4 Reasons Yoga Works for Depression & Anxiety
Transcript
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. for ages 15 to 44.3. Nearly half of those diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with anxiety disorder as well. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the US affecting over 40 million people while only 35% of those seek treatment. An even more disturbing statistic is 25% of children are affected.
As with most things with symptoms in the body mind connection it’s never just one thing. Depression and anxiety often go hand in hand and follow a long laundry list of other co-occurring issues including….but not limited to
Bipolar disorder
Eating disorders
Headaches
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Sleep disorders
Substance abuse
Adult ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactive disorder)
BDD (body dysmorphic disorder)
Chronic pain
Fibromyalgia
Stress
When I hear that list I wonder what came first. What was the trigger? Because for me I want to follow the trail upstream and find the cause. We can treat downstream symptoms all day long and never change anything but until we can trace the source of the problem we can’t really make a difference. Science of neurobiology is constantly evolving and the more we learn about the complexity of the body and the mind the more complexity we uncover.
If you suffer from any of the things I’ve mentioned so far, please seek help from a qualified medical professional. I’ve said before and I’ll say again I am not a doctor or therapist of any kind. I work with the body and through the body. I’m an expert in my own body but not necessarily yours. So please take this information today as it’s intended as a jumping off point for you to start a conversation with your own healthcare provider and wellness team.
Common treatments these days include:
Therapy
Medication
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Transcranial magnetic stimulation, known as TMS or rTMS, may be a safe, effective, and noninvasive option for people who have depression that has not improved with medications. TMS creates a magnetic field to induce a small electric current in a specific part of the brain; the current comes from the magnetic field created by an electromagnetic coil that delivers pulses through the scalp.
Complementary and alternative treatment
Yoga as well as trauma release and somatic experiencing falls under this category
36 million people practice yoga in the US and it enjoys an ever increasing popularity not just among women but children and men as well. The practice of yoga has many benefits, not the least of which are mental health related. Most people begin for the physical benefits of strength and flexibility and then later notice the after affects of calm for the mind and nervous system.
Exercise of any kind has been shown to be as effective as a treatment for depression and anxiety as antidepressants in some people although some would say the studies that show this lack some of the quality and stringency that scientists might hope for. I would argue that whenever you are testing the efficacy of something as subjective and variable as human movement it’s almost impossible to control all variables. And when testing yoga as a treatment option when you try to strip out the soft skills of the teacher and only look at the physical prescription of the asana practice you lose so much of the essence of the practice and limit the benefits.
But, having said that, today I want to highlight 4 things that are baked into a yoga practice that make it a highly effective tool beyond “regular” exercise for relieving depressive symptoms and anxiety.
The breath- Yoga practice begins and ends with the breath. Pranayama is the 4th limb in the 8 limbed path of yoga described by Patanjali and encompasses many different techniques. Some to stimulate the body, mind, nervous system and others to calm.
The breath is the fastest conduit into the nervous system. It’s one of the few places where our conscious control overlaps the autonomic nervous system and can be used to communicate with our primitive brain. Simply by slowing your breath you can slow your heart rate, by breathing faster and heavier you can stimulate the release of epinephrine and adrenaline for heightened energy and focus. You can use techniques like the physiologic sigh to interrupt a panic attack in real time.
Now of course all other kinds of exercise include breathing, you have to breathe to move but for aerobic, high intensity and weight training we usually let the body take over so we can focus on the movement alone. In yoga the breath and movement are one. And the more we learn about how the nervous system and stress response works the more important the breath can be.
Present moment body awareness - Ideally every time we move, every type of exercise we do would use present moment body awareness. However we know this isn’t true for most kinds of exercise.
How often do you get on a treadmill, bike or elliptical and turn on the TV, pop in your earbuds to listen to a podcast or music, or even start up a conversation with the person next to you? Or jumped into your fave kickbox class so you didn't have to think about what to do at the gym? Those things all take you out of your body. Fun no doubt about it. And you may not be aware of it but most people are uncomfortable being uncomfortable in their body. Exercise is uncomfortable. It’s that way by design because in order to get stronger, faster, more cardiovascularly fit we have to push ourselves out of our comfort zone. Typical exercise does that quite well. Sometimes to our detriment because instead of staying connected to our body we practice cutting ourselves off from it in order to achieve some external goal.
Yoga practice doesn’t take you out of your body. It keeps you solidly in both your body and your mind and for many people that’s where their discomfort is. But as much as yoga challenges you to notice the physical effort in certain poses, it also lets you notice mental and emotional effort. We often say that a pose doesn’t begin until you want to get out of it. And that’s not to say that you’re trying to make yourself suffer but the resilience building benefits of a yoga practice come from finding a balance between effort and ease within your body. And learning to tap into your breath as a tool to calm and self regulate within your body no matter what pose you’re in.
