The yogic approach to depression

Depression, anxiety and stress are all interrelated. Perhaps it starts with stress. We get 'stressed'. This may be chronic (long term consistent level), or acute (short term intense spike) or both (ie acute on top of chronic). This stress affects our breathing, compromises our immune system and puts our sympathetic nervous system (SNS) into overdrive. This results in many psychological, physiological and behavioural symptoms that reduce the quality of our life.

Stress can lead to anxiety, a state of over arousal where fears, worries and negative thoughts can take over. Ultimately, I believe this over arousal of the 'cognitive' (thinking) mind, the 'left brain', and SNS can lead to a kind of cognitive 'burn out' which is wear depression comes in. (Remember the normal brain uses up the calorific equivalent of two kit kats and a packet of crisps, just in the process of thinking. Can't remember exactly how many calories - i think its about 400 /day!).

Depression is when our nervous system is completely out of whack.

"Depression is not so much a condition of having no energy, as a kind of psychic constipation blocking our energy flow."  Swami Satyananda

Depression is classically shown as excessive tiredness, apathy, no energy, lifelessness, intense introversion and inferiority - these are all classic signs of depression.

In yogic terms we look at the energetic state of the person, not the causes of the depression. And those of us trained in yoga for mental health, can put together yoga practices to balance the nervous system. After all the 'hatha' of hatha yoga is about balancing left and right, yin and yang, ida and pingala nadis. This rebalancing of the nervous system is central to yogic treatment of depression.

We achieve this through:

•  Asanas - postures such as strong backward bending movements (cobra, camel, bow) are ideal because of their effect on the adrenal glands and thyroid, sidebends are good, and dynamic work of yang yoga and sequences such as surya namaskara as these release endorphins and testosterone helping us to feel good and connect to a sense of inner power
• Shatkarmas - cleansing practices such as kunjal and neti can release emotional blockages and rebalance us
• pranayama - classically nadi shodana (alternate nostril breathing) is ideal, and bastrika type breathing will vitalise energy. Ujjiyi is also good for calming agitated states.
• psychophysiology/psychotherapy - we address the subtle bodies and also the psychic knots (granthis) and aim to address somatic change before we address the mind
• relaxation
• meditation - antar mouna is especially powerful

Lifestyle factors such as diet, are also very important.

Living in Bliss with the Breath

In yoga we use breathing as a fundamental tool in both posture work and more overtly through the practice of pranyama. There is a way to breathe - known as coherent breathing - where we can synchronise heart rate and even blood flow, with respiration. This brings about emotional and physiological coherence.


When we don't breathe coherently, and for many of us unproductive breathing is a lifetime habit, the sympathetic nervous system becomes dominant (we're in the realm of fearing, fleeing or fighting). And the parasympathetic nervous system, the relaxation responsive system that we all have inherent access to, becomes dysfunctional and is no longer able to counteract the stressed nervous system and rescue us from a pretty negative and unpleasant way of being in the world.


With sympathetic nervous system dominance, caused by unproductive breathing, we experience:

• poor circulation (cold hands, feet, tingling, numbness)
• muscle tightness (particularly trapezius in neck and shoulders)
• headaches
• anxiety
• pain (can lead to chronic pain)
• increased rate of ageing

And a myriad of other symptoms!

We can learn how to breathe in yoga. And in my classes, workshops and one to ones, I teach coherent breathing. There are several aspects to coherent breathing:

1. Diaphragmatic action - the diaphragm is a strong sheet of muscle that sits in the torso separating the abdominal organs from the thoracic cage. It is a very important organ. It can move in a range of 10 cm. Yet many people don't use it - it's range may be 1 cm or less. When the diaphragm is used to at least 60% of its capacity in breathing it works on the enteric nervous system (the ENS, the gut) to entrain this body-brain (the ENS has 100,000 neurons, as much as the spinal column!!). It also massages deeply into the gut to keep the myofascial connective structure free of blockages and the body fluids healthy.
2. Effect on the Heart - the diaphragm is connected to the heart via the central tendon and connective tissue. Its action massages the heart - the other body-brain. As much as 65% of heart cells are neural cells, identical to those found in the brain, your heart has thoughts and a 'mind'! In addition, the heart is a powerful EMF energy generator (the electromagnetic energy that a coherent heart kicks out can be measured up to 15 feet outside of the body!!), and can affect the energy of brainwaves (a process called entrainment) and also of other people.
3. Engage the parasympathetic nervous system - the diaphragm is connected to the vagus nerve, part of the PNS, and its action serves to increase the functionality of the PNS
4. Entrainment - through coherent breathing we can entrain the ENS (the gut), the heart into coherence (high HRV), and the brainwaves into alpha or even theta.

These four points mean that when we learn how to breathe coherently, we notice changes in both body and mind.

To begin with, many of us may simply feel MORE pain, more tiredness or exhaustion. This is because we are actually really exhausted and/or in pain but it has been 'hidden' by the over active SNS - stress hormones such as cortisol are at permanently elevated levels and serve to mask this.

But if we practice consistently and regularly these problems will diminish and we will start to feel the many benefits of coherent breathing:

• reduced pain
• more energy
• improved sleep
• reduced blood pressure
• reduced symptoms of depression and/or anxiety
• increased performance
• improved emotional control
• increased resilience and less stress
• better decision making

Coherent breathing is the key to more confidence, happiness and bliss.