YOGA FOR Depression

About YOGA FOR DEPRESSION

Whether you’re experiencing a low mood, or have been diagnosed with clinical depression, clinical studies point towards yoga, meditation, pranayama and mindfulness as useful treatments for depression.

Stretching out your muscles can help relieve tension and balance your mood, and building physical strength can also build confidence in your ability to deal with whatever the world may throw at you. Backbends and other dynamic postures that open the heart have been found to be particularly useful.

If you go to a class, there’s also the simple fact of being around other people, which can be a real tonic when you’re lonely.

Then, there’s the deeper stuff – the training of the mind. Mindfulness and meditation can be effective ways to focus the mind on the present, and break the cycle of depressing thoughts concerning a past we can’t change and a future we can’t know.

What the clinical studies say

Yoga

Alleviates anger
Alleviates depression
Reduces anxiety
Reduces neurotic symptoms

Mindfulness

Improves mood
MBCT-TS and maintenance antidepressant treatment are both associated with enduring positive outcomes in terms of quality of life.
MBCT-TS and maintenance antidepressant treatment are both associated with enduring positive outcomes in terms of relapse or recurrence
MBCT-TS and maintenance antidepressant treatment are both associated with enduring positive outcomes in terms of residual depressive symptoms
Reduces anxiety
Reduces risk of recurrence