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1. Close your eyes. As you inhale through your nostrils, say to yourself, “I am not my depressed mood.”

2. Sustain your breath as is comfortable, or for four counts if you can, as you visualize the face of a being you love (2-legged or 4-legged, it doesn’t matter).

3. Exhale slowly and repeat to yourself, “I am,” up to six times. Repeat this sequence at least three times.

You may change the first phrase to reflect what you are feeling in the moment, for example: “I am not this anxious mood,” or “I am not this tired body,” or “I am not this chaotic mind.” Always end with the exhale and with the repetition of “I am.”

Mark Twain said that if we talked to our children the way we talk to ourselves, they would arrest us for child abuse! When you are aware that you are experiencing a lot of negative self-talk or depression, start doing the affirmations. If it is helpful for you, sometimes having a CD or mp3 with affirmations that you can follow can make it easier to break the cycle of negative self-talk. Try the LifeForce Yoga Bhavana—Say Yes to Yourself CD to help you stop beating yourself up.

The post Affirmation for Beating Depression appeared first on Yoga for Depression.

How many hundreds of yoga classes did I teach, quoting my teacher at the end of each class, before my heart’s mind understood those words? Why did saying them to my students still bring tears to my eyes? Why, after years of meditation, therapy and medication, was I still so mean to me? Before I began a daily yoga practice in the late 80’s, no amount of meditation turned the volume down on that monster in my mind. Every one of us has an inner critic. Mark Twain said that if we talked to our children the way we talk to ourselves, we would be arrested for child abuse. I was particularly hard on myself in the 70’s, after my marriage failed. Had anyone been listening to my self-abuse, they would have locked me up and thrown away the key.

My secret name for myself was “Amy Shamey.” Shame wasn’t just a thought or belief. It wasn’t just an emotion. It was a part of my physical being, a daily visceral experience that whooshed through my body, bringing waves of heat and a deep sense of humiliation and with it, grief. No amount of talking about it in therapy, watching it arise on the meditation cushion, or numbing it out with meds, touched the core of my self-hatred. Of course, my body image had a lot to do with it. I saw myself as chubby, unattractive and clumsy, compared to my beautiful mother, whose expressive face appeared on the covers of pulp fiction magazines like True Confessions and Romance in the late 1940’s. My body was not my friend. It had hair in places it shouldn’t. It had ungraceful hands. It had an embarrassing plumpness in the places that should have been lean and an embarrassing flatness in the places that should have been round. From this description, you might think I wasn’t pretty. We’re talking about self-image here, not reality. Pictures attest to my cuteness as a kid and my down right beauty in my teens. I don’t think my creative dance teacher would have tried to convince my mother when I was eleven to enroll me in a proper ballet studio with daily classes, if she hadn’t seen in me a grace and fluidity I couldn’t see in myself. But whatever the source, I hated my body and nearly everything else that went by the name of Amy.

So what changed? In the late 1980’s I made my first visit to Kripalu Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and took my first yoga class. I had been meditating since the early 70’s, and had practiced a bit of yoga asana with a library book and some LPs made in the 70’s by an American yoga teacher named Richard Hittleman. But it wasn’t until I was on a blanket at Kripalu for the first time, that a teacher invited me to listen to my body and accept it just as it was. It may have been during that first visit to Kripalu, that a teacher spoke the words attributed to Swami Kripalu but that were actually written by long-time Kripalu disciple and yoga teacher, Carolyn Dell’uomo: “My beloved Child, Break your heart no longer. Each time you judge yourself, you break your own heart.” I’m sure I wept on my mat, when I heard them, although I don’t remember. What I do remember is emerging from the class feeling a sense of spacious abundance, a touching into wholeness that I had never experienced before. In those moments after class, it didn’t matter what I looked like or what mistakes I may have made in my life. I had touched something deep within me that was absolutely perfect, just as it was. In those moments after class, there was nothing I needed to fix, no way I needed to change. I left Kripalu with a bag full of audio tapes to practice at home, as there were no yoga teachers in my town. I came back to my mat, day after day, sometimes struggling to get there with a head full of self-condemnation. And after every morning practice, of stretching and breathing and staying present to the physical sensations the poses evoked, I felt more at home in my body. I rose from my mat feeling at ease with the Amy who looked back at me from the mirror.

