Yoga and Depression
by Valerie Baker
Issue date: 5/4/09 Section: Health
If you have ever experienced depression you may remember it as a period when you experienced little interest or pleasure in life. You might have felt hopelessness, numbness and loneliness, feeling as if you were cut off from other people and the world. Depression drains you of energy and freezes the will; it brings in negative thoughts that hang like heavy clouds, making it very difficult to just get thought your day and complete even the simplest tasks.
Amy Weintraub's book, Yoga for Depression: A Compassionate Guide to Relieve Suffering through Yoga raises the issue of depression to the light of both the ancient yogic wisdom and the modern medical and psychological science and considers it from different perspectives. Amy Weintraub is intimately familiar with this topic, as someone who suffered from depression and received treatment consisting of anti-depressant medication and talk therapy for many years; she courageously shares with us the lessons learned on her own journey as well as her extensive compilation of research findings on the subject.
For the author, her discovery of yoga practice was the lifeline that helped her climb out of her own depression and continue on the path of living with ever increasing joy and satisfaction. Amy Weintraub's sincere desire to share the simple yet profound practices that so dramatically altered the course of her life is the inspiration behind this book.
Yogic treatment begins with a shift in how we think about depression. A yoga practitioner and a researcher on the subject, Stephen Cope writes in the Foreword, "Depression manifests as our inability to be present for the experience of life." Based on the yogic teachings, Ms. Weintraub describes depression as separation from our own Life Force.
This separation occurs when the pain of life becomes too great. Depression here serves the function of a survival mechanism. It numbs us, puts us into a trance, anesthetizes us.
And yet even in the bottom of a seemingly bottomless pit of our darkest depression, all of us retain a very powerful innate instinct - to live fully, be fully alive, fully present for the experience of life, whatever it has in store for us.
Yoga practice helps us to cultivate compassionate understanding of the function of our depression as well as its roots. At the same time, it helps us get in touch with the instinct to be fully alive and fully present. Then it teaches us to allow this instinct to guide our efforts in building up the skills to cope with the experience of life, so that it may be joyful and gratifying, despite the difficult circumstances.
By now you may be thinking, can I achieve this just by practicing yoga poses?
Excellent question.
Yoga (from the Sanskrit yuj -- to yoke or join) is an ancient discipline of creating greater harmony, peace and unity within and between the different aspects of our being - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. The science of yoga guides its practitioners to apply their efforts in several areas, described as "the eight limbs" of yoga, or which body postures (Asanas) are one. These eight limbs are
1. Yama : Universal morality
2. Niyama : Personal observances (These first two closely correspond with the underlying moral principles of all world religions)
3. Asanas : Body postures
4. Pranayama : Breathing exercises, and control of prana (energy of life)
5. Pratyahara : Control of the senses
6. Dharana : Concentration and cultivating inner perceptual awareness
7. Dhyana : Devotion, Meditation on the Divine
8. Samadhi : Union with the Divine
Amy Weitraub gives simple and practical explanations and instructions for adapting the ancient teachings and applying them to contemporary society. The author emphasizes the non-religious, interfaith nature of yoga and encourages practitioners to follow their own spiritual tradition, picking the yogic tools and teachings that agree with them. The essence of yogic practices is peace, and they work to help us better relate and connect with our own true nature and with other human beings.
Yoga for Depression contains not only a comprehensive account of the author's personal journey and its theoretical foundations, but detailed guidance for building your own practice of yoga, both on and off the yoga mat.
This book does not urge you to run away from therapy or swear off antidepressant medication. The author suggests that through personal practice, with an experienced and understanding yoga teacher to get you started, and working with your therapist and / or psychiatrist, you can pave your own road to recovery, with the right combination and balance of medication, psychotherapy and yoga that is uniquely yours.
Valerie Baker is a counselor at the Counseling Center who is also a Yoga teacher. This article is a series of Bibliotherapy articles part of our drop in Bibliotherapy series once a month at the Counseling Center on Mondays or Wednesday at 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Future articles and lecture at the Counseling Center will include such books on Depression and Men, Mindfulness Eating, and the Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living. To sign up for these future discussion please call Dr. Baez, the Director of the Counseling Center at 718-960-8761 or sign up at the front desk. The Counseling Center provides individual counseling to registered Lehman College students. It is located at the Old Gym Building in room 114. Please join us for these wonderful series.
