Learning About Yoga for Depression

by Nina

Terri Alexander, Age 55 (Backbends can be uplifting for people with depression)

This morning I received an email from new reader in Japan who wants to introduce yoga for depression to the Japanese people and add the choice of yoga “in their pocket.” What an admirable goal! This has been one of my areas of interest for a long time because I feel yoga has so much to offer in the area of emotional wellbeing. So because I can’t teach this woman what I know in person and there is apparently no one teaching on this topic who lives in Japan (correct me if I’m wrong), I started thinking about how I could coach her a bit from a distance.  

I realized quite quickly that there were some basic things anyone needs to start by understanding before they can really study yoga for depression, and since I was going to write them down for her, I thought I should share them with you as well.  

Learn about Yoga for Stress Management

I feel the first place to start is to learn about the functions of the autonomic nervous system and chronic stress. The reason for this is that stress is one of the things that can cause depression, and for people whose depression has other causes, being stressed can exacerbate the depression (and being depressed can cause you to stress out!). So it is important to understand what chronic stress does to your nervous system and how you can use yoga to help manage your basic stress levels. Personally, as someone who has suffered from two bouts of agitated depression, this knowledge has been extremely valuable, enabling me to keep myself healthy for the past two decades.

So start by learning about the autonomic nervous system in general by reading my post Life-Changer: Understanding Your Autonomic Nervous System. Then, after you’ve learned about the nervous system itself, learn about the difference between acute and chronic stress by reading my post About Stress: Acute vs. Chronic. Finally, learn about how to use yoga for stress management by reading The Relaxation Response and Yoga. And if you are not doing so already, try practicing yoga stress management techniques on a regular basis so you are really familiar with them and the differences between them. (This is because while stress management in general is beneficial for all, some techniques will work well for various people with depression while others may not. For example, Savasana with eyes closed can be very challenging for people with depression while a supported inverted pose with eyes open could work very well. And meditation may even be harmful—see Friday Q&A: Depression, Medication, and Meditation.)  

Learn About the Types of Depression

Another very important subject area to study is the two types of depression, which are very different and need to be addressed differently with yoga. In my post Tamasic and Rajasic Depression, I discuss the differences between clinical depression (tamasic) and agitated depression (rajasic), and describe the different approaches you need to take for the two. Generally, because of the lethargic aspect of clinical depression, people with this form of depression need energizing as well as uplifting while because the anxious/agitated aspect of agitated depression, people with this form of depression need calming and soothing, rather than energizing. The more you understand about these two different forms of depression, the better you will be able to help someone (or yourself) who is suffering from one or the other. 

Some other posts with information about yoga for depression that you might find useful include: Balancing Your Emotional Body with Counter-Poses and Balancing Your Emotions with Your Breath.

I also highly recommend reading the book The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon as a way to learn even more about the different types of depression. (Even though—bad Andrew—the only thing he says about yoga is snide and ignorant.)

Yoga is Not a Standalone Cure

Finally, always keep in mind that yoga is a supplementary treatment for depression, not a standalone cure. You can use it to help someone who is recovering from depression or to help someone who has once suffered from it to prevent its recurrence. But serious depression (as opposed to, say, just feeling mildly depressed about life) can be a life-threatening disease and someone with serious depression should be under professional care. While yoga teachers can work with someone who has serious depression, the teacher should always make sure the student is also seeing a trained professional. See Drawing a Line in the Sand: Where Yoga Teachers Should Not Go and No Shame, Please! (Western Medicine and Yoga are Complementary).

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Balancing Your Emotional Body With Counter-Poses

by Nina

Last week in my posts about anxiety Anxiety, Yoga and the Front Body and Soothing Yourself With Supported Forward Bends, I discussed yoga poses to rely on when you’re feeling anxious (supported inversions and forward bends) and yoga poses to avoid when you’re in that state (backbends, twists, and Sun Salutations).

It makes sense if you’re in a crisis period to practice the poses that calm you down and avoid stimulating poses that might exacerbate your condition. However, if you’re in a state of chronic anxiety, avoiding backbends, twists, and many of the active poses for a long period of time will move your body toward imbalance. The same is true if your practice is focused on any emotion-based condition, such as agitated depression, clinical depression, or even just chronic stress.