The self-judgment didn’t cease in the hours I spent off the mat, at least not right away. At first the daily whoosh of shame came weekly, then monthly, and then eventually, it disappeared altogether. The simple attention to sensation, the backing off from a pose when I needed to, the true listening and honoring of my body, began to change me in the most profound way. Compassion for my body was the first thing to change. I listened to my body’s needs on and off the mat, and a life time of suffering from constipation disappeared. I began to crave healthier foods, and without dieting, I lost weight. Eventually, when my inner critic attacked, I found myself talking back, instead of believing everything she said. When I rolled out my mat to practice, her voice fell silent. When I made a mistake or fell short of my own expectations, she always had something to say, but I didn’t necessarily believe her anymore. By the early 90’s, I was teaching a workshop at Kripalu, called, “Befriending Your Inner Critic,” leading others in exercises to find that compassion for themselves, including their shame parts and their nasty inner critics. From that workshop, I offer you a practice now. Spend a week with this practice and watch your compassion for all your parts begin to outshine the weakening voice of your inner critic.

Part One is a practice of breathing while moving, that in addition to bringing in more fresh oxygen and releasing old carbon dioxide from your lungs, provides an opportunity to fully sense into and be present to physical sensations. This sensory awareness is the portal into the moving meditation we will do in Part Two, that offers compassion to places in your body. You can do each practice by itself, but it works best to put them together.

I lead this in a standing position, but it can be adapted to a chair practice. The breathing practice raises heart rate and oxygen intake, even as it invokes feelings of calm clarity and spaciousness upon completion. If you have not felt at home in your body for a while, you will after this exercise. There are a few contraindications for the breathing practice. Do not practice the Power Hara Breath if you have had recent abdominal surgery, untreated high blood pressure, or if you are pregnant.

Power Hara Breath

1. Stand with your feet slightly wider than hip width apart and bring hands to your shoulders with your elbows pointed out like chicken wings
2. Inhale, filling your lungs halfway as you twist to the left
3. Inhale fully as you twist to the right. 
4. Extend your right arm forcefully to the left as you twist to the left, exhaling through your mouth with a vigorous “ha” sound
5. Extend your left arm forcefully to the right as you twist to the right, exhaling again through your mouth with a “ha” sound
6. Practice five to ten full rounds. Release and stand with your eyes closed and your palms open. Sense deeply into your face, feel the sensation in your face; your arms, the palms of your hands. Sense the tingling in your palms.

“Be still beloved, and know that you are safely held.”

1. Let your right hand nest in her left hand with the tips of your thumbs touching and say to yourself “Be still, beloved hands and know that you are safely held.
2. Bounce on your feet for about thirty seconds. Stop and feel the sensation in your feet. Say to yourself, “Be still, beloved feet and know that you are safely held.”
3. Now find a comfortable seated position or lie down on the floor. repeat the phrase, moving through your body, like this: “Be still beloved __________,” as you inhale; “and know that you are safely held,” as you exhale.
4. Begin with the left foot. “Be still beloved left foot,” as you inhale; “and know that you are safely held,” as you exhale. Repeat this phrase as you move up the left side of your body, all the way up to your crown. As you speak to your head, you might wish to place your hands on your head so your little fingers are touching at your hairline and your index fingers point to your crown.
5. Do the same practice, beginning with the right foot and moving up the right side of your body. 
6. Speak to your torso, including your buttocks, genitals, belly, chest, spine, and breasts. Feel free to place your hands on each body part as you speak to it.
7. End by placing your right hand on your heart, and your left hand on top, linking your thumbs in a hand gesture called garuda mudra. End with the phrase, “Be still beloved heart, and know that you are safely held.”

I lead you through the Power Hara Breathing practice on the level 1 “LifeForce Yoga for Depression” and it’s also in both of my books, Yoga for Depression and Yoga Skills for Therapists.

The post Breaking the Shame of Depression with Compassion appeared first on Yoga for Depression.

The post Amy’s Bio appeared first on Yoga for Depression.

Here’s a simple restorative pose recommended in my book Yoga for Depression that meets the lethargy of depression and begins to build the energy.

I call this “Smiling Heart Pose.” It requires several props.

