a tool to decrease it. Michelle has been practicing yoga for nearly two decades and is certified as a teacher.
- Yoga Therapy for Anxiety is Yoga Alliance certified, and it is eligible for 20 CEUs with Yoga Alliance.
- It can be taken at any pace in any place, and it covers topics such as how to deal with emotions and different breathing techniques to help when you need some grounding.
- This course costs $75 and can be parched through My Vinyasa Practice.
Yoga for Anxiety is another course on My Vinyasa Practice taught by Michelle Young. This course is similar in philosophy to Yoga Therapy for Anxiety, but it is free training that is not eligible for CEUs.
Yoga for Anxiety includes a resource library, and it has courses about embracing the body and understanding breath and meditation. It is a great course for a beginner or anyone who is looking for a yoga class to help with their anxiety without trying to become certified.
(If you are looking for more mediation to help with anxiety, check out this guided meditation for anxiety!)
2. Eight-Week Yoga Therapy for Anxiety Course
Mindwalk Yoga Academy offers a course to help with anxiety called Eight-Week Yoga Therapy for Anxiety. Mindwalk Yoga Academy only offers two courses, but both of them are focused on mental health and well-being, with the other one being a 16-week course to help those suffering from Imposter Syndrome.
Mindwalk Yoga pays special attention to Black women’s mental health and how yoga can be an asset. Although there is less information available about these courses, they have a specific target audience and a rigorous course schedule for each to ensure that members are moving towards their goals.
Eight-Week Yoga Therapy for Anxiety includes 31 lessons over eight weeks. Each of the course topics includes primary yoga practice, but there are also activities such as journaling and philosophy to encompass all angles of what anxiety is and how to overcome it. Weekly topics for the course range from Resilience to Empowerment, and there is a progression over each week, with course-taught skills building on each other.
If you are a Black woman looking for an inclusive community to help as you grow through your anxiety by using yoga, Eight-Week Yoga Therapy for Anxiety is probably a wonderful option. However, it would likely not be a great fit for as many as the less specific courses.
3. Welcome to Yoga for Anxiety
Yoga Anytime offers Yoga for Anxiety is a series by yoga instructor Jillian Pransky that focuses on practical tools and techniques of yoga that can help you learn coping skills for anxiety. She provides a welcome video that highlights aspects of what is to come such as
- How the series is formatted
- What to expect in each episode
- Why you would use this series
This also allows you to become familiar with her voice as an instructor before committing to the full course.
Yoga for Anxiety is formatted like a television series, with the first season containing 15 episodes. The season starts out with the welcome episode and then a description of anxiety. However, moving forward, each new episode covers different poses and skills you can apply to your own life.
Some of the episodes are quite short, such as the one-minute episode five that teaches an emergency grounding technique. Others are much longer, and the average time for an episode is around 20 minutes.
Yoga for Anxiety’s goal is to teach you practical tools for when your anxiety is high. Unlike some other courses, it does not provide full-length yoga practices. If you apply these yoga techniques to the practice or lifestyle you already have, you can create your own full-length practices.
One of the appeals to Yoga for Anxiety is that it teaches at a beginner level and focuses on simple poses, breaths, and postures. You do not need extensive experience with yoga to use the tools Jillian teaches to calm your mind.
4. Yoga Therapy for Anxiety
Yoga Therapy For Anxiety is a course available through Yoga International. Yoga International is a website that allows yoga students to practice from the comfort of their own home to a variety of styles and whenever they choose through online courses. As mentioned previously, online courses can be especially beneficial because of the flexibility they provide the user.
Yoga International courses are organized by topics:
- Classes
- Courses
- Teachers
Yoga Therapy For Anxiety is a course taught by Gary Kraftsow. It takes 4.8 hours to complete and completing this course counts towards the required hours for certain Yoga Alliance certifications. Additionally, if completed independently of the certification, you will still receive a certificate of completion.
If you purchase Yoga Therapy for Anxiety once, you will have unlimited access to it. The lessons will all be available for you to use in the future if you want to brush up on what you learned or go back to a particular session you enjoyed. The one-time cost is $129.
Gary Kraftsow is a professional and expert in Yoga Therapy. He has over 40 years of experience and has taught internationally, in addition to receiving one of his certifications in Paris. For yoga therapists, this counts as 4 hours of additional education.
Yoga Therapy For Anxiety does include two full-length yoga courses to help you process and cope with anxiety. However, it also includes educational lectures and quizzes on topics such as the physiology of anxiety and different breathing techniques (e.g. what they are and how to apply them in appropriate situations). Anxiety affects everyone occasionally, and teachers and students can appreciate the lessons.
5. Kundalini Yoga to Support People with Anxiety
If an entire course on anxiety sounds daunting, but you are still interested in a tool to help you manage your anxiety, Kundalini Yoga to Support People with Anxiety by Yoga International may be a more appropriate option for you. This full-length class is 1 hour long and designed to help you manage anxiety.
Kundalini Yoga to support People with Anxiety is taught by Gloria Latham whose discovery of yoga and its health benefits came after she spent a decade as a pharmacist.
One of the most crippling effects of anxiety is that it prohibits you from being in the present moment. Instead, it takes control of your thoughts and pushes you away from what is going on around you. Kundalini Yoga to Support People with Anxiety is aware of this, and it uses multiple yoga techniques to bring you back to the present:
- Exercise
- Breathwork Training
- Mantras
It is well known that exercise helps boost your mood and ground you. One of the ways it does this is by forcing you to focus on the challenging task in front of you. If you are exercising hard, you will be concentrating on what you are doing. Some types of exercise also help with anxiety by causing muscles to relax. If you feel more relaxed physically, your body will also psychologically mimic this to a degree.
Breathwork also works to help with anxiety by communicating with your nervous system to calm down. When someone is experiencing anxiety, there are physical effects in addition to emotional and psychological ones that influence each other. Because deep breathing is something that your body and nervous system associate with safety and calm, creating a calm body environment can help you control your anxiety.
In addition to breathwork and exercise, mantras are a way to focus on something other than anxious thoughts. They are also effective in part because one of the most challenging aspects of anxiety is that the thoughts you experience are automatic. Mantras allow you to create your own habitual thoughts that will serve you instead of harming you.
(If Kundalini is something you can see yourself teaching in the future, you may want to check out Kundalini yoga teacher training online!)
Final Thoughts on the Best Online Yoga for Anxiety Courses
In the quest for inner peace, the journey through our selection of the best online yoga courses for anxiety has been nothing short of transformative. Each course, a sanctuary of serenity, extends a compassionate hand to those grappling with anxiety. Remember that yoga is not merely an exercise but a profound philosophy and a lifestyle that invites harmony into every facet of our existence. Through mindful breath, graceful postures, and tranquil meditations, these courses provide a path towards self-discovery and healing. Whether you’re a novice seeking solace or a seasoned yogi deepening your practice, these courses offer an invaluable resource for nurturing your well-being.
As you step onto your mat and embrace the wisdom of this ancient art, may you find strength in vulnerability, tranquility in chaos, and, above all, the unwavering belief that within you lies the power to overcome anxiety and embrace a life of peace, balance, and boundless joy. Namaste.