Amy Weintraub's book, Yoga for Depression: A Compassionate Guide to Relieve Suffering through Yoga raises the issue of depression to the light of both the ancient yogic wisdom and the modern medical and psychological science and considers it from different perspectives. Amy Weintraub is intimately familiar with this topic, as someone who suffered from depression and received treatment consisting of anti-depressant medication and talk therapy for many years; she courageously shares with us the lessons learned on her own journey as well as her extensive compilation of research findings on the subject.
For the author, her discovery of yoga practice was the lifeline that helped her climb out of her own depression and continue on the path of living with ever increasing joy and satisfaction. Amy Weintraub's sincere desire to share the simple yet profound practices that so dramatically altered the course of her life is the inspiration behind this book.
Yogic treatment begins with a shift in how we think about depression. A yoga practitioner and a researcher on the subject, Stephen Cope writes in the Foreword, "Depression manifests as our inability to be present for the experience of life." Based on the yogic teachings, Ms. Weintraub describes depression as separation from our own Life Force.
This separation occurs when the pain of life becomes too great. Depression here serves the function of a survival mechanism. It numbs us, puts us into a trance, anesthetizes us.
And yet even in the bottom of a seemingly bottomless pit of our darkest depression, all of us retain a very powerful innate instinct - to live fully, be fully alive, fully present for the experience of life, whatever it has in store for us.
Yoga practice helps us to cultivate compassionate understanding of the function of our depression as well as its roots. At the same time, it helps us get in touch with the instinct to be fully alive and fully present. Then it teaches us to allow this instinct to guide our efforts in building up the skills to cope with the experience of life, so that it may be joyful and gratifying, despite the difficult circumstances.
By now you may be thinking, can I achieve this just by practicing yoga poses?
Excellent question.
Yoga (from the Sanskrit yuj -- to yoke or join) is an ancient discipline of creating greater harmony, peace and unity within and between the different aspects of our being - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. The science of yoga guides its practitioners to apply their efforts in several areas, described as "the eight limbs" of yoga, or which body postures (Asanas) are one. These eight limbs are
1. Yama : Universal morality
2. Niyama : Personal observances (These first two closely correspond with the underlying moral principles of all world religions)
3. Asanas : Body postures
4. Pranayama : Breathing exercises, and control of prana (energy of life)
5. Pratyahara : Control of the senses
6. Dharana : Concentration and cultivating inner perceptual awareness
7. Dhyana : Devotion, Meditation on the Divine
8. Samadhi : Union with the Divine
Amy Weitraub gives simple and practical explanations and instructions for adapting the ancient teachings and applying them to contemporary society. The author emphasizes the non-religious, interfaith nature of yoga and encourages practitioners to follow their own spiritual tradition, picking the yogic tools and teachings that agree with them. The essence of yogic practices is peace, and they work to help us better relate and connect with our own true nature and with other human beings.
Yoga for Depression contains not only a comprehensive account of the author's personal journey and its theoretical foundations, but detailed guidance for building your own practice of yoga, both on and off the yoga mat.
This book does not urge you to run away from therapy or swear off antidepressant medication. The author suggests that through personal practice, with an experienced and understanding yoga teacher to get you started, and working with your therapist and / or psychiatrist, you can pave your own road to recovery, with the right combination and balance of medication, psychotherapy and yoga that is uniquely yours.
Valerie Baker is a counselor at the Counseling Center who is also a Yoga teacher. This article is a series of Bibliotherapy articles part of our drop in Bibliotherapy series once a month at the Counseling Center on Mondays or Wednesday at 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Future articles and lecture at the Counseling Center will include such books on Depression and Men, Mindfulness Eating, and the Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living. To sign up for these future discussion please call Dr. Baez, the Director of the Counseling Center at 718-960-8761 or sign up at the front desk. The Counseling Center provides individual counseling to registered Lehman College students. It is located at the Old Gym Building in room 114. Please join us for these wonderful series.
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