1. Place two folded blankets, a bolster or a firm cushion under your back, just beneath you shoulder blades. Make sure the lift is comfortable and modify if you need to, using more or less support as feels right for your body.
2. Place a rolled blanket underneath your neck so that the back of your head rests comfortably on the floor.
3. Place a bolster or cushion under your knees and allow your legs to be a comfortable (usually about hip-width) distance apart.
4. Allow your arms to stretch comfortably out at shoulder level, with your palms facing up.
5. You may also wish to use an eye pillow in this position. Stay in this position for at least five minutes, practicing the breath described below. To make this posture slightly more stimulating, try lifting your arms over your head on the floor behind you.

Breath: Yogic Three-part Breath (Dirga Pranayama)
Yogic Three-Part Breath can be done in a seated posture but is most easily learned in a lying down position. It is a good breath to practice while in the Smiling Heart Pose above. This pranayama gets breath moving fully through the lungs. It’s a good way to release tensions stored in the body. You may wish to use your hands in the beginning so you can feel the breath moving into and expanding the three separate areas of your lungs. Place both hands on your abdomen, above and below your navel. Relax your belly. As you inhale through the nostrils, feel your lower lungs filling like a balloon, and notice how your belly rises into your hand. Practice breathing fully and deeply into your lower lungs for several breaths. Next, keep one hand on your belly and place the other at the bottom of your rib cage. After filling your lower lungs and inflating your belly, fill your middle lungs so that your ribcage expands and you feel your hand rising on your chest. Practice breathing in this way for several breaths. Next, keep one hand on your belly and move the other hand to your clavicle at the base of your throat. Inhale fully, filling the lower lungs, the middle lungs, then bring the breath into the upper lungs and feel your upper chest expanding into your hand. As you exhale, first deflate your upper lungs, your middle lungs, then your lower lungs, as though you’re pouring the breath out like a glass of water. Once you are comfortable with the breath, bring your arms to the side of your body with the palms face up, or if you are sitting, with your palms face up on your knees.

To make this breathing exercise slightly more stimulating, try holding your breath at the top of the inhalation for no more than four counts. Release the breath for six counts. The slow release is calming and you will stay in balance.

You can stay in this position, breathing Yogic Three-part Breath for at least five minutes but not more than fifteen. If you are in Smiling Heart Pose, come out slowly, using your hands for support, as you roll to your right side and sit up. Sit for a few moments, noticing how you feel in your physical body and your emotional body.

To practice with my DVD, you can preview it here.

If you want to find a LifeForce Yoga Practitioner who weaves in yoga-based practices to help you manage your mood, in yoga and psychotherapy settings, visit our practitioner page.

The post An Easy Yoga Pose for Depression appeared first on Yoga for Depression.

Anxiety is nothing new. What’s new is that we are more alone with it. Gone is the village square where are grandparent’s gathered. Even the dining room table where our families gathered to tell the stories of their days at the office, or on the farm or in school is fading from view. When I grew up, my family gathered around the television, as though it were a hearth, to watch the Beatles on the “Ed Sullivan Show,” or Walter Cronkite deliver the news of the day, or re-runs of “I Love Lucy.” Now we each have our own device to watch the programs of our choice. Our families are spread out, dislocated, divorced. The village no longer raises the child. We are hooked in, wired, with hundreds of Facebook friends, but with no one to call when we’re feeling lousy.

So yes, we all experience anxiety. But we don’t all suffer with it. What are the signs that you may need to take action to address your angst?

There are over 100 symptoms of anxiety, and they show up differently for each of us. Some of us will experience physiological symptoms such as back pain, skin rash, headache, shortness of breath. Some of us will feel it emotionally as fear. Our fears may be rational or irrational. What matters is that they constrict us and keep us from feeling our best. You can read about the many symptoms of anxiety in greater depth at the Anxiety Center, a website with a lot of good resources.

So whether you are feeling anxiety in ways that make you suffer or you just feel wound-up, yoga practice can calm your aroused state. Whether you practice at home with a DVD or CD, attend a weekly yoga class or a weekend workshop, yoga can connect you to that quiet mind, “the still point in the turning world,” as T.S. Eliot described it, beneath the chaos of your daily life. Going to a class can connect you to like-hearted others, reducing feelings of isolation, depression and anxiety. In Sanskrit, we call it sangha or kula, and it means community. If you’re looking for a workshop to reconnect with your own true Self beneath your anxious thoughts and to connect authentically with others visit our Events Calendar.

If you would like to find a LifeForce Yoga Practitioner in your area who offers workshops and classes on yoga for mood management or a psychotherapist who integrates LifeForce Yoga-based practices into talk therapy, you can find one here.

