I am an avid reader and love listening to Radio 4s Poetry Please because I wish I understood it more.
So when I heard poetry read out loud reduces anxiety and depression it sounded like the wellness territory I wanted to do a dive in to find out more.
It’s the reading aloud part that is key but the emotional content of poetry can bring joy and satisfaction too.
A reduction in anxiety and depression, good mental health benefits and a boost in hope and emotional well-being was the outcome of one investigation in the UK and trials of cancer patients divided into studying music or poetry saw both groups reporting positive changes in mood and pain but only the poetry group saw bolstered hope as an outcome too. Whilst a children’s cancer study showed poetry reducing fear, sadness,anger and worry and an increase in energy levels.
So what’s the reading aloud bit all about?
Swiss research institutes show it to reduce blood pressure, reduce stress, regulate the immune system and give a sense of deep peace, better heart rate variables and strong parasympathetic nervous systems responses. It effectively showed that read out loud was better for us than just slow breathing. Now this is interesting to us as we are in similar territory to our yoga practices, bear with me.
Rhythmical poetry forms a more natural flow of breath and is very effective at making the exhale naturally three times longer than the inhale and I think this is really useful to know because in my experience as a yoga teacher there are many people who find focusing on their breath tricky or indeed triggering.
Hexameter was the rhythm of poetry studied and its lullaby, sing song pacing also placed narrow focus on the content rather than us stressing about our breath patterns as we sometimes can in yoga.
The crossovers with yoga seem to have good potential. Rhythm, sound, vibrations all appear in traditional chanting and some meditations. The enquiry, relatability and understanding meaning appears in both practice and poetry too and my favourite meditations both personally and to share in private sessions involve repetition, touch, rhythm and another alternative focus than the breath (japa meditation and kirtan Kriya)
If you are interested in stretching your mind, breath and nervous system off the mat, look for some poetry accounts to follow (listed below) or try Poetry Please on Radio 4 but join in with some out loud reading too.
