Meditation and Yoga for Depression and Bipolar

By John McManamy Source : http://www.mcmanweb.com/

You know those cartoons where the character goes flying around the room like a balloon with the air rushing out? That's sort of what happened to my mind in 1987-88. Like an idiot I refused to seek help and nearly paid in full measure for my stupidity.

Eventually, my entire psychic being deflated on its own account and I was able to regain some control of my brain. A good deal of the credit must go to yoga and meditation, though I would never be able to prove it in court. I managed to establish a successful daily practice for three or four years before backsliding to my bad old ways. I won't say that my failure to stick to my routine brought on my latest round of depressions. But I will tell you this: I'm back on my feet again devoting a part of my day to sitting.

Meditation is a highly personal affair, and it will probably take a process of trial and error to find what works for you. My mind, for one, is like a Circuit City showroom, with TVs and VCRs and home sound systems blaring all at once from all sides, and K-mart blue light specials and beepers and police radios going off against a truckload of gongs clattering down marble steps. Filtering out even the top layer of all this racket would have been an exercise in extreme futility, so I hit upon a preliminary yoga warm-up routine, much like an athlete limbering up before attempting some really heavy lifting. Make no mistake - any exercise devoted to bringing the mind under control constitutes heavy lifting of the most extreme kind.

My Meditation-Yoga Routine

But first a little incense to set the mood, sandalwood and patchouli being my favorites. Please bear in mind that what has worked for me may not work for you.

I start off from a sitting position with some leg stretches, touching the toes - or the kneecaps, whatever - extending to whatever position is comfortable to hold for a minute or more, one leg, then the other, and back again. On the second go, my arms grow a lot longer and the toes considerably closer, and one day I'll write a masters thesis on why this is so. By now my mind is slowing just a bit and my breathing establishes a new pattern, as if I am inhaling from the seat of my pants right up through my spinal column and out the top of my head.

Then I take one foot and move it past my other knee and look the other way as the vertebrae from my neck to my tailbone pop like firecrackers, and hold the position until the ash from my incense drops to the carpet. Then I reverse body parts. By now I feel my entire thoracic cavity opening up as I literally suck up all the air in the room and expel it in one great gust.

I do a couple of spinal flexes from my stomach - with a few optional stretchers thrown in for good measure - then it's nose down and tail up for the grand finale - the head stand. The exercise is a two-way street: I am compelled to be still. At the same time, the effort stills me. Gradually, a few of the TVs and VCRs in my mind click off and go silent, and after three minutes, I'm ready for my next round of prelims.

Now, for the first time, the seat of my pants meets the seat of my floor cushion. I bend my legs into a semi-lotus position, but my back sags under the strain. But then come my breathers.

Warning: It is not advisable to begin breathing exercises without instruction or supervision.

I start - eyes closed - by forcing air out my nostrils then allow my diaphragm to expand on the intake. As I work up a good speed, my back becomes ramrod straight as if being pulled up by an invisible string from the ceiling. Then, to settle down, I breathe in through one nostril, hold my breath for a few seconds, and breathe out the other. With the open nostril I breathe back in and continue the cycle. Finally I take twenty slow breaths in and out.

I might also take in a bit of chakras and visualizations and mantras, but this is strictly optional.

Having accomplished all this, I have now achieved the benefits of an excellent workout, a sure stress-buster, and a positive deterrent to depression and mania. But I am not about to miss the big payoff, especially so close to my goal. Who knows? Just around the corner could be nothing less than the big E - enlightenment, the Boddhi tree spectacular, the Fourth of July in my head I keep hoping for, when all those TVs and VCRs and blue light specials resolve into one glorious chord that puts me in harmony with Christ and Buddha and all creation.

But I am willing to settle for much less.

Now comes what is simultaneously the simplest and most difficult activity ever devised by a living being: I attempt to shut out all other thoughts as I follow my breath in and out my nose. The ideal, according to the Buddhist monks, is to concentrate all thinking on the tip of the nose, but I am quite content to keep my thoughts confined to the immediate planet.

Fortunately, the monks have come up with a fall-back meditation: As you sit quietly you simply watch your thoughts in a detached manner, refusing to be drawn into any dialogue your mind's many TVs and VCRs may want to engage you in. When you find yourself "thinking", you simply let the thought go and resume your meditation.

Like Seinfeld, we are talking about a show about nothing. But there is far more to nothing than meets the eye. No self, no other. Who can truly say what lies beyond?

A Personal Experience

What you take away from the experience is for you and you alone. You may be content with five minutes in a chair or you may set aside a whole hour. It could be ten minutes of torture or the first time you find yourself experiencing real peace of mind. "If you're feeling better at the end, you are probably doing it right," says Roger Thomson, PhD, a Chicago psychologist and Zen meditator on mediation, quoted in an article in Psychology Today.

According to Suite101.com's Buddhism editor, Patricia Swain, describing her meditation retreats:

"For me, these peaceful days irregular and infrequent as they are, have started a process within me that, once started, takes on a life of its own and grows like a tree rooted in the cracks of a sidewalk. It's as though the meditation process is still going on in whatever I do; that the quiet noting of thoughts and distractions, the awareness of body and the roots of defilements is a constant within me, like a heartbeat.

