Using Your Yoga Practice to Help Your Depression
It's normal to feel down once in a while, but if you're sad most of the time and it affects your daily life, you may have depression. There are many different types of depression. Events in your life cause some, and chemical changes in your brain cause others. Seasonal Affective Disorder, or S.A.D., which is a period of major depression that most often happens during these winter months, when the days grow short and we get less and less sunlight. Depression has many possible treatment, including medicine, talking to a therapist, or changes to your lifestyle. Western conventional treatments, as well as, yogic knowledge are complimentary treatments for depression. Yoga and Yoga Therapy are major allies in the alleviation of all varieties of depression. We will focus today on how we can make lifestyle changes, particularly in the area of yoga, mindfulness and exercise practices to lift our mood.
Are You Depressed?
Symptoms of depression vary based on the type of depression someone is experiences. Common experiences include:
Loss of interest or pleasure in your activities
Weight loss or gain (caused by change in your appetite)
Trouble getting to sleep or feeling sleepy during the day
Feelings of being "sped up" or "slowed down"
Feeling worthless or guilty
Trouble concentrating or making decisions
Thoughts of suicide
Sleep too much or too little
Lack of energy, or fatigue
Feeling hopeless
Lets Get Brainy
Those who research clinical depression have been interested in a particular part of the brain that regulates activities such as emotions, physical and sexual drives, and the stress response, called the limbic system. The limbic system controls endocrine function to regulate numerous activities within the body, particularly in response to emotional stimuli. The endocrine system is made up of small glands within the body whose function is creating and releasing hormones into the blood. It has been found that a great number of people who are depressed have abnormal levels of some hormones in their blood, despite having healthy glands.
Medical science is now backing up what yogic texts have claimed since ancient times; regular yoga practice helps maintain general endocrine functions. A 2014 study published in the Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, reveals that regular yogic practice does provide non-pharmacological replacement of important hormones in the body. Not only does exercise boost the production of hormones serotonin, endorphins, and other feel-good brain chemicals, it triggers the growth of new brain cells and connections, just like antidepressants do. Regular exercise, like yoga, can be as effective at treating depression as medication.
Yoga Practice Ideas
Breath!
Pranamaya kosha, our energetic body, is a good place to start, because our vitality is effects our emotions. Start a breathwork practice today! During pranayama we supply more oxygen to the lungs which is transported to each and every cells of the body. The blood supply and the oxygen supply also increases to the brain and hypothalamus thereby improving the functioning of the brain and hypothalamus. One can control the stress and emotions in a better way because stress can disturb the functioning of hypothalamus. Pranayama improves the relationship between hypothalamus, pituitary and the other glands and thus the entire endocrine system is more balanced.
Strong breathing practices such as Kapalabhati, the Breath of Fire, tends to activate the sympathetic nervous system, which may sometimes be too agitating for those who are already restless and fidgety, but can be great for if you are experiencing fatigue or having trouble concentrating or making decisions. If, on the other hand your depression is presenting as feeling “sped up”, known as rajasic, you may benefit from practices that bring attention to and lengthen the exhalation. Examples include three-part exhalations and 1:2 ratio breathing, which sooth the central nervous system. Slow, deliberate breathing reroutes hormonal signals and calms the adrenal gland to reduce stress.
Move Your Body!
Asanas balance the hormonal secretions from the various glands. The twisting and bending positions of the asanas, held for specific periods of time, place continued and specific pressure on the various glands of the body, thus stimulating them in various ways and regulating their secretions.
Mood Enhancing Poses
Legs up the wall/Viparita Karani with elevation under the hips. While there do a body scan. And practice extend exhalations.
Childs pose/Balasana
Seated cross-legged pose/Supported Sukhasana
Rabbit pose/Sasangasana: stimulates the thyroid and parathyroid
Supported seated twist/Ardha Matsyendrasana
Bounce and Shake! These help the lymphatic fluid to circulate and release stress
Modified or full Shoulders Stand/Sarvangasana or Head Stand/Sirsasana: The contraction of the neck muscles combined with the pressure of the chin on the chest squeezes blood out of the Thyroid gland. They also help us see from a new perspective.
Fish pose/Matsyendrasana: Heart opening!
Bow Pose: Affects the adrenal glands, which controls cortisol release, the "flight or fight" stress response and oxygen intake.
Savasana with belly breathing: Emotions are connected to stress, so restorative yoga is helpful, as well as, other stress resilience techniques.
“The most advanced yoga poses are the ones done with a smile on our face and a laughter in our eyes; where we don't take ourselves too seriously.” -Mitchell Hall
More to Explore
Be Curious!
How are you feeling right now? Where do you feel emotions in your body? Do you breath differently when you are angry, sad or happy? Interoception, being mindful of the body’s sensations, also strengthens the neurological circuits in the right hemisphere of the brain.
Mindfulness practices can help to find understanding and compassion, aiding in stress reduction. If you’re stressed, your adrenal glands are working overtime. Too much of these hormones secreted by these glands will deplete your energy, compromise your immune system and raise your blood sugar level.
This is an especially good time of year for being aware of what your eating, how your eating and how full your body feels in the moment. This practice can help with eating well, which is important for both your physical and mental health.
We Can All Use More Compassion
Metta (Loving-Kindness) practices can reestablish a sense of self-love and self-worth that can be missing in depressive states. This is a specific type of meditation where one focuses on feeling love/pleasure/comfort in the body. Regular practice of staying with these feelings can elevate the mood.
Too much stress exacerbates depression and puts people at risk for future depression. Yoga Nidra or yogic sleep is great way to control stress and emotion. It is not actually sleeping, but coming into a state of incredible calm and relaxation with deliberately directing your thoughts and senses; replacing negative thoughts with positive ones. Yoga Nidra also improves the functioning of brain, hypothalamus and the relationship between hypothalamus and pituitary and other endocrine gland.
Using meditation and Yoga Nidra to calm the mind is a great preparation and aid for sleep. Sleep has a strong effect on mood. When you don't get enough sleep, our depression symptoms worsen. Sleep deprivation exacerbates irritability, moodiness, sadness, and fatigue.