When I’m depressed, I don’t want to do anything. Evertything seems too difficult, and my mind tells me I need to stay on the couch all day, eating and watching TV. After a day spent like this I usually feel the same or worse. One day turns into two days, then a week goes by and I find myself in deep depression. The logic of depression has this way of sustaining and reinforcing itself.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!What I’ve learned at Himalayan Iyengar Yoga Centre is that I can use yoga asana to treat my depression in the moment and in the longer term. Now when I wake up feeling down, or have low energy for whatever reason, I use asana to transform my mood, generate positive energy and interrupt the cycle of depression before it takes control.
Asana Balances Hormones to Stabilize Mood Swings
The Sharat Arora Method asana sequence operates not only on the body but on the whole person: the hormonal systems and even the subtle energy channels identified in yogic physiology. To be honest, I came to HIYC with no expectations for improvements to my mental health. I’ve long suffered anxiety (see my other post) and depression, but most recently my auto-immune condition has been my highest concern. I arrived with only the hope that I would help my physical body heal and stay healthy in the future.
I discovered effects of the asana practice far beyond what I expected. Without having any intention to change my mental state, I noticed undeniable shifts in my mood depending on the type of asanas I was practicing. After two months of continual practice, my overall mood and energy level has shifted so dramatically that my entire experience of life is now suffused with a lightness, ease and openness to love (and I am not one to use phrases like “openness to love,” but there is no better way to describe it).
Asana Heals the Heart and Opens Us to Love
This shift is even more significant because I arrived at HIYC with a broken heart. I thought only time to grieve and process my feelings could heal my emotional pain. Gradually, however, I noticed my relationship to my feelings changing. I became more present to the wholeness of myself, more accepting of the pain I felt, and ultimately more able to forgive myself and others and start the process of letting go. In the place where pain used to live, I now feel love flowing again naturally even towards those who “let me down” (in my mind) and “caused” my heart to break.
I put quotes around “caused,” because in my heightened self-awareness I can recognize my own role in undermining how others relate to me, which leads to feelings of disappointment and even heartbreak. The Sharat Arora Method has somehow empowered me to take ownership of my feelings, to transform them in real time, and to the same in my relations to others and how they relate to me.
Yoga for Emotional Grounding, Cleansing and Transformation
At HIYC, we practice a sequence of asanas that progresses daily from focusing on standing poses to incorporating twists, forward bends and back bends. The standing poses powerfully ground the practictioner, bringing them into presence and establishing a firm foundation upon which the rest of the asanas build. The twists cleanse the body and spirit of its baggage, initiating the letting-go process. Forward bends lift the front body, allowing an experience of a full, deep and complete (“wholesome”) breath that releases deeply held tensions. The back bends move energy in all directions throughout the body so we can experience instant self-transformation and come to know our own power. Importantly, every practice ends with long relaxations in which we are fully supported by props to experience complete surrender, ease the process of letting go and return to a place of stillness and presence.
The Sharat Arora Method teaches you how to use asana to shift your energy in the moment and progressively increase your baseline of positive mood over the long term. Like me, you may find yourself more open to love in every moment, by healing your heart and the broken ways you relate to others. HIYC is a place where you come to heal much more than the body, and you take with you the tools to navigate the depression-triggering events of life with greater ease, stability and peace.
