Can yoga help with depression? -Yoga

Low mood and depression affect more people than we think.The numbers alone help us understand this better: according to (link removed), "Suicide rates rose to 5,691 in England and Wales in 2019 (up 321 on the previous year). Rates for women under 25 have increased by 93.8% since 2012 to their highest level in 2019."
With these numbers in mind, we examine how the pandemic has affected our mental health and how we are looking at mindfulness and wellbeing in a different way since many of us have been isolated indoors for more than a year.
I was inspired to train as a yoga teacher after personally experiencing how much yoga helped improve my mental health and well-being.Many of us know this to be true, but how well can we articulate the science behind why and can yoga help with depression?

It is important to note that I am in no way a medical professional. This blog article is a summary of an in-depth research post I created for my 500-hour yoga teacher training on how yoga can help with depression. Therefore, there are references and links to scientific studies and medical institutions that are experts in this field if you want to learn more.

What is depression?

Before we can understand how yoga can help with depression, we need to understand what depression actually is. It's a slightly clouded topic, as the medical world doesn't know about it technicallyExactlyWhat else it is, apart from the brain regions and neurochemicals involved. Instead, it is defined by a collection of symptoms that can range from mild to chronic and from recurrent to constant.

For the purposes of this blog article, I will focus on the mild and frequently recurring forms of depression, the main symptoms of which are:

• Ich fühle mich träge
• Ich kämpfe darum, Freude an irgendetwas zu finden
• Soziale Situationen vermeiden
• Nicht gut essen oder auf sich selbst aufpassen
• Es fällt mir schwer, mich zu konzentrieren oder zur Arbeit zu gehen
• Mangel an Sinn im Leben
• Ich fühle mich ängstlich
• Unkontrollierbare Stimmungsschwankungen

Research has shown that having too few neurotransmitters, which trigger signals around the brain, can lead to depression in some people. The three neurotransmitters involved in depression are:

• Serotonin verbessert Willenskraft, Motivation und Stimmung
• Noradrenalin fördert das Denken, die Konzentration und den Umgang mit Stress (es ist auch ein Hormon, das mit der Regulierung unserer „Kampf oder Flucht“ -Reaktion verbunden ist).
• Dopamin erhöht den Genuss und ist notwendig, um schlechte Gewohnheiten zu ändern

Even with the help of medications that can help balance these specific neurotransmitters in the brain, depression is a highly complex disease. What turns out to be an effective treatment for one person with depression may not work for another person. Something that worked well for someone in the past may become less effective or even stop working altogether over time.That's why many people turn to natural treatments for low mood and depression -including yoga.

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How can yoga help depression by increasing these chemicals in the brain?

First of all, asana practice is a form of exercise and physical movementone of the easiest ways to boost these neurochemicals.It is recommended that any type of regular exercise is useful to treat people with mild to moderate depression. Not only does exercise release positive endorphins to improve your mood, but it also increases energy, improves sleep, boosts confidence, and reduces stress hormones. Just 30 minutes of exercise three to five days a week can be enough to see improvements.

This helps explain how exercise can be a great way to combat depression, but can yoga specifically help depression?Yoga is much more than just a physical exerciseoffer these benefits; It also includes breathwork, meditation, stretching, chanting, intention setting, gratitude, and more.

Biofeedback and vagal tone

This is where the body-mind connection of biofeedback comes into play. The biofeedback loop is the brain changing its activity based on the body's activities. We can literally send signals to the brain to change our stress levels, our mood, and our thoughts.

Yoga influences biofeedback primarily by stimulating and improving the tone of the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the body, originating in the brain, traveling down the neck, and then surrounding the digestive system, liver, spleen, pancreas, heart, and lungs.Stimulating vagal tone is key to activating the parasympathetic nervous system, or rest and digest mode.

According to the International(link removed)(IAHE), Vagal tone is measured by tracking your heart rate alongside your breathing rate. Your heart rate speeds up a little as you breathe in and slows down a bit as you breathe out. The greater the difference between your inhalation heart rate and your exhalation heart rate, the higher your vagal tone.

Higher vagal tone means your body can relax more quickly after stress. It is also linked to better mood, less anxiety and more stress resilience, as well as many body system improvements.

That specifically identifies the following yoga practices to improve vagal tone:

• Langsames, rhythmisches, Zwerchfellatmen
• Summen oder Wiederholen des Sounds ‚OM‘
• Meditation, insbesondere liebevolle Freundlichkeitsmeditation, die Gefühle des guten Willens gegenüber sich selbst und anderen fördert

Mindfulness

Finally, the NHS recommends developing a mindfulness practice to treat depression, claiming that by becoming more aware of the present moment we can enjoy the world around us more:

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From the definition above, it is easy to see how the yogic philosophies and ancient practices of meditation or “stilling the mind” all meet the criteria of modern mindfulness. Patañjali even defines yoga as “chitta vritti nirodhah,” translated by Sri Swami Satchidananda as “to still the fluctuations of the mind.”

Props that are perfect for meditation and help treat anxiety and stress

Take some time to give your nervous system a well-deserved break. Props are a great way to slow down your body and mind so you can treat stress-related anxiety. Try our (link removed) to give your body a much-needed boost.

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