Studies have shown that Yoga Nidra, a lying down yoga meditation, significantly reduces anxiety. To listen to a sample of the LifeForce Yoga Nidra for Managing Mood CD (downloadable) pleaseclick here.

The post Are We All Suffering from Anxiety? appeared first on Yoga for Depression.

In addition, learn about the studies that link positive mental health and Yoga practices, including Yoga breathing exercises and meditations.  Click here to listen to the interview!

The post Amy interviewed on Whole Self Health Radio appeared first on Yoga for Depression.

World renown author and yoga instructor Amy Weintraub guides a small, online class through a series of light movement and yoga breath exercises to increase overall well-being. Follow along in this class and feel an immediate difference in your mind and mood! Listen here…

The post Follow along Life Force Yoga class with Amy on NaturalNews Radio appeared first on Yoga for Depression.

Developed for research purposes, this 30-minute home practice, led by Amy Weintraub, is accessible to all. This mp3 includes a brief centering meditation, some gentle warm-ups for the spine with breath and sound, and the LifeForce Yoga Chakra Clearing Meditation. A downloadable manual with photos accompanies this mp3.

The post Daily Home Practice: Warm Up & LifeForce Yoga Chakra Clearing Meditation appeared first on Yoga for Depression.

• Research: Gentle Iyengar and LifeForce Yoga for Women with Major Depression
• News: LifeForce Yoga Home-based Research Practice Now Available
• News: Early-Bird Special for the LifeForce Yoga 200-hour Teacher Training
• News: Yoga Teacher Magazine Interview with Amy Weintraub
• Review: Mudras of India: A Comprehensive Guide to the Hand Gestures of Yoga and Indian Dance by Cain Carroll and Revital Carroll
• Review: Gentle Yoga with Krutika
• Media Mention: Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Health Care
• Media Mention: Congratulations to Richard P. Brown MD and Patricia L. Gerbarg MD!
• Events Calendar

Research: Gentle Iyengar and LifeForce Yoga for Women with Major Depression

In a randomized and controlled, mixed-methods study conducted at the University of Virginia, Patricia Kinser and her colleagues compared an 8-week yoga intervention with an attention-control group focused on health and wellness.  While both decreased symptoms of major depression in the 27 women enrolled in the study, the yoga group had a unique trend in decreased ruminations. Participants in the yoga group reported experiencing increased connectedness and gaining a coping strategy through yoga. Dr. Kinser, the lead author of the study, is also a yoga teacher and LifeForce Yoga Practitioner.  She wrote a manual for the yoga teachers who delivered the yoga protocol, in which the essential elements of LifeForce Yoga were covered, including “setting the safe and sacred container,” “meeting the mood with the practice,” “permission to adapt,” and pranayama breathing practices.  The physical postures were designed as a gentle practice, incorporated from Iyengar and Kripalu Yoga.  Participants were guided at home by selections from the LifeForce Yoga to Beat the Blues – DVD, and weekly handouts with class themes, pictures and descriptions of the poses practiced in class that week. The control group attended an 8-week series of health education sessions titled “Health and Wellness Program,” involving lectures and video. According to the authors, “…participants in the study were encouraged to use yogic practices in a way that best met their daily needs, which differentiates this yoga intervention from others in the literature that do not account for individual mood differences.” Kinser, P., Bourguignon, C., Whaley, D., Hauenstein, E., Taylor, A.G. (in press). “Feasibility, acceptability, and effects of gentle Hatha yoga for women with major depression” Archives of Psychiatric Nursing.

News: LifeForce Yoga Home-based Research Practice Now Available

For the first time, we are making the 30-minute practice used in LifeForce Yoga research studies available for purchase as a downloadable mp3. The practice, developed and led by Amy Weintraub, founder of the LifeForce Yoga Healing Institute, is accessible to all, includes a brief centering meditation, some gentle warm-ups for the spine with breath and sound, and the LifeForce Yoga Chakra Clearing Meditation. A downloadable manual with photos accompanies this mp3. Download today

News: Early-Bird Special for the LifeForce Yoga 200-hour Teacher Training

You can save $200, if you sign up by July 1 for the 200-hour LFY Teacher Training at Yogaville, near Charlottesville, VA, with our exceptional faculty:

• Amy Weintraub, Founder, LifeForce Yoga Healing Institute
• Rudy Peirce, Senior Kripalu Yoga Teacher Trainer, Founder of Gentle Yoga Training
• Rose Kress, LifeForce Yoga Education and Program Director
• Grace Jull, Senior Kripalu Yoga Teacher and Founder of Grace’s Anatomy

Offered in two 13-day sessions: Session One: Nov 30 – December 13th, 2013. Session Two: Feb 22 – Mar 7, 2014.  For more information, visit the training page.

