Yoga For Phobias And Strong Fears: What Mr Iyengar, The Yoga Doctors And The Research Say

Sweaty palms at the thought of a plane, a lift, a spider, a needle or a room full of people? A phobia is fear that has grown bigger than the thing itself. It lives in the racing heart, the tight, high breath and the urge to get out, and that is where yoga works. This guide brings together what Mr BKS Iyengar’s teaching, the yoga doctors and the research say about yoga for phobias and strong fears, pranayama (yogic breathing), meditation and mindfulness. Last updated: 8 November 2026.

By Chris Lalor, Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher and certified Yoga Therapist, Flametree Yoga Darwin.

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Does yoga for phobias work? The short answer

Yes, for the fear in the body and the anxiety around it. In two trials of people with panic disorder, yoga lowered anxiety, including fear of places and of body sensations. In a trial of 150 people with anxiety disorders, slow pranayama and deep rest lowered anxiety and lifted quality of life. Mindfulness courses eased social anxiety about as well as other active approaches. Slow breathing calmed children at the dentist and adults with claustrophobia in an MRI scanner. No yoga trial has yet tested fear of flying, heights or spiders. Not yet tested is not the same as does not work. For worry, panic attacks and stage fright in general, our main guide is yoga for anxiety and anger.

Keep one thing in mind as you read. The yoga trials here tested yoga in general, and many of the other trials tested breathing or mindfulness courses, not yoga. Iyengar yoga has not yet been tested in phobias. Iyengar teachers train for years and are assessed by a panel of senior teachers, and in our view as certified Iyengar teachers, well-taught Iyengar yoga and pranayama are likely to go further than the average. Why the kind of yoga matters.

The bottom line: five key moves for phobias and strong fears

1. Go to a yoga class at your level, several times a week. Standing poses steady the legs and the mind, and supported poses teach the body it is safe.
2. Learn a slow, soft out-breath, from a teacher. Ocean breath (Ujjayi), staircase breath (Viloma) and humming breath (Bhramari) all lengthen the out-breath, the brake on the body’s alarm.
3. Build courage one step at a time. In Iyengar teaching, a pose you fear is learnt in stages, the first step first. Facing fear in gradual steps is also what the research on phobias favours.
4. Come back to now. Fear lives in what might happen. Mindfulness, which yoga builds, eased social anxiety in the trials.
5. Start now. New to Flametree, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price, in Darwin or LIVE online.

Who was Mr BKS Iyengar? Iyengar yoga is the style we teach at Flametree. During the 20th century, Mr BKS Iyengar was the major teacher who codified traditional Indian yoga, through his seminal books and widespread teaching. He also pioneered the use of props, so poses and pranayama can be adapted to almost any body and any day, including a body that is frightened. His style is sometimes called modern classical yoga. This guide is part of our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

This guide in short

• Overall evidence: Moderate. Best study (review of many trials): Liu 2021, a review of 11 randomised trials and 5 other trials of mindfulness courses for social anxiety. Mindfulness did clearly better than no help, about as well as other active approaches, and a little less well than cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), with gains still there a year later. It tested mindfulness courses, not yoga. Yoga itself has two trials in panic disorder and one pranayama trial of 150 people with anxiety disorders; fear of flying, heights and spiders have not yet been tested.
• The Iyengar approach: stay in the present, keep the breath soft, and meet a frightening pose in stages.
• Dr Timothy McCall, an American medical doctor and yoga therapist who studied with Mr BKS Iyengar, author of Yoga as Medicine: phobias are no. 64 on his list of conditions helped by yoga, under the older word “neuroses”.
• The research: yoga, pranayama, breathing and mindfulness trials, all listed below.
• Who it affects: about 1.4 million Australians had social phobia in the past year (ABS estimate).
• Nearby guides: anxiety and anger, stress and burnout, stuttering, OCD and PTSD and trauma.
• Take it further: a free ebook, our 2027 masterclass and classes.

Phobias and strong fears: what they are, and who they affect

Everyone feels fear. A phobia is fear that is out of proportion to the danger, and strong enough that you go out of your way to avoid the thing. Dr McCall’s list uses an older medical word, “neuroses”, with phobias as the example. We use the everyday words: phobias and strong fears. There are three main kinds.

• Specific phobias: fear of one thing or situation, such as flying, heights, spiders, snakes, dogs, needles, blood, the dentist, or tight spaces such as lifts and MRI scanners (claustrophobia).
• Social anxiety (social phobia): strong fear of being watched or judged, at a party, a meeting, in a shop or when speaking up.
• Agoraphobia: fear of places where escape feels hard, such as crowds, public transport, open spaces or being away from home. It often comes with panic attacks (panic with agoraphobia).