Cultivate curiosity & non judgement - How often have you heard someone say “I have a bad knee” Or I have a bum shoulder”? As a personal trainer I heard that kind of thing all the time. And coming from a yoga perspective, I tried to encourage different language because words have power and how we talk and think about our body, affects our body. And then we would modify exercises or simply avoid those areas of the body always following their post injury guidelines.
Yoga is a mind body spirit practice. It incorporates physical movement yes but to a greater degree asks the practitioner to come into a friendly relationship with the body that they have in this moment. None of us are perfect. We’re all coming to the mat a little beat up. And every single day the body we show up in is a new combination of experiences since the last time we were here.
So as you move through the physical poses you practice noticing whatever you notice and then- and this is important- letting go of any judgment or meaning that you might have attached to what you feel. Physically, mentally or emotionally. Our brain is always trying to make connections and find meaning for everything it feels. But that meaning isn’t always right or beneficial. So just for the time you’re on the mat you can just be curious about where you are in your body today and let yourself be there without the right or wrong-good or bad labels.
This can be a very challenging practice because sometimes we learn to feel all discomfort as pain or that any sensation at all is something to fear, when maybe it doesn’t have to be that way.
Titration of action - Using titration is critical in all body work as it relates to stress, anxiety and trauma. Titration is permission to move into and out of a pose, a sensation, a thought at will, knowing that those feelings will not last forever. Basically this is practice with stop and rest. This isn’t something you find at all in typical exercise classes or workouts.
In a yoga practice there are many opportunities to challenge the body and the mind that mimic discomfort you might feel off the mat in your everyday life. For example the physical tension holding your balance in a crescent lunge, or the vulnerability of a backbend. In real life you feel overwhelmed, anxious or shutdown and in the moment, because we’re socialized out of natural safe self regulation, we just stuff those feelings down into the body. They don’t go away, they’re simply held in different areas of the body as tension.
On the mat, in any yoga pose when you notice that discomfort, mentally physically or emotionally, you can practice sitting with that sensation and then titrating,or moving, safely out of and back into it when you’re ready. In this way you are retraining your nervous systems response to similar situations. Remember the brain is always looking for patterns and meaning to keep you safe. You have an opportunity on the mat to establish new meaning and then through the magic of brain science take that new meaning off the mat.
Now can you apply all these to other types of exercise and movement? Yes, sure. And I would say that I find myself using all of these both on and off the mat, no matter what the workout is. They actually make every workout better and in my opinion more effective. But these 4 principles, the breath, present body awareness, curiosity & non judgment and titration are what give yoga it’s unique applicability to reduce depression, stress and anxiety.They are really what you are practicing when you practice yoga whether you know it or not.
Note I said practice. This is not a one and done. Yes, you can take one yoga class and feel amazing afterwards. This is true. I used to get students in my classes who I would see once every 4-5 months. They would drag themselves in as a last resort when they couldn’t take the overtraining looking for something “easy” and then leave surprised when it wasn’t.
Your brain has made a lifetime of meanings and patterns that were very important for you then. And it can take time to intentionally untangle those and replace them with new ones that serve you better now.
If you practice something in one place, like your mat, you may find yourself using that practice in other places, like at your desk or in your relationships. This is just as true for both positive and negative things. As always, it’s up to you to decide what your practice will be.
Thanks for joining me today and if you like what you heard want to learn more about how you can incorporate some of these tools into your own personal yoga practice or are interested in using alternative movement like trauma release as a way to relieve stress, tension and anxiety...go to elementalkinetics.com/inquiry and book a call with me for a free 30 minute consultation to see if Kinetic Grace Resilience is right for you.
Thanks again everyone , now go work IN.
https://elementalkinetics.com/inquiry
https://elementalkinetics.com/freeresources
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2993526//
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6738665/
https://adaa.org/finding-help/transcranial-magnetic-stimulation
I’m Ericka
I’m your host Ericka Thomas, health coach, nutrition specialist, yoga instructor & certified TRE provider. And after 20 yrs of experience in the fitness industry I believe it’s time for a shift in focus. It’s time to move wellness beyond simply what the eyes can see.
I coach warriors. Guiding outstanding individuals off the battlefield of trauma For lasting resilience to all sources of stress, tension and anxiety. Join me as we explore natural balanced ways to work through the body to re-establish safety in the body and find recovery - for the body, mind & spirit.