From the Heart: Mental Health and Yoga

As a yoga teacher living with Persistent Depressive Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder, I have found that there is a very profound relationship between my mental health and my yoga practice.

They affect one another in a multitude of ways.

My mental illnesses seep into every aspect of my life – this includes my time on my mat, both as a yoga student and as a teacher. Additionally, the effects of my yoga practice are far reaching, affecting many parts of me, including my mental health.

My struggles with my mental health have led me to believe that I am not worthy of teaching yoga. Because I was struggling, I assumed that I wasn’t healthy or well enough to teach yoga.

However, yoga has taught me that I am enough as I am and that I am just as worthy of teaching yoga as the next person.

I have struggled with many things in my life, but so has everyone else. My life is by no means perfect, but nobody is living a perfect life. I have realised that this does not mean that I should not or cannot teach yoga.

Who Am I to Teach Yoga?

If you know anything about yoga, you know that the breath is an essential part of the practice.

Struggling with mental health, I often feel this big ball in my throat and I feel intense pressure on my chest. It feels like there is a big rock sitting on my chest.

These physical symptoms make the simple act of breathing much more challenging!

During these times, trying to make my breath deeper or changing it in any way is completely out of reach for me. If I am being honest, there are times when I think, ‘who am I to be a yoga teacher if I can’t even breathe properly?’

Having mental health issues, making it to my yoga mat takes a ton of effort, energy and patience.

It takes effort to put on my yoga clothes, tie my hair up, step onto my mat, decide what poses to do and what kind of practice to do. It takes so much physical, mental and emotional energy to move my body on my mat. It also takes a great deal of patience with myself to understand that depression drastically changes how my yoga practice feels.

Normally, yoga feels so good, but depression takes nearly, if not all of the enjoyment out of it.

With all of the external pressures, including the popular Instagram hashtag #yogaeverydamnday, I can’t help but think, ‘If I can’t even show up to my mat, who am I to teach yoga?’

Yoga and Medication

There is this belief in the yoga community that if you are living a healthy lifestyle, you do not need to take antidepressants. Some believe that taking a natural and holistic approach for treating mental illness is enough.

For instance, some individuals believe that taking supplements, eating whole foods and practicing yoga is all that is needed. To me, this is not a realistic or rational viewpoint. So many people need psychiatric medications to function day to day, including me.

The truth is, I may not be here today if it wasn’t for my antidepressants.

You can be doing all the right things and still be struggling with your mental health. In this case, medication is necessary.

Turning to Yoga for Mental Health

My yoga practice has had a tremendous impact on my mental health. It helps me to be more compassionate and kind towards myself. This makes a world of difference for my mental health and overall well-being.

The community and social connection I receive from the yoga studio is also something I deeply appreciate. Yoga accepts me as I am, with all of my flaws and imperfections. It helps me to get into my body and out of my mind. It helps me to be present. It opens me up to the possibilities that exist around me.

I truly appreciate the space that yoga offers to care for myself.

I have often felt victim to the urgency and rush of life. However, yoga showed me that I can take my time– that life is not a race and that there is not a timeline for life.

Yoga supports me in moving my body naturally and intuitively. It gives me permission to practice postures in a way that feels good for me. It gives me tools that I use on and off my mat, along with the tools that I have obtained from therapy.

These tools include mindfulness, working with the breath, practicing self-kindness and self-compassion, and self-awareness.

Self-inquiry and Self-reflection

I have always felt disconnected from myself and my journey as a result of my mental illnesses. However, the opportunities that yoga offers for self-inquiry and self-reflection continuously help me connect to myself once again.

For so many years, my mental illness seemed to encompass my entire identity. It was what I focused so much of my energy on, that I didn’t have any energy left to consider what I may want to do with my life, or what my goals or dreams might be.

Depression, unfortunately, takes away your ability to dream. Yet, years of therapy along with my yoga practice and other healing tools allowed me to form a list of hopes, dreams and goals.

Having experienced anxiety and depression, I now support others with their own mental health. I work to raise awareness around mental health and end the stigma. I am currently teaching a weekly yoga class for anxiety at a studio, and I also have a Youtube channel where I offer a variety of yoga classes for anxiety.

I will be forever grateful for the role that yoga has played in my life and I am looking forward to discovering where this journey will lead me.