They are common. In the ABS National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing 2020 to 2022, 7.3% of Australians aged 16 to 85 had social phobia in the past 12 months, about 1,437,700 people. 4.5% had agoraphobia, about 894,000, and 3.7% had panic disorder, about 731,400. These are survey estimates. Women had higher rates: 9.2% of women had social phobia, against 5.2% of men. The survey does not count specific phobias, so there is no Australian figure for fear of flying or of heights.

How fear works in the body, and where yoga comes in

Fear is an alarm. The heart races, the breath goes fast and high into the chest, the muscles brace and the mind jumps ahead to what might happen. Getting away brings relief, so next time the brain sounds the alarm sooner. Avoidance keeps a phobia going.

Yoga comes in at the body. A slow out-breath, a softened belly and steady legs tell the body it is safe, and a calmer body makes it easier to stay with the fear for a moment longer instead of running. Mr Iyengar saw the same link in the breath.

“Suppose you are suddenly frightened, then what happens to your diaphragm? It shrinks.”

“In the future there is fear. In the present there is no fear.”

What Mr BKS Iyengar taught about fear

In short: come back to the present, keep the breath soft, and meet fear one step at a time. Mr Iyengar did not write a separate entry for phobias in the books we have checked, but fear runs right through his teaching. He saw it as a pull into the future. Poses and pranayama keep bringing attention back to now: to the feet, the breath and the body in the pose.

• Anxiety and the scattered mind. In Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health he describes the scattered mind as full of doubt and fear (pp. 50 to 51), and sets out a course for anxiety built on standing forward bends, supported inversions and rest (pp. 364 to 365). Our anxiety guide sets that course out in full.
• Accept the fear, and go through it. In Light on Life he wrote: “Even if fear comes, accept it and find the courage to come through it.”
• Caution and courage together. “Use caution and be bold” (Iyengar: His Life and Work). Props are the caution; the pose is the boldness.

One step at a time: how Iyengar teachers build courage

Iyengar teaching has a clear method for a student who is afraid of a pose, such as a headstand or a backbend. It is learnt in stages, and the first stage comes first. Mr Iyengar and Geeta Iyengar wrote it into their guidelines for teachers.

“If the students are afraid to do the asana, then you may just ask them to do the first step of it. Build up courage in the student.”

Geeta Iyengar said she would prepare a person who was afraid of headstand “physically and mentally to build up the courage”, without telling them that was what she was doing. In our view as Iyengar teachers, this is close to what the research says works best for phobias: meeting the fear in gradual, steady steps, with support. It is our view from teaching, not something a trial has tested.

What Dr Timothy McCall says

In short: fear lives in the breath, so change the breath first. Dr McCall’s June 2019 list of 117 health conditions helped by yoga includes “Neuroses (e.g. Phobias)” as no. 64. “Neuroses” is an older word for conditions built on anxiety and fear.

His reference for it is a 1973 paper by Professor NS Vahia and colleagues in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry. Professor Vahia, a Mumbai psychiatrist, built a therapy on Patanjali’s yoga in the 1960s and 1970s: postures to relax the muscles and quieten restlessness, pranayama to bring the breath under control, and meditation on one object. We could not read the 1973 results, so we do not report them.

In Yoga as Medicine (chapter 8, Anxiety and Panic Attacks) Dr McCall points to a smooth, low breath through the nose with a longer out-breath, which slows the heart. He also co-edited the textbook Principles and Practice of Yoga in Health Care (2016). Its chapter on anxiety found phobias almost unstudied, and presents slow breathing, at about 4.5 to 6 breaths a minute, as the most direct way to shift the nervous system towards calm.

“Fear and fatigue block the mind. Face both, then courage and confidence flow into you.”

Other yoga voices: the back, the chest and deep rest

Fear lives in the back, and courage in the chest. That is the teaching of Geeta Iyengar, Mr Iyengar’s daughter, in substance. A hard upper back is often fear, and a long, soft out-breath helps it let go. She also noticed how fear holds the whole body: “Whenever we have that nervousness, the fear complex, our movements are restricted” (props demonstration, Sydney, 1996). This is known from practice, not research.

Deep rest for anxiety and phobias. Dr J. T. Shah, a medical doctor and Iyengar yoga teacher who worked closely with Mr Iyengar for many years, lists Corpse Pose (Savasana) for anxiety and phobias in his book Therapeutic Yoga (p. 95), with ocean breath (Ujjayi) and alternate nostril breathing (Nadi Shodhana) to calm the nervous system (pp. 97 and 99).

