The body and posture

Anxiety and depression lay down patterns in the body. Depression can lead to a 'closed off' or 'collapsed' posture, a sunken chest, weak core muscles, overstretched upper back muscles. Anxiety can cause tense shoulders, tight ribs/chest, gripped jaw. Specially selected yoga postures can rebalance the physical body making it easier to 'stand tall', connect to emotions, express ourselves and let go when the time is right.

Breathing patterns

How we breathe is the result of how we feel (and how we hold ourselves physically) - depression shows up as slow, laboured breathing with little to no rib movement. Anxiety typically has a shallow, fast breathing pattern with little or no movement in the abdomen. These breathing patterns create imbalance in the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Too little carbon dioxide (hyperventilation, over-breathing) and you feel panicked, disorientated, on high alert. Too much carbon dioxide and you feel drowsy, sedated and lacking in motivation or energy. Therapeutic yogic breathing techniques start with awareness and acceptance of the breath. Once you are comfortable observing the breath you could slowly make shifts in the breathing ratios, types of breathing and focus to rebalance O2 / CO2. The breath also shifts the nervous system from fight / flight / excite (and freeze) to rest / digest. You can learn how to change your level of anxiety or depression by breathing differently.

The nervous system

The nervous system in its healthy balanced state would be able to gear the body up for excitement or activity and calm it down for rest. A depressed person may find their nervous system is stuck and they may not experience excitement or fear - the world may seem unstimulating and there is a numb response to most things even though they can rationally understand it would be pleasurable to another person. An anxious person's brain may have developed a sensitivity to threat so that they experience a flood of hormones preparing them for danger in situations they can rationally understand do not warrant such a strong response. Some of the yoga techniques rhythmically stimulate and then calm the nervous system to help shift any stuck patterns and get you used to the less familiar sensations. Some techniques focus on either stimulating or calming, depending on what each individual needs (you will learn how to recognise which branch of your nervous system is active). When we feel safe an energized state becomes playful, when we feel threatened it turns to defense. When we are safe an immobilized state is a sign of trust, intimacy and rest, when we feel threatened this can lead us to shutdown and withdraw. Some postures are held for longer to give the nervous system time to get used to the new position, recognise it is safe and reset the baseline for connection instead of defense.

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The mind

During depression it is common for thinking to be based in the past - ruminating, replaying, regretting. Anxiety based thinking tends to reside in the future - worrying, over-preparing, catastrophising, avoiding. Meditation gives the mind a clear focus or activity to keep it anchored in the here and now. This changes the wiring of the brain (neuroplasticity) to change your thinking.

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Without intervention these patterns can become more and more set and can feed into one another making a holistic approach more and more important.