Yoga, Mindfulness and Buddhist Psychology: Ancient Practices for Modern Wellbeing

As I continued attending classes and practising regularly, something else began to shift. My mind and nervous system were changing too. I noticed a growing sense of calm, clarity and steadiness that extended far beyond the yoga mat.

In classical yoga philosophy, the sage Patanjali, who compiled the Yoga Sutras over two thousand years ago, described yoga as an eight-limbed path for cultivating balance and freedom from suffering. Physical postures are just one part of this system. In the West, yoga is often reduced to that third limb — the postures — yet the original framework was always designed as a holistic psychology of the body and mind.

Discovering the power of breath

One of the most profound turning points for me came when I first learnt pranayama, the yogic practices of conscious breathing. The moment I was introduced to breath regulation, I suddenly realised I had been limiting my breath for as long as I could remember. Like many people living with stress or anxiety, my breathing had become shallow and restricted.

Through a few simple breathing practices I experienced something entirely new: a sense of spaciousness, calm and quiet centredness. Years later, neuroscience would confirm what ancient yogis already understood — slow, conscious breathing directly regulates the nervous system, helping shift the body from stress activation into a calmer parasympathetic state.¹

I suddenly realised that I had been limiting my breath for as long as I could remember.

Yoga as a lifelong resource

Throughout my life, yoga has been a steady support during some of the most challenging moments. At one stage I experienced relentless workplace bullying. During that time I would often call on Tadasana, the mountain pose, as a way to ground myself, find stability, and hold my own ground with quiet self-assurance.

Another moment stays with me. I was being wheeled into emergency surgery and required an epidural. I instinctively turned inward, focusing on my breath and drawing on years of mindfulness training. The calm, centred state I was able to access allowed the procedure to proceed smoothly. Afterwards the anaesthetist visited me and asked how I had managed to stay so present — something he said he had rarely seen in over twenty years of practice.

Mindfulness and parenting

When I became a parent, yoga and mindfulness became even more essential. Like many parents, I often experienced moments of overwhelm. Over time I discovered that the most powerful tool in my parenting toolbox was surprisingly simple: calming and regulating myself first.

When we regulate our own nervous system through breathing and awareness, it has a natural calming effect on those around us — especially children. In neuroscience this is known as co-regulation: one regulated nervous system helping to stabilise another. What once felt almost like magic is now well understood through the field of interpersonal neurobiology.

One regulated nervous system can help stabilise another. What once felt like magic is now understood as co-regulation.

Discovering Buddhist psychology

In my thirties, after a period of significant professional burnout, I felt a strong intuition to change direction and moved to the Sunshine Coast. Through a series of serendipitous events, I found myself spending time at Chenrezig Institute, a Tibetan Buddhist retreat centre that became a place of refuge and learning for many years.

There I immersed myself in the teachings and philosophy of Buddhist psychology. These practices — often referred to as mind training — cultivate qualities such as mental clarity, insight, compassion, emotional balance and inner stability. The impact on my life was profound. I knew I had found a path that would shape both my personal life and my professional work as a therapist.

The original psychologies

I often say that yoga and Buddhist philosophy are the original psychologies. Yoga is estimated to be around 5,000 years old, and Buddhism around 2,500 years old. Both traditions developed sophisticated systems for understanding the mind, suffering and human flourishing long before modern psychology emerged. Their practices were designed to bring the body, mind and nervous system into balance — and in many ways, they recognised something modern science is only now confirming: our mental health is inseparable from the state of our body and nervous system.

What the research says

Over the past two decades, scientific research has increasingly validated many of these ancient practices. The evidence is strongest in three areas that map closely onto what I had already experienced in my own body.

Mindfulness meditation has been shown to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, improve emotional regulation, and decrease stress-related reactivity — findings supported by a meta-analytic review of mindfulness-based therapy.²

Yoga practice is associated with reduced cortisol, the body’s primary stress hormone, and with better regulation of the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, according to a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.³ It also supports trauma recovery by gently reconnecting people with bodily awareness.

Breathing practices activate the parasympathetic nervous system — the body’s relaxation response — and are linked to reduced anxiety and improved emotional and cognitive functioning.¹ Importantly, people do not need to adopt the spiritual beliefs from which these practices originated in order to benefit from them.

Integrating ancient wisdom with modern therapy

In my work at Empatherapies, I integrate these practices within a broader therapeutic framework. Rather than relying on a single approach, I draw from a wide range of tools — combining modern psychotherapy with mindfulness, somatic awareness, breathwork, and insights from Buddhist psychology and yogic philosophy.

Each person is unique, so the work is always tailored to what supports the individual best. For some, this may include mindfulness or breath practices. For others, it may simply involve cultivating greater awareness of the body, the emotions, and the nervous system. For those drawn to movement, I also offer yoga for mental health — a gentle, trauma-informed way of bringing these practices into the body. This is tender work, and there is no single right way to do it.

Our mental health is inseparable from the state of our body and nervous system.

A path toward greater balance

In an increasingly fast-paced and stressful world, many of us are living with overstimulated nervous systems and busy, agitated minds. Practices such as yoga, breath awareness and mindfulness offer simple yet powerful ways to return to a sense of inner steadiness and balance — not by adding one more thing to do, but by helping the body remember a state it already knows.