Can Yoga Help With Depression

To Improve Mood And Relaxation

As exercise, yoga is a natural way to increase serotonin production. According to the study also suggests people with depression have lower serotonin levels.

Yoga is also especially helpful because of its gentle, calming, and fluid nature. Each pose is flexible, so people of all levels can practice. Your instructor will emphasize breathing, concentration, and smooth movement. Theyll also encourage you to focus on positive images to calm the body and mind.

Yoga Poses For Depression And Anxiety

The following postures can help you to focus your mind, get your energy flowing consistently and stimulate endorphin production.

Backbends are great for opening the chest, which cultivates feelings of freedom quite the opposite to that cagey, panicky feeling in the chest when anxiety takes hold.

Here are some of the bestyoga poses for depression and anxiety:

• Handstands note that this is an advanced posture!

These more stimulating yoga postures help anxiety and depression when they are accompanied by the proper breathing techniques .

Your teacher should be encouraging these but you can also learn about yogic breathing at home. Focus on your inhalation to life force into your body and then exhalation to release stress and anxiety while promoting feelings of calmness and peace.

Remember to only perform the poses youre capable of, as forcing your body to do things it struggles with may only make you more anxious. Yoga requires patience.

Need Inspiration To Start Doing Yoga

Even if you are convinced that yoga could be helpful for your mental wellness, you may understandably feel a bit overwhelmed or skeptical.

You may think that it will be too hard, that you are too inflexible, or that you wont get the results youre hoping for.

Watch the Video

Arthur Boorman, a disabled Gulf War veteran, was told he would never walk unassisted again.

He took up yoga, lost 140 pounds, and can now run and do headstands!

His story is a poignant reminder that you should never underestimate what you can accomplish or let doctors tell you what you cant do.

Its a remarkable testimony to the benefits of yoga as well!

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Yoga For Depression: 9 Poses To Try

In combination with common treatments like therapy and medication, many people living with depression seek out alternative treatments, such as yoga, to help manage their symptoms.

Yoga can offer numerous physical and mental health benefits to its broad base of more than 300 million practitioners worldwide. And despite what you may see on social media, yoga is for everyone.

Its an adaptable practice that can be modified to suit bodies of all types, abilities, and backgrounds, and may even be helpful for reducing depressive symptoms.

Hot Yoga May Be Even More Beneficial

Not all yoga practices increase a person’s core body temperature significantly. What makes hot yoga different is that the room is heated a small amount or substantially. The additional heat makes the yoga practice more demanding. It’s also thought to enhance blood flow to your muscles and joints and reduce the risk of injury during yoga practice.

It can take time to adapt to the extra heat if you are not used to it. Especially when you are first starting hot yoga, it is important to stay hydrated and take breaks, such as going into a resting “child’s pose,” if you are getting overheated or feeling exhausted. People starting hot yoga need to prepare to sweat and to be challenged. It is often more challenging than newcomers expect. However, it can be incredibly rewarding to get out of your comfort zone and try something new.

I have been wondering if there is something about the heat that might make hot yoga even more effective for depression. One interesting finding is that people with major depression often have an elevated core body temperature and reduced ability to sweat . Does hot yoga help to correct this? There was a recent pilot study of heated Hatha yoga in which the participants on average had moderate-severity major depression. The results from the 8-week heated yoga intervention showed that 56% of participants achieved full freedom of depression .

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How Yoga Therapy Works Against Anxiety And Depression

When used correctly, yoga can be incredibly powerful in treating anxiety and depression. Even when yoga is relatively new to you, simple meditation and physical exercises can help. Meditation works to get you in touch with your inner self. It allows you to clear your mind and makes you aware of your feelings at the moment. Physical exercises, on the other hand, strengthen your body as well as your mind.

Below is a list of ways yoga works against anxiety and depression.

Improves your Mood

Yoga poses and exercises are excellent methods of increasing your serotonin levels. Serotonin, otherwise known as the happy hormone, is what your brain needs to stay in high spirits. A serotonin deficiency means that you will feel often demotivated, stressed, less energized, and anxious.

The fluid, gentle, and calming nature of yoga is what makes it incredibly relaxing and ideal for people with anxious and depressive symptoms. Anyone can do yoga, this irrespective of age, weight, or gender. Your experienced instructor will know just how to help you focus on concentration, breathing, and physical movement, all tailored to your mental and physical needs.

Reduces Anxiety and Stress

Ready To Get Started With Yoga?

Have you been diagnosed with depression and anxiety? If yes, then yoga has something good in store for you. So how can you get started?

Check With your Doctor First

Choose the Right Class

Feel free to try different yoga classes to find which is the most comfortable for you.

