Tamasic and Rajasic Depression

by Nina

I can’t seem to face up to the facts

I’m tense and nervous and I can’t relax

I can’t sleep ‘cause my bed’s on fire

Don’t touch me I’m a real live wire
—from Psycho Killer by the Talking Heads

At one point in my life, I felt those lyrics from Psycho Killer described me perfectly. If you are suffering from depression or just feeling “depressed,” how exactly would you describe your feelings? Because the type of depression you have—whether it is tamasic or rajasic—will determine how you can use yoga to relieve your depression. The same thing is true if you want to help a student who has depression or is just feeling depressed. You’ll need to question your student about his or her symptoms and feelings, and use your powers of observation, to determine the right approach you should take to help them.

The term “tamasic depression” comes from the Sanskrit term “tamas.” Tamas, one of the gunas, which are the three primordial qualities of matter that make up all of creation, is responsible for inertia. So tamasic depression describes the type of depression where lethargy, fatigue, and hopelessness predominate. People with tamasic depression may have slumped shoulders, collapsed chests, and sunken eyes, and may look as if they are barely breathing. That tamasic feeling of not being able to get out of bed is evoked for me by the Blind Melon song “No Rain.” 

And I don't understand why sleep all day

And I start to complain that there's no rain.

And all I can do is read a book to stay awake,

And it rips my life away but it's a great escape.
Escape, escape, escape.

Because of the lethargic aspect, people with tamasic depression need energizing as well as uplifting. Active poses, such as standing poses, backbends, and sequences where you move with your breath are all helpful for tamasic depression. However, people with tamasic depression also suffer from stress, so they may need to include relaxation in their practice. (Yesterday’s post Warrior 1 and Warrior 2 Mini Vinyasas mentioned that the two Warrior mini vinyasas can be helpful for depression, and in that case we were thinking mostly of tamasic depression, where moving in and out of the standing poses with the breath is energizing as well as uplifting.)

The term “rajasic depression” comes from the Sanskrit term “rajas.” Rajas, also one of the three primordial qualities of matter that make up all of creation, is responsible for activity. So rajasic depression describes the type of depression where agitation and anxiety predominate. People with rajasic depression may have stiff bodies and racing minds, with a hardness around their eyes, and may suffer from relentless insomnia. Even in Corpse pose or restorative poses, their eyes may dart and their fingers won't stay still. Some of these people report difficulty in exhaling fully, a symptom often linked to anxiety. That rajasic feeling of not being able to rest is evoked for me by the Talking Heads song “Psycho Killer.”

Because of the agitated aspect, people with rajasic depression need calming and soothing, rather than energizing. So inverted poses, forward bends, passive backbends and restorative poses are helpful for rajasic depression. However, people with rajasic depression may need to release the physical tension in their bodies first before they are ready to relax, so they may need to include some active poses in their practice.

The third guna is satva, which is the primordial quality of matter that is responsible for “being” or “existence,” and which has also been translated to mean balance, order, or purity. This is the quality we’re aiming for in our yoga practice, moving away from being too tamasic or rajasic toward a more satvic state. A person who is primarily “satvic” would be someone who is neither too tamasic or rajasic and is therefore in a more healthy mental state. 

But the truth is that even those of us who are mentally healthy feel out of balance some of the time, and we can experience mildly tamasic or rajasic days, even if we don’t have a full-blown tamasic or rajasic depression. So all the techniques I’ll describe in future posts for helping with tamasic or rajasic depression can be beneficial for anyone who is simply, like that kid, Alexander, having a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

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Mr. Badang Shapadu 2012–Full Results

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Mr. IOI / Johor 2012

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Workshops of Interest: Healthy Feet

As part of his healthy living series at Mountain Yoga, in Montclair, California, Baxter Bell will be offering a workshop on Healthy Feet, next Saturday, April 21, from 2:00 to 5:00 pm. This session will focus on the under-appreciated and overused foot and ankle. You'll learn about healthy feet and how to work with troublesome conditions of the foot and ankle. Hope to see some of you there!