News: Yoga Teacher Magazine Interview with Amy Weintraub

Read about Amy’s personal journey through depression to become a yoga teacher dedicated to helping others heal from depression, and then an author, researcher and trainer of yoga and mental health professionals in the use of yoga to manage mood. http://www.yogateachermagazine.com/content/amy-weintraub

Review: Mudras of India: A Comprehensive Guide to the Hand Gestures of Yoga and Indian Dance by Cain Carroll and Revital Carroll

Neuroscience suggests that our touch-screen technology is depriving us of the evolutionary use of our hands as tools of the mind, diminishing the effort-driven reward system, putting us at greater risk for depression. (See Lifting Depression: A Neuroscientist’s Hand-On Approach to Activating Your Brain’s Healing Power by Kelly Lambert, Ph.D.) If this is true, Mudras of India offers us a way back to using our hands that could potentially reduce depression.  Written by a yogi and a classically trained Indian Dancer, this is an astonishingly beautiful and well-researched book that offers the sacred art of hand gestures.  In connecting hand to mind and heart, these 250 mudras can sustain our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being. The mudras are arranged alphabetically, beautifully photographed, described, instructed and considered in terms of their symbolism and meaning in ritual. Where applicable, their traditional health benefits are included. Using the comprehensive index at the back can help you find the appropriate mudra to right imbalances in body mind and spirit.  Whether you come to Mudras of India with an interest in dance, yoga, meditation or your own self-care, you will be well-served.  Buy your copy here!

Review: Gentle Yoga with Krutika

On this CD, Krutika Protzman, who teaches gentle yoga classes at Kripalu Yoga Center, serves up a LifeForce Yoga practice that meets the couch potato mood and both calms and energizes. Throughout, she uses chakra tones and mantra practices from LifeForce Yoga to calm the mind and to feel more grounded in the body. Warming-up postures for neck, shoulders and lower body are practiced in a seated position and lying down. She leads a counted breathing practice, using a metronome, so that we can count inhalation, exhalation and brief retention for ourselves, following her initial instructions. She builds the energy slowly, inviting us into a stimulating spinal flex with “Flying Cow,” followed by a brief standing practice with standing twists, Breath of Joy and Mountain pose. The arc of the practice returns us to the floor again and onto the back for gentle stretching and then into a deep relaxation–the best part! This is an ideal practice for evening, particularly for insomnia, in that it increases activity (and likely sympathetic nervous system activity) mid-way through but ends in a soothing relaxation that can prepare the practitioner for sleep. If practiced in the morning, the practitioner will likely feel calm and balanced, but not over-stimulated. If practiced at night, be prepared. You may fall asleep right on your mat!  Purchase your copy here!

Media Mention: Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Health Care

This award-winning documentary investigates the issues facing American healthcare and a balanced analysis of some key things we could do to address the problems. ESCAPE FIRE examines the powerful forces maintaining the status quo, in which America spends more than any other nation, and yet our healthcare ranks 50th among nations.  Filmmakers Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke follow dramatic human stories as well as leaders fighting to transform healthcare at the highest levels of medicine, industry, government, and the US military. It features Andrew Weil, Dean Ornish and many experts on the healthcare system. LifeForce Yoga Practitioner and senior iRest teacher Robin Carnes is featured in the section on the military.  The movie takes the position that mind-body approaches are evidence-based and more effective than many procedures that are routinely paid for by insurers.  To purchase the DVD click here.

Media Mention: Congratulations to Richard P. Brown MD and Patricia L. Gerbarg MD!

Their book, The Healing Power of the Breath, published by Shambhala, has won a 2013 Nautilus Silver Award! To read my earlier review of this book and CD, click here.  Dr. Gerbarg and Dr. Brown will be guest teachers in the LifeForce Yoga Practitioner Training at Kripalu in July.  For more information about that training, click here.

Events Calendar

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