Lift your spirits with yoga

Zest. Effervescence. Gusto. Sparkle. We all want them, but occasionally we wake up feeling flat and blah. The good news? There are some surefire ways to lift your spirits and zip through the day.

Know that each time you step onto your yoga mat you are doing something not only for your body but for your mind and your emotional wellbeing.

You may have noticed that when you’re happy or in a good mood it’s accompanied by a sense of lightness and expansion, and when you’re feeling sad or depressed there’s a sense of heaviness or contraction. Sometimes, we feel down for no apparent reason. What causes a heavy mood and how can you boost your mood when you’re feeling down?

Recent studies have shown that the practice of yoga — including breathing techniques, postures, meditation and chanting — have beneficial effects on the emotional wellbeing and mental acuity of depression sufferers; it also enhances the mood and overall sense of wellbeing in people without depression. The great news is that yogic practices offer some of the same benefits as antidepressants but without any the side-effects.

A study conducted jointly by the Philadelphia-based Jefferson Medical College and Yoga Research Society found that yoga practitioners experienced a significant drop in cortisol levels after a single yoga class. High cortisol levels is a characteristic of stress and serious depression.

Meditation teacher Sangeeta Jani says, “Depression or feelings of sadness happen when the prana (life force) in our system is low. Just as there are particular rhythms in nature — day follows night, spring follows winter, etc — our nervous system also has a particular rhythm. When we accumulate stress, the nervous system is thrown off balance and the level of prana is reduced. Also, the mind has positive and negative tendencies. When prana is low, the mind expresses the negative tendencies.”

The four sources of energy

You can enhance your mood by gaining a deeper understanding of prana and how it can be increased. The four main ways in which you can increase your prana are through:

• The food you eat
• Getting enough sleep
• Being aware of your state of mind
• Focusing on your breath

Food: Foods high in prana include fresh vegetables (especially the green leafy ones), nuts, pulses and fresh fruit. Increasing these in your diet raises your prana. Being aware of foods that reduce your prana and eating less of those will also make a difference. Foods low in prana include tinned foods, microwaved foods, meat (including fish), frozen foods and food cooked more than three hours beforehand. Achieving balance is not just about eliminating from your diet foods that are low in prana, but if you’re eating these, make sure you include high-prana foods as well.

Sleep: If you’re not getting enough sleep your prana will definitely be reduced and your mood will be adversely affected. If you’re sleeping too much, your prana will also not be at its optimum and you’re likely to feel dull and unenthusiastic. Through trial and error, find out for yourself what amount of sleep works for you.

State of mind:A person who meditates and takes care of their mind will automatically have more prana. Meditation eliminates negative impressions from the mind, inducing a mind state that leans towards the positive. When you’re in a positive frame of mind, your prana is naturally high. Similarly, when you get stuck in complaints or spend a lot of time listening to someone else complaining, it reduces your pranic level and adversely affects your mood.

Alternatively, being praised, praising others or listening to something inspiring and uplifting enhances your level of prana and your mood.

Breath: Most of us are utilising no more than 30 per cent of our breathing capacity and yet breath is the main source of energy, or prana. Also, the breath is full of signs as to what kind of mood you’re in. For example, when you’re feeling unhappy, your exhalation will be longer than your inhalation and when you’re in a great mood your inhalation will be much longer and lighter. When you start breathing more deeply and more fully, as is taught through yogic breathing techniques, the energy available to you is enormous and the effect on your mind is tangible. Your breath is a very powerful instrument that can be used to cleanse the mind of negative tendencies and enhance a positive mood.

The sudarshan kriya

In her book Yoga for Depression, Amy Weintraub advocates the sudarshan kriya (SKY) as a scientifically proven method of alleviating depression. “It’s an incredible result for a sequence of breathing patterns,” she says, “but because breathing is closely linked to the emotions, focusing on the breath can alter your emotional state.” However, the benefits are not just for those with depression. SKY can help healthy people feel relaxed, focused and invigorated and enhance an overall sense of wellness.

Yoga

When we’re feeling down we tend to be drawn towards activities that increase dullness or restlessness, such as eating junk food, which is low in prana, oversleeping or watching endless hours of television, which in turn brings a heaviness to our mood. When we honour ourselves we create opportunities to be loving towards ourselves and these choices enhance our mood. Such choices could include listening to inspiring music, eating food that enhances prana, spending time in nature and practising yoga and/or meditation. Partaking in such activities increases purity in the system, enhances mood and increases a sense of inner lightness, joy, enthusiasm and zest for life. Know that each time you step onto your yoga mat you are doing something not only for your body but for your mind and your emotional wellbeing.

Yoga asanas for mood enhancing

When your mood is low your mind is often dull and heavy and bombarded by negative thoughts. When you practice yoga your mind becomes calm, clear and focused. A good yoga session can be measured by how much stillness has been brought to your mind by the time you step off your mat. Prana yamas (breathing techniques) are a way of honouring the mind, while asanas (yoga poses) honour the body.

Before you begin the yoga poses:

Find an appropriate space: Yoga is best practised in a room with fresh air and cross ventilation.

Have an empty stomach: Practise yoga two-and-a-half hours after a light meal and four hours after a heavy meal so you have time to digest your meal.

Practise regularly: For the best results, do some yoga poses every day, even if it’s just for 20 minutes. A regular dose of yoga goes a long way, and doing a short practice daily is much better than doing one long session once a week.

During your yoga practice:

Let go emotionally: When you experience unpleasant situations, the effect of them is stored in your muscles and joints as tension and so sometimes you may feel tearful or angry when you’re in a pose. Without needing to know why, this is your time to really be with the emotion and let go.