In this case, I feel it is better to return to a more well-rounded yoga practice (see A Week of Yoga Practice) but consider how you end your practices. By choosing an appropriate counter-pose to end your practice, you can counteract any negative emotional effects of your practice without negating the beneficial physical ones. That way, you can move on to the rest of your day with your nervous system and emotions more in balance. Some people with anxiety or agitated depression even find that beginning with a very active practice can help burn off excess energy, which makes the soothing or relaxing counter-poses at the end of the sequence more effective (or even possible, as it can be hard to stay still when you’re feeling very anxious).

My post Yoga and Your Emotions describes the emotional effects different types of poses have on most people. So if you’re interested in practicing for balancing your emotions, take a look at that and consider how a given practice (standing pose, Sun Salutation, twist, backbend, forward bend, restorative) might affect your current emotional state. Then choose one or more counter-poses—especially passive poses that can be held for long periods of time—that you can add on to the end of your practice to counteract the poses that were the main focus of the practice. For example, if you’re already feeling anxious or hyper yet need to practice backbends for the health of your body, you can end your backbend sequence with a long supported inversion, such as a Chair Shoulderstand or Legs Up the Wall pose, to calm yourself down. 

Anxiety and Agitated Depression. We’ve already said that supported inverted poses and supported forward bends are the best poses to counteract anxiety. These may also be helpful for agitated depression as that is anxiety based. So at the end of a more active sequence, try resting in Supported Child’s pose for a few minutes and then practice Legs Up the Wall pose (Viparita Karani) for 10 minutes or more. If Child’s pose is uncomfortable for you or you can’t kneel for some reason, try a Supported Seated Forward Bend with a chair (see Soothing Yourself With Supported Forward Bends), with a straight back. If Legs Up the Wall pose doesn’t work well for you, try Easy Inverted Pose (Featured Pose: Easy Inverted Pose). If having your front body exposed makes you feel vulnerable, try covering yourself with a blanket. 

Clinical Depression. On the other hand, for people who are suffering from clinical depression, forward bends, with their inward turning quality, can cause you to brood. For you, therefore, a couple of mild, active backbends, such as Purvottanasana (Reverse Plank pose) or Bridge pose, would be good counter poses after practicing a forward bend sequence. Generally speaking, an active practice is best for those with clinical depression, especially one that includes backbends, because that helps counteract feelings of lethargy. But if you are tired and want to practice restorative poses, focus on passive backbends rather than forward bending poses, and be sure to end your sequence with a backbending position, rather than a forward bending one. Rather than doing Savasana flat on your back, try doing it with your torso supported by a bolster or stack of blankets, so your chest is open and your back is in a slight backbend. Or, maybe even reverse the typical pattern of a practice, begin your sequence with resting poses and moving slowly onto more active ones so you are left feeling a bit energized. Often I'll end a restorative sequence by standing in Mountain pose and inhaling as I raise my arms overhead into a slight backbend and exhaling as I return my arms to my sides. 

Stress. For people who are suffering from chronic stress, standing poses, Sun Salutations, backbends, and twists can be over stimulating. So try to end a sequence that is focused on any of those types of poses with any long supported inversion, such as Legs Up the Wall pose or Easy Inverted pose, or any restorative pose that you enjoy.

Even a long Savasana of 10 minutes or more, with a mental focus, such as your breath, would be helpful as an emotional counter-pose (see Savasana Variations) or any form of yoga nidra (see Audio Tracks tab above). Stressed out people tend to skip these ending poses because they think they don’t have time and that restorative poses are not “productive.” However, when you’re suffering from chronic stress, the most beneficial practice for you is some type of conscious relaxation (see The Relaxation Response and Yoga). As with anxiety, you may need to first burn off excess energy with a more active practice, but always leave time for conscious relaxation at the end of your sequence.

 I, myself, have been practicing like this for many years, with focused, nervous-system pacifying sequences during particularly challenging times, and balanced sequences with emotional counter-poses the rest of the time. But what if you, like many other people, do not practice often at home and do most of your yoga practice in classes or with videos? In this case, there is no reason why you can’t do just the counter-pose after the class or video. For example, if an evening backbend practice has left you feeling agitated or even just hyper (I can’t tell you how many people have told me that backbends at night cause insomnia), there’s no reason why you can’t just practice a supported inverted pose or conscious relaxation on your own before bed. This will help pacify your nervous system and may even lead to better sleep.

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