Mr Iyengar also noticed that some people find it hard to close their eyes in Corpse Pose. In our classes that is fine: you can keep your eyes open, resting on a point, until lying still feels safe.

What the research shows on yoga for phobias

In short: the anxiety around phobias has good trials, and they show yoga, pranayama and mindfulness help. Panic disorder has two yoga trials, anxiety disorders have a large pranayama trial, social anxiety has a body of mindfulness trials, and the dentist and the MRI scanner have breathing trials. Fear of flying, heights and spiders has no yoga trial yet. Most of these studies tested yoga in general, of many styles, or a breathing or mindfulness course. Why the kind of yoga matters.

Yoga trials

• Yoga added to usual care lowered anxiety more, and lifted quality of life, in panic disorder. Integrated yoga (poses, pranayama and meditation), an hour five days a week for 12 weeks, against usual care alone. Yadla 2024, a trial of 64 people in India. Read the study.
• Yoga lowered anxiety, panic beliefs and fear of body sensations in panic disorder with agoraphobia, and yoga with CBT did a little better still. Weekly 100-minute sessions for 2 months. Vorkapic 2014, an early trial of 20 people in Brazil, with no group that had no yoga. Read the study.
• Across anxiety disorders, yoga lowered anxiety more than the comparison groups. The authors rated the certainty very low, because many trials were weak. Martínez-Calderon 2023, a review of 23 studies with 1,420 people. Read the study.
• A yoga relaxation method and muscle relaxation seemed to suit different kinds of snake fear. Four sessions each. The authors call the result tentative, and the main snake test showed no clear difference. Norton 1983, a trial of 40 snake-fearful students, the only yoga trial of a specific phobia so far. Read the study.

Iyengar yoga studies

No trial has yet tested Iyengar yoga for phobias. Not yet tested is not the same as does not work. Two trials tested Iyengar yoga, taught by trained Iyengar teachers, for anxiety and distress:

• Iyengar yoga lowered anxiety, stress and low mood in distressed women, whether they came once or twice a week. Three months of 90-minute classes, against a waiting list. Michalsen 2012, a trial of 72 women in Germany. Read the study.
• Iyengar yoga lowered anxiety and stress, and cortisol (a stress hormone) fell after a single class. Two classes a week for 3 months. Michalsen 2005, a study of 24 women in Germany. Read the study.

Pranayama and breathing studies

• Slow pranayama with deep rest lowered anxiety and lifted quality of life in people with anxiety disorders. Slow yogic breathing and Corpse Pose (Savasana) for 8 weeks, added to usual psychiatric care, against care alone. Cortisol fell and BDNF, a brain growth protein, rose. Natarajan 2026, a trial of 150 people in India. Read the study.
• Breathing training eased panic with agoraphobia as much as thought-based training. Four weeks of training to slow the breath and raise carbon dioxide, with a monitor. Meuret 2010, a trial of 41 people in the United States. Breathing training, not pranayama. Read the study.
• Fifteen minutes of alternate nostril breathing (Nadi Shodhana) before a public speaking test showed a trend to less anxiety. The trend did not reach significance. Kamath 2017, an early trial of 30 medical students in India. Read the study.
• Breathing practices lowered stress and anxiety across many trials. Fincham 2023, a review of randomised trials: 12 trials with 785 people for stress, and 20 for anxiety. Read the study.

No trial has yet tested ocean breath (Ujjayi), staircase breath (Viloma) or humming breath (Bhramari) in phobias. They are the slow, soft, out-breath-led pranayama we teach, and they are known from practice to calm the body.

At the dentist and in the MRI scanner

• Mindful breathing helped about 9 in 10 people with claustrophobia through an MRI, against about 1 in 4 with usual support. They also had fewer severe body symptoms and lower anxiety. Zhou 2023, a trial of 86 adults in China. Read the study.
• Deep belly breathing made children happier and calmer in the dental chair, with shorter visits and lower blood pressure. Eid 2026, a trial of 84 children aged 7 to 13. Read the study.
• Belly breathing in the dental chair improved children’s mood and pain and calmed the nervous system. Levi 2022, an early crossover study of 20 children in Italy. Read the study.

One study of 272 adult dental patients, who were handed written breathing instructions just before their appointment, found no difference (Biggs 2003). A breath learnt and practised beforehand, as in class, is a different thing from one read off a card in the waiting room.