Yoga And The Nervous System

A balanced nervous system requires continuous maintenance. The biological state of balance is called homeostasis. The complete awareness of energy centers makes it easier to regulate the nervous system. In a challenging situation when the brain waves are activated, a healthy body can restore the homeostasis with ease. Sometimes a deep psychological impact requires extra support to bring the energy to normalcy.

The two branches of the autonomic nervous system, SNS and PSNS, manage the homeostasis simultaneously. The sympathetic nervous system is stimulated when encountering any risk. The Parasympathetic Nervous System has a relaxing and calming effect on the entire body and brain.

Apart from external and psychological factors, the sympathetic nervous system also gets activated by using your muscles or breathing more heavily. More vigorous and dynamic yoga asana styles will trigger your sympathetic nervous system. Comfortable exercises as well as slow and conscious breathing, on the other hand, will engage your parasympathetic nervous system.

In a scientific study, the intervention of Hatha Yoga was found to have therapeutic effects on the participants. The physical movements of yoga, the encouragement of a mindful approach, breathing techniques, and the final resting pose was applied. This pattern of yoga practice triggered mood effects. Different yoga elements were also considered to reduce the severity of depression.

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The Act Of Taking Care Of Yourself

Yoga is very much about slowing down and taking care of yourself. When you engage in self-care, a cascade of other positive things happens. Yoga can be calm and restorative or very physically demanding. Many people express feelings of improved emotional and physical wellbeing after completing a yoga practice. Regular yoga practice can lead to self-reflection, which can allow you to see the changes that you need to make in your life. In my case, regular yoga practice helped me see a need for a job change that has led to greater autonomy and reduced stress.

Another aspect of regularly practicing yoga is that it can become part of your schedule or routine. Having a day filled with positive activities that are in alignment with your values, something called behavioral activation, is very effective at helping depression. I believe that yoga can be part of and enhance behavioral activation strategies. You can learn more about behavioral activation in my article, “Behavioral Activation for Depression.”

Where To Find More Yoga Help

Arthur undoubtedly would not have made the astounding progress he did without a yoga teacher to guide and inspire him.

While theres plenty of yoga instruction available online, if you are new to yoga, I recommend that you take at least a few yoga classes.

Proper instruction will assure that you get maximum benefits from your yoga practice and that you dont get hurt.

Finding yoga classes should be easy.

You can do an online search for yoga classes near me or find classes anywhere in the world at YogaFinder.com.

Other places to find yoga classes are at fitness clubs, community centers, schools, or your local YMCA.

Dont be concerned that you cant do yoga because you believe you are too overweight, inflexible, out of shape, or old.

There are yoga poses suitable for every level.

Some can even be done while sitting in a chair.

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How Yoga Therapy Works

Dr. Mason Turner of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Group says yoga therapy can be very powerful in the treatment of depression. Even if yoga isnt your forte, the combination of meditation and physical movement provide two important elements for relieving depression. Meditation helps bring a person into the present moment and allows them to clear their minds. Controlled, focused movements also help strengthen the body-mind connection.

Breathing exercises are effective in reducing depressive symptoms, according to one study. You may find yoga helpful as the exercise focuses on deep, controlled breathing.

Conquering Inertia Through Postures Movement And Mind Activation

There is a significant amount of inertia – physical and mental – that occurs in depression. Yoga often combats this inertia through physical movement and mental activation. Yoga is very much a mind-body activity. It takes determination to hold poses in yoga because sometimes it’s uncomfortable. Practicing working through the discomfort takes concentration and perseverance.

It is common in yoga to find your mind wandering and then needing to bring your awareness back to the present. Regardless of the style of yoga you choose to practice, it takes intention and effort, which are activating for the mind and body. This body-mind activation can push through the inertia of depression.

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Why Can Yoga Help Depression And Anxiety

Doing yoga regularly can really reduce feelings of anxiety and the depression that often follows.

Since yoga encourages you to relax on both mental and physical levels, you are more likely to stay with feelings as they arise rather than resisting, numbing or talking yourself out of them.

This makes it easier to spot triggers and causal factors behind your anxiety or depression. In other words, yoga practice promotes awareness, and awareness is step one when it comes to healing anything.

Therefore when you start to become more aware of your state, youre more likely to notice when things have gone awry in every day life.

You may be more attuned to triggers in your environment, relationships and habits.

Can you already see how these benefits might start to take shape?

In a nutshell, here are someof the main ways yoga can help depression and anxiety:

• Development of healthier thought patterns
• Mind and body awareness
• Feelings of self-love and acceptance
• Grounding into the present moment
• Releasing of endorphins
• Reduction of stress hormones
• Cultivation of patience and focus
• Calming of the central nervous system
• Relaxation on mental and physical levels
• Facilitation of social interaction

Is Yoga More Effective Than Clinical Treatment

While many people may practice yoga to relieve symptoms of depression, it may not work for everyone.