For further information, see the Mountain Yoga website.

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Friday Q&A: Hip Pain

Q: I was hoping someone could give me some advice for poses that can help reduce the pain of minor hip dysplasia. My left hip regularly becomes inflamed and sore, and I would like to know what stretches can provide pain relief and also strengthening poses to develop the muscles in a way that will cushion my joint.

A: Dysplasia is an inherited condition. You are born with it. It is due to a shallow acetabulum and how then the hip sits inside the pelvis. It might be helpful for you to learn how much internal rotation and external rotation you have in that hip compared to your other, non-symptomatic hip. Once you know your available range of motion, you need to respect this and not try to put your hip into positions that it can't anatomically go into due to structural assymmetries. That said, you then need to look at how you position that hip in standing poses. If you tend to turn the front leg out too much or too little this will affect how the pelvis rolls over the hip. It would be helpful if you ask a teacher to help you analyze how you hold your legs and to try to get that hip into a more mid-range position. Once that hip is in neutral, you can strengthen the muscles around the hip by  holding your poses for up to 90 seconds. Building strength with isometric muscle contractions through the joint will nourish the joint and help keep it healthy.

The down side of this is that in standing poses you are typically in weight bearing positions, which may tend to aggravate the joint too much. If this is the case, you may want to try to recreate the neutral hip position in symmetrical seated positions such as Dandasana or Upavista Konasana. The same principle would apply to stretching muscles that cross both your knee and hip joints. Keep your hip/knee in neutral to avoid aggravating the joint. —Shari

A: In addition to the sound information Shari has shared with you, know that in adults with hip dyplasia, arthritis developing in the hips can also add to the unusual structure of the hip with dysplasia. So if you have not had a recent check up to assess your joint via xrays or MRI, it might be good to consider doing so, so you know the present condition of the joint.  And certainly, respecting the safe range of motion of that hip joint will give you a sense of how you may need to modify your poses, especially weight bearing ones. Another advantage to working one on one with a good teacher is  that you can also learn some poses that will be helpful when your hip is painful, which likely implies some underlying inflammation in the joint. Standing poses would not be a good idea at that time.

I like to teach students to re-create many of the standing poses while lying supine, or on your back, with the soles of your feet pressed against a baseboard, as if it was the floor.  In addition, doing some supported inversions with your legs in the air, such as Vipariti Karani or Chair Shoulderstand, will take most of the weight off your hip joints and potentially allow the inflamed area some rest.  A final suggestion is for the standing version of Mountain Pose. Imagine your pelvis bones lifting off your leg or femur bones as you root down with your leg bones towards your feet.  My students with hip arthritis often report back that this instruction feels very good in the hips.  —Baxter

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Featured Pose: Chair Cat Pose

by Baxter and Nina

This seated version of Cat pose is a great way to counteract the tendency to round forward when you sit in front of your computer, laptop, or tablet, or commute in your car. For those who tend to assume a head forward position, this pose returns your head to a healthier alignment over your shoulders. And moving back and forth between arching and rounding your spine strengthens the muscles that support your head in a more even way. For all of us, moving your spine back and forth between flexion (rounded) and extension (arched) helps keep your spine healthy by providing nourishment to the bones and disks.

Because you move rhythmically with your breath in this pose, you take in more oxygen, which has a positive effect on your respiratory system and can help if you get winded easily. In addition, moving with your breath is a stimulating, which may perk you up when you are feeling sluggish and can help you focus your concentration. It’s a good way to kick start your practice when you are feeling fatigued or depressed. After you start gently moving in this pose, you may feel ready for some larger movements.

This pose is perfect for an office or traveling yoga practice because you can do it in any attire, anywhere there is a chair. It’s also a good alternative to Cat pose on the floor for anyone who has problem putting weight on their hands or trouble getting down to and up from the floor.