Meditation and mindfulness studies

• Mindfulness courses eased social anxiety: clearly better than no help, about as good as other active approaches, and the gains lasted a year. Longer courses did better. They did a little less well than CBT. Liu 2021, a review of 11 randomised trials and 5 other trials. Read the study.
• An 8-week mindfulness course (MBSR) eased social anxiety as much as group CBT, and both beat a waiting list. The gains held a year later. Goldin 2016, a trial of 108 adults in the United States. Read the study.
• Mindfulness and acceptance group therapy eased social anxiety as much as group CBT. Kocovski 2013, a trial of 137 adults in Canada. Read the study.
• A mindfulness course (MBCT) lowered anxiety in people with panic disorder, agoraphobia or social anxiety who had not been helped by medication. Against a waiting list. Ninomiya 2020, a trial of 40 people in Japan. Read the study.
• A mindfulness course lowered anxiety and phobic symptoms in people with panic disorder or generalised anxiety. Against an anxiety education course, alongside medication. Kim 2009, a trial of 46 people in Korea. Read the study.

In two Canadian trials, group CBT did better than mindfulness on social anxiety itself, while mindfulness did as well on mood, everyday life and quality of life (Koszycki 2007 and 2021). These were mindfulness courses, not yoga. That still counts for our classes, as we explain below.

Not yoga: facing the fear step by step

For completeness, here is what the wider research says. These are psychological approaches, not yoga.

• Facing the feared thing step by step (exposure) works well for specific phobias, and more sessions did better. Wolitzky-Taylor 2008, a review of 33 randomised studies. Read the study.
• A phone app with relaxation, mindfulness, thought work and virtual reality practice eased fear of flying, heights, spiders, dogs and needles. Six weeks, against a waiting list. Lacey 2023, a trial of 126 people in New Zealand. Read the study.
• For social anxiety, CBT was generally the most effective talking therapy, and every approach tested, mindfulness included, beat a waiting list. Sun 2025, a review of 90 randomised trials. Read the study.

Notice the common thread with the Iyengar way of teaching a frightening pose: gradual steps, with support, staying a little longer each time. In our view a calm breath and a steady body make each of those steps easier to take.

“Even if fear comes, accept it and find the courage to come through it.”

Practising well with panic and strong fear

• Keep the breath soft. No forced or fast breathing, and no long breath-holds at first. Mr Iyengar warned that over-holding a pause brings “a sudden lurch of panic” (Light on Life).
• Eyes open is fine. In rest, let your eyes stay open on a point until closing them feels safe.
• Feared poses come in stages. Upside-down poses and backbends are taught step by step, with a wall, a chair or a teacher beside you.
• Tell your teacher. If a pose, a crowded room or lying down brings up fear, say so. Your teacher can set you near the door, by the wall, or give you another version.

Yoga, pranayama and mindfulness: how they work together

Several of the studies above tested a mindfulness course or a breathing course, not yoga. That still counts for our classes. Mindfulness is steady, present attention, and yoga poses and pranayama (yogic breathing) are old routes to that same state. So the trials where mindfulness eased social anxiety, and where a slow breath helped people through the dentist and the MRI scanner, also show what a good yoga and pranayama class can build. No trial separates which part does the work.

We suggest coming to both a yoga class and a pranayama class. Mr Iyengar taught that asana (poses), pranayama and meditation are not divided, and in our experience the two together do more than either alone. See every class time. We trace the history and the links in Yoga And Mindfulness: Why The Mindfulness Research Points Back To Yoga And The Breath.

How this comes together in a Flametree class

Everything above points the same way, and it is how we teach in Darwin and online.

• Standing poses steady the legs and the mind, so the body feels grounded.
• Supported forward bends, with the head resting on a chair, a bolster or blocks, quieten a racing head.
• Chest-opening poses, held by props, free the diaphragm and the upper chest, where the breath catches when fear arrives.
• Feared poses in stages, the first step first, so courage grows week by week.
• Pranayama, step by step: our pranayama classes teach ocean breath (Ujjayi), staircase breath (Viloma) and humming breath (Bhramari), soft and smooth, the way Geeta Iyengar taught them. New to yoga? We suggest starting with some yoga poses first: they quieten the mind and make the breathing easier to learn.
• Rest: every class ends with supported rest, the time when steady attention grows.

Tell your teacher about any strong fear, if you are comfortable to. See the timetable and book a class.

Before a flight, a dentist visit or a scan

The practice works best when it is already familiar. Learn the breath in class, then take it with you.

Read more on fear, the breath and calm

• Yoga for anxiety and anger: our main guide to worry, panic attacks and stage fright
• Yoga for stress and burnout
• Yoga for stuttering: the fear of speaking, and social anxiety
• Yoga for OCD and yoga for PTSD and trauma
• Yoga for depression and low mood and yoga for sleep and energy
• Yoga before and after surgery and yoga for gum disease, for fear of hospitals and the dentist
• Bhramari pranayama benefits and Ujjayi pranayama, the Iyengar way

Take it further

This guide gives you the facts on what helps. The ebook to start with is our stress book, with all the material on worry and the breath, and stories of how it has helped people. Go and do the free classes, see what you think, and then a pass puts it all into action.