In many cases, particularly when an individual has major depressive disorder, yoga may not work well as a replacement for clinical treatments for depression including:

• a combination of both

Yoga is often a good choice as a complementary treatment option, in combination with therapy, medication, and other coping tools that are effective for depression.

While proponents often claim the yoga high experienced during practice can provide a boost in mood, its important to keep in mind that this emotional state is often fleeting. While yoga can offer a temporary respite from depression symptoms, its not a quick fix.

When an activity or a substance is used to escape reality, it can become problematic, Malaspina says.

The yoga mat can be a safe space to explore how we feel and what we think in a nonjudgmental way, but if we find ourselves using the practice as a tool to distract us, then that could possibly create additional challenges, she says.

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To Reduce Stress And Anxiety

Yoga also increases your heart rate variability , or change in time between heart beats, by increasing the relaxation response over the stress response in the body. A high HRV means that your body is better at self-monitoring or adapting, particularly to stress.

Yoga can also:

Some studios may even offer a variety of styles, such as Vinyasa in a heated room, or aerial yoga. Aerial yoga is supported yoga in the air. You do the poses in a cloth hammock. Your instructor will be able to show you how to adjust your body for poses that may be more difficult for beginners.

If you prefer doing yoga in a private setting, you can try one-on-one therapy with a yoga instructor or do yoga by yourself at home while watching an instructional video.

How Your Brain Reacts

Stress and anxiety are major triggers of depression, and meditation can alter your reaction to those feelings. “Meditation trains the brain to achieve sustained focus, and to return to that focus when negative thinking, emotions, and physical sensations intrude which happens a lot when you feel stressed and anxious,” says Dr. John W. Denninger, director of research at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

Meditation has been found to change certain brain regions that are specifically linked with depression. For instance, scientists have shown that the medial prefrontal cortex becomes hyperactive in depressed people. The mPFC is often called the “me center” because this is where you process information about yourself, such as worrying about the future and ruminating about the past. When people get stressed about life, the mPFC goes into overdrive.

Another brain region associated with depression is the amygdala, or “fear center.” This is the part of the brain responsible for the fight-or-flight response, which triggers the adrenal glands to release the stress hormone cortisol in response to fear and perceived danger.

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Why Is This Relevant To Yoga Practitioners

We may not all experience the challenges of clinical depression. However, this research points out that there are mental health benefits to all of us when we increase our ability to remain in the present moment. And yoga offers us tools to practice that skill. Depending on how we practice, yoga has the potential to be a mindfulness practice. Its a mindfulness practice when we focus our attention on our body and breath in a non-judgemental way, as we do in yoga. We then notice when our attention has wandered, and gently bring it back to our object of focus. Unsurprisingly, operating from a place of greater mindfulness helps us stay calmer, more responsive, and less reactive during our day-to-day activities.

How Yoga Can Help Depression And Anxiety

Lets take a look at the practical application of yoga for anxiety and depression for a minute.

The mindful breathing process in yoga practice is a big part of this.

No doubt youll have noticed that anxiety attacks result in shallow, disjointed breathing, which only makes the feelings worse and the cycle repeats.

So by focusing on the breath and consciously slowing it down, your body gets the signal that its OK to relax and your mind follows suit.

When your overactive mind has something positive to focus on, thoughts slow down and start to make more sense.

Dont make the mistake of thinking that feelings of fear, agitation or anxiety are best eliminated through the most calming yoga poses .

It may seem counterintuitive, but its often the dynamic and invigorating poses that help the most. Thats because an anxious mind is usually busy and frantic, and giving it something to focus on and achieve can subvert its panicky thoughts.

On the other hand, trying to force a hectic or worried mind to quieten down can actually make you feel more anxious.

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Poses For Warding Off Depression

When I was in my early 20s, Id often feel a dark cloud of depression descend over me. A bad mood would take hold for days or weeks or even months. Id find myself spending hours on the couch watching television to escape my thoughts, or going out at night to drink. Once, the depression became so serious that I had to quit my job. I knew there had to be a better way, but I wasnt sure what it was.

Everything changed when I walked into a yoga class in New York City. Id just broken up with the man I thought I was going to marry, I was getting ready to leave New York for graduate school in the Midwesta trip Id imagined wed be making togetherand my relationship with my parents had reached a new low. I felt alone in the world. Yet from that first yoga class, opening my heart up in bridge pose, allowing myself to rest deeply in shavasana, I experienced a new, and until then unknown, sense of lightness and ease. The depression started to lift, and as I attended more classes and made lifestyle changes in conjunction with my new practice, my mood changed for the betterand so did my life. Yoga alone didnt cure my depression, but the philosophy and the practice have given me the tools to jump-start my system when I feel depression coming on.

The goal in all these poses, says Apt, is to open people up and take them out of their shell. While we usually use yoga to draw the mind inward, here we need to turn people and their view of the world inside out.