"It is a knowing, a calm, an ability to tap into a seemingly endless source without strain. My teacher describes it as embodiment."
Meditation for Depression (and Bipolar Disorder)

But is it effective against depression? According to natural health guru Andrew Weil MD:

"[Buddhist psychology's] basic prescription is for the daily practice of meditation, and I am inclined to agree that this is the best way to get at the root of depression and change it. That requires a long-term commitment, however, since meditation does not produce fast results."

Now if you don't like the eastern flavor of meditation you can change its focus to reflect your own cultural beliefs. You can meditate on Jesus or Moses or Allah. In place of a Sanskrit mantra, you can repeat over and over: "Our Father who art in Heaven... " or "Hear, oh Israel, ...the Lord is one ...," or "There is no God but God ... "

But the beauty of yoga and meditation is that you can practice it without any of its religious trappings, whatsoever. We are talking about a show about nothing, remember? No self, no other ...

... and perhaps - no depression or mania.

Yoga for Depression

Back in 1985, Amy Weintraub’s therapist told her that, psychically, she would always have empty pockets. "And I visualized myself, like Virginia Woolf," she wrote, "filling those empty pockets with stones and stepping into the river." Instead, through yoga practice, she filled them with fresh air and divine light, and slowly pulled her way out of her chronic depression, an accomplishment that transformed her and changed her life.

Books on yoga and meditation offer us age-old insights into the nature of suffering, together with time-tested techniques to alleviate that suffering. Depression and self-help books provide a more contemporary focus. Amy’s new book, "Yoga for Depression: A Compassionate Guide to Relieve Suffering Through Yoga," proves the twain of Patanjali and psychology can meet. Amy is a Kripalu-trained senior yoga instructor and writer who has thoroughly researched depression.

"Living in this mortal body," she quotes the Buddha, "is like living in a house on fire." We suffer. "Depression," says psychologist and yogi Stephen Cope, "is the common cold of the deluded human being." Don’t take this personally - we’re all deluded, including your psychiatrist and therapist. But we’re also all divine, or at least we’re connected to the divine. Yoga is about establishing this sense of oneness. It is probably fair to say a good many people take up yoga simply as a proven stress-buster or alternative to Richard Simmons, but they may also find themselves reaping unexpected rewards, such as beatific inner calm or heightened awareness. Some also find it helps their depression.

In a UCLA study published in March 2004, 28 mildly-depressed young adults attended two one-hour yoga classes twice a week for five weeks. Midway into the course, subjects "demonstrated significant decreases in self-reported symptoms of depression and trait anxiety," which they maintained to the end. Subjects also reported decreased negative mood and fatigue following class.

What is going on in the body, says Amy, is muscular relaxation, restored natural diaphragm breathing, improved oxygen absorption and carbon monoxide elimination, and increased alpha wave activity.

Yoga is an eight-limbed path which uses postures, breathing, and meditation as both a means and an end. Back bends, which open up the chest and increase lung capacity, are especially useful for depression. So are inversions such as headstands and shoulder stands, which stimulate the brain (but which should not be attempted without the guidance of a qualified yoga instructor). Some positions are meant to be calming and others energizing. Anxious types are advised to employ calming positions while energetic positions are de rigor for those who find it hard to get out of bed. (Since reading this book, I find myself doing a short energizing routine in the early afternoon to get me through the rest of the day and a longer calming routine ending in a short meditation at night.)

Breathing exercises follow the same energizing/calming dichotomy. One reason so much emphasis is placed on the breath is that most of us have forgotten how to breathe. Instead of using the diaphragm, we use the chest, which is not as efficient since the lower portions of the lungs are not exposed to air. The yogis imbue the air we breathe with a spiritual quality called Prana (with a capital P). "When we restrict the breath," writes Amy, "we are diminishing the spirit. When we relearn to breathe fully and deeply, we are enlarging the spirit and reconnecting with the Self." She cites an Indian study that found reduced violence and disciplinary infractions in a juvenile prison population that had been practicing a specific breathing technique for eight weeks.

What may be going on, speculates Amy, is the release of the anterior pituitary ("feel good") hormones, including oxytocin, prolactin, and vasopressin.

If posture can take us into breathing, breathing can take us into meditation, which, says, Amy, "can create a calm, healing state in body and mind." Pain doesn’t go away with meditation, she advises, but through the practice of mindfulness we learn not to identify with the pain. For people with major depression, she cautions, meditation may be counter-productive at first, as depressed people tend to be stuck in their negative thoughts. Since meditation may also bring up flashbacks and bad memories, learning under a skilled instructor is strongly encouraged.

Amy’s breakthrough came in a yoga class while holding the bridge pose, suppine with pelvis and chest thrust upwards She released the posture ten minutes later to a flood of sensations and a "time-out for the rational mind, a few moments of deep rest, a glimpse of samadhi [cosmic consciousness]."

What if, she asks, that intelligent awareness of bliss is not an altered state but your natural state? "Eventually, through practice," she informs us, "those moments of samadhi expand until they are firmly established in your mind and you are living with your eyes wide open."

There goes that pesky common cold.