‘The Body Bends, But What About the Mind?’ UNESCO Laureate and Yoga Psychologist, Ilashrei Anand, Invites the World to Go Deeper This Yoga Day

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 21:  This International Yoga Day, as millions practice poses in parks and posts flood social media, Ilashrei Anand, the renowned Yoga Psychologist, asks a different question, “ Is our mind as flexible as our body? ”

Yoga Psychology is the lesser-known limb of the Yogic tradition, one that has nothing to do with postures and everything to do with perception, patterns, and inner programming. In a time when anxiety is normalized, emotional burnout is glamorized, and relationships are quietly bleeding, 40under40 Business World Wellbeing Winner, Ilashrei Anand, urges us to return to what Yoga originally stood for, not just fitness, but freedom.

“Our backbends won’t heal our heartbreaks. Our 6AM routine won’t fix years of guilt. Yoga was never just physical, it is a map for emotional liberation,” says Ilashrei Anand, who is a humble alumnus of some of the world’s oldest ashrams like, The Yoga Institute, Santacruz.

Yoga Psychology isn’t a class we take. It’s a lens through which we begin to see our suffering not as punishment, but as solutions. Ilashreii Anand guides how emotions, memories, traumas, and belief systems get lodged in the mind-body complex, and how they can be consciously released through:

• Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (for understanding the mental fluctuations)
• Bhagavad Gita’s karmic framework (for understanding suffering and dharma)
• The Chakra System (for emotional architecture)
• Ayurvedic (for body-mind-soul integration)

Having helped over 1 lakh individuals across 12+ countries, Ilashrei Anand says unlike Western psychology that often isolates the ‘problem’, Yoga Psychology asks:
Where in your story did you lose your connection to the self? She emphasises that physical health issues like PCOS, Gut Issues, Thyroid, insomnia, and even Cardiac conditions, are psychosomatic, triggered by unhealed emotional trauma.

Ilashrei Anand, the Harvard-certified Psychology expert, has dedicated over a decade to healing lives through Root Cause Healing using ancient Yogic principles. She shows how Yoga isn’t just about stretching, but how to stop emotionally shrinking.

“We’re treating symptoms, not causes. Our weight gain is often unexpressed anger. Our cravings or addictions are often due to emotional abandonment. Yoga Psychology helps trace the wound and heal from the root,” explains the Kranti Yodha Award honoured, Ilashrei Anand.

Yoga Psychology: Not a Trend but A Timeless Truth

As modern mental health models evolve, Ilashrei points out that Yoga Psychology already contains everything the world is just discovering, neuroplasticity, emotional regulation, chakra healing, inner child work, shadow work, trauma healing, etc.

Ilashrei reminds us that most chronic health conditions are emotional alarms, not just hormonal imbalances. “Our symptoms are not random. They’re encrypted stories from our past, often emotional. Yoga Psychology helps us decode them, and finally come home to self.”

Who Needs This Work?

• The high-functioning woman who is constantly working to please others
• The man who provides for everyone but feels invisible
• The dedicated employee who’s burnt out with poor work-life boundaries
• The couple who look perfect online but sleep in silence
• The therapist, the parent, the leader, burnt out from giving
• The parent struggling to understand their teenage kid
  

If you’re surviving, but not really living, Ilashrei’s work might be what your soul has been whispering for.

This Yoga Day, Don’t Just Move. Heal.

Step beyond the mat. Into the mind. Into the self.
Because real flexibility isn’t just in your hamstrings, it’s in your beliefs, your wounds, your story.

• Explore the path of Root Cause Healing at ilashreianand.com
• Join the movement: @mystic_healer_ (150K+ community)
•  1 on 1 Therapy, Couple’s Therapy & workshops: +91 7738 183 055 | team@ilashreianand.com