• Classes, in Darwin or LIVE online: new, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price. Already practising yoga? See the non-beginner half price pass. See the timetable and book.
• Masterclass: Yoga for anxiety, upsets and anger, Sunday 18 April 2027, one of our 2027 Sunday Arvo Masterclasses with Chris Lalor: twists and forward bends with the head supported, calming breath, and how to put a pause between the feeling and the reaction. Come for the poses, the sequences and the pranayama.
• Retreats: a week of daily yoga and pranayama in Bali. See the retreats.

Other conditions are in our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

Yoga for phobias: questions people ask

Can yoga help phobias?

Yes, with the fear in the body and the anxiety around it. Yoga lowered anxiety in two trials of people with panic disorder (Yadla 2024, Vorkapic 2014), slow pranayama with deep rest lowered anxiety in 150 people with anxiety disorders (Natarajan 2026), and mindfulness courses eased social anxiety (Liu 2021). No yoga trial has yet tested fear of flying, heights or spiders.

Can yoga cure a phobia?

No. Yoga does not take a phobia away. What it can do is calm the racing heart and the fast breath, build steady attention in the present, and give you a way to meet fear one step at a time, so the fear has less hold.

What breathing helps with fear and panic?

A slow, soft out-breath through the nose, longer than the in-breath. In yoga that is ocean breath (Ujjayi), staircase breath (Viloma) and humming breath (Bhramari), learnt from a teacher. Slow pranayama lowered anxiety in a trial of 150 people with anxiety disorders, and breathing training eased panic with agoraphobia (Meuret 2010). Avoid forced breathing and long breath-holds at first.

Can yoga help fear of flying?

No trial has yet tested yoga for fear of flying. Not yet tested is not the same as does not work. A slow out-breath, steady feet and a soft jaw calm the body in any frightening place, and in a New Zealand trial an app that included relaxation and mindfulness eased fear of flying and other phobias (Lacey 2023).

Can breathing help claustrophobia in an MRI?

Yes. In a trial of 86 adults with claustrophobia, mindful breathing helped about 9 in 10 through their MRI scan, against about 1 in 4 with usual support (Zhou 2023). A breath learnt beforehand in class is easier to use in the scanner.

Can yoga help fear of the dentist?

Breathing can. Deep belly breathing made children calmer and happier in the dental chair in two trials (Eid 2026, Levi 2022). In adults handed written breathing instructions just before their appointment there was no difference (Biggs 2003), so practise the breath well before the visit.

Can yoga help social anxiety?

Yes. A review of 11 trials found mindfulness courses eased social anxiety, about as well as other active approaches and with gains lasting a year (Liu 2021), and an 8-week course matched group CBT in a trial of 108 adults (Goldin 2016). Yoga builds the same steady attention.

What did Mr Iyengar say about fear?

In Light on Life Mr BKS Iyengar wrote: “In the future there is fear. In the present there is no fear.” He also wrote: “Even if fear comes, accept it and find the courage to come through it.” With Geeta Iyengar he taught teachers to give a frightened student just the first step of a pose, to build up courage.

Can I do yoga for phobias in Darwin or online?

Yes. Flametree Yoga teaches Iyengar yoga in Woolner and Coolalinga in Darwin, and LIVE online, with pranayama classes for the breath. You can take a spot by the door or the wall, and keep your eyes open in rest. New students can begin with 2 free classes, then 10 at half price. Book a class.

Where this comes from: BKS Iyengar, Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health (pp. 50 to 51 and 364 to 365), Light on Life, Yoga Wisdom and Practice, Iyengar: His Life and Work; BKS Iyengar and Geeta S Iyengar, Basic Guidelines for Teachers of Yoga; Geeta S Iyengar’s teaching on fear, and her interview of 1995 and props demonstration in Sydney, 1996. Dr J. T. Shah, Therapeutic Yoga, pp. 95 to 99. Timothy McCall MD, Yoga as Medicine, chapter 8, his June 2019 list of health conditions helped by yoga and its bibliography (no. 64: Vahia and colleagues, Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 1973), and Principles and Practice of Yoga in Health Care (2016), chapter 6. Australian Bureau of Statistics, National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing 2020 to 2022, Table 2. The studies as linked above, each looked up in PubMed in November 2026. Everything is summarised in our own words.

This page is general information, not medical advice. Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin and LIVE online.