Baxter prescribes this pose for:

•    general stiffness in neck, upper back and lower back
•    lower back pain
•    head-forward syndrome
•    depression
•    lack of concentration
•    improving breathing, if you get winded easily
•    safe exercise for scoliosis or osteoporosis because it is gentle, though effective
•    alternative to Cat pose on the floor for those with wrist problems

Instructions:  Sit at the front edge of your chair, with your feet about hips-width apart and flat on the floor, and your knees parallel to each other. With your arms relatively straight, rest your hands on your knees or thighs. Lengthen your spine from your sitting bones up through the crown of your head, establishing as much space between the bones of the spine as you can.

As you inhale, lengthen the front of your spine, and lift and turn your breastbone toward the sky. Try to keep your neck and head in line with the curve of your spine.

As you exhale, reverse directions, lengthening the back of your spine, and rounded it slightly into a C shape. Allow your head to come slightly forward to stay in line with the curve of your spine.

Repeat the cycle for six breaths, and then return to the neutral starting position.

Cautions: This is a very safe pose that’s suitable for almost everyone! Naturally if you have a condition that causes pain when you do this pose, you should approach it with carefully, avoiding it entirely if it causing any flare-ups.

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Take Back Yoga!

by Nina

This morning I listened to a short piece on NPR this morning about the “Take Back Yoga” campaigned launched by the Hindu American Foundation (see here). According to this report, some American Hindus are saying yoga is about far more than exercise and breathing techniques, and they want recognition that it comes from a deeper philosophy, one, in their view, with Hindu roots. Sheetal Shah, senior director of the foundation, said, "What we’re trying to say is that the holistic practice of yoga goes beyond just a couple of asanas [postures] on a mat. It is a lifestyle, and it’s a philosophy. How do you lead your life in terms of truthfulness? And nonviolence? And purity? The lifestyle aspect of yoga has been lost."

If you’ve read this blog before, you already realize that none of us are in the “yoga is just a couple of asanas on a mat” camp. I’m even willing to bet that the four of us would agree the philosophy and lifestyle aspects of yoga will be more helpful than the asanas for allowing us to age gracefully. So I definitely agree with the Hindu American Foundation that many Americans have serious misconceptions about yoga. However, while we may agree that yoga is not just asanas, agreeing on exactly what it is, is more difficult than you might think.

In recent years I’ve done a lot of reading about yoga history and philosophy. And I’ve been particularly influenced by Georg Feuerstein’s masterful (and somewhat dry, I admit) The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice. One major insight this book brought me was what a minor part hatha yoga played during the history of yoga. Although yoga may be thousands of years old, for most of that time it had nothing at all to do physical postures. But another major insight for me was how little agreement there was during those thousands of years about what yoga was and how to practice it.

Shadows of Leaves by Brad Gibson

Even though yoga originally evolved as part of Hinduism, it was also adopted by the Sikhs, the Jains, and the Buddhists. And the different religions naturally had their own takes on yoga. But even among the Hindus, there were an enormous variety of interpretations, with a large schism developing between those who worshiped Vishnu and those who believed in Shiva. Then there was the dualism vs. non-dualism conflict, not to mention sex is good/bad, the body is good/bad, and you can achieve liberation in this lifetime/no you can’t. They didn’t even agree on how many “branches” of yoga there are! While classical yoga (the yoga of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras) has the well-known eight branches of yoga, other traditions have ten or twelve or even more.

So where does that leave us? There just is no simple answer. While some of you may find a teacher whose particular take on yoga you can adopt, others, like me, are left to piece something together for themselves. If you’re interested, you can start by reading some of the classic yoga texts, such as The Bhagavad Gita and The Yoga Sutras. Maybe you’ll even be willing to take on Georg Feuerstein’s book. Just be skeptical of anyone who claims there is only one right way to think about yoga.

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