You might think that the best yoga practice for mental health would be one made up of calming forward bends, yin restorative poses, calming long-hold poses or long hours in meditation. While these practices all have their benefits, however if your experiencing acute Rajasic energy (Active) or Tamasic (Passive) energy holding long postures and trying to will yourself to relax may make you feel quite a bit worse. In this case the postures are aggravating your energy and not balancing it.
No.1 Yoga for Mental Wellbeing Tip Meet the energy you’re currently feeling with the balancing energy of your yoga practice. We can begin to get a yogic understanding of mental health by considering the Gunas or Universal Energy. According to ancient yogic texts there are three types of universal energy that are evident in how we behave;
* Rajas is often characterized as active, dynamic and excitable, reactionary, and may include anxiety, hyper-arousal or sensitivity, insomnia, unwanted thoughts and fast thinking, lack of concentration, hearing voices or halucinations, mood swings, anger, * Tamas by passive, inertia, withdrawal, anti-social behaviour, lethargy, fear, confusion; and may include depression, withdrawal and isolation, lack of motivation, self-harm, negative thinking, paranoia, intolerant of others * Sattva as a state of equilibrium, calm and peace No matter what your mental health diagnosis is, these universal energies affect our daily lives. For instance, Walden and McCall (Yoga Journal 2019), ‘refer to an agitated, anxiety-infused depression as "rajasic" and a more lethargic, despondent depression as "Tamasic." We each experience these universal energies however we may be predominantly aware or focussed on experiencing just one.
Rajas If you're feeling a Rajasic energy, that is an active, passionate, moving energy. In its balanced state Rajasic energy is creative, expressive, involved, curious, and awake. In mental health terms, when the Rajasic energy is unbalanced this means we may experience hyper-stimulation, anxiety, fearful thoughts, hard to manage emotions. You may find it difficult to concentrate, like your mind is running a million miles an hour. It might be anxiety, heart palpitations, itchy or prickly skin, chronic insomnia or hyper-sensitivity, hearing voices. This is how Rajasic energy, when unbalanced behaves. Practice Notes For people experiencing rajasic - active energy, it is better to begin your practice with a slightly active style of yoga, which moves from posture to posture, in alignment with the breath. Keep the breath soft, without any strain or forcing whatsoever. Practicing asana with your soft breath will help to balance the sympathetic nervous system and elicit a relaxation response as quickly as possible. Using a pranayama as you practice called Sama Vritti. Which means even numbered breath, breathe in and out for 4/6 or 8 counts. Then try to elongate the exhaling breath, do not disturb the inhaling breath nor the natural pause at the end of the exhalation. This is the practice to extinguish the overactive energy of Rajas. When the body is warmer, then perhaps try one or two longer holds to calm the heart rate and become more mindful, then gently lead your practice towards relaxation, balance, stability, and freedom. Tamas If you are experiencing Tamasic energy which is a passive energy, sometimes described as feminine energy. Tamasic is a subtle energy. In its balanced state Tamasic energy gives us a sense of stability, the ability to reflect, to be thoughtful, to have compassion and empathy. In its unbalanced state we may experience such as lethargy, chronic depression, confusion, fogginess, heaviness, emotional overwhelm, lack of motivation for instance, and lack of compassion. This is how an unbalanced Tamasic energy behaves in the bodymindspirit. Practice Notes If you are feeling heavy, lethargic, despondent then it is better to begin with a gentle yoga practice, then build your energy up to one or two peak postures and end with a shorter gentle guided relaxation, or sit in meditation at the end of your yoga practice. Meeting the lower energy state of Tamas with self-compassion or Maitri will help you build the energy again throughout the Manomaya Kosha leaving you refreshed. Using a pranayama as you practice called Sama Vritti. Which means ‘even numbered breath’, breathe in and out for 4/6 or 8 counts. Then try to elongate the exhaling breath, do not disturb the inhaling breath nor the natural pause at the end of the exhalation. This is the practice to extinguish the overactive energy of Tamas. Sattva A Sattvic energy is a calm and balanced energy, you may notice feelings of wellbeing, contentedness, neutral moods and thoughts, not overly active or overly passive. You may notice that you are able to watch thoughts and feelings flow on by, without picking them up. You may notice that people around you are also happy to see you because you are giving a positive vibration where ever you go. This is balanced sattvic energy, it has no unbalanced state. When you experience the Sattvic state and you practice yoga it is like experiencing heaven. When you experience Sattva, you won’t desire to push or pull, or over stretch at all. In the Sattvic state pranayama based yoga practices are incredibly balancing, and can bring you to a place of great peace, and ultimately to generate peace within our being even if we have a mental illness. This state is called samadhi, single pointed concentration, which is one of the highest goals of the practice of yoga.
No 2 – Yoga for Mental Wellbeing Tip People experiencing either acute Active (Rajasic) or Passive (Tamasic) energy should wait to close the eyes or focus on withdrawing the senses inside the body until they have experienced the ‘relaxation response’. This will probably be the biggest difference between yoga for mental health and a regular yoga practice. You may find that for people experiencing acute mental health symptoms find closing the eyes and withdrawing the senses such as practicing meditation or Pratyhara, can be frightening. Trying to force yourself to be calm when the mind is overactive can have an unpredictable and unwelcome results. We can limit this very easily by not asking students to close the eyes during this practice. But rather when you would usually close the eyes, focus on the ends of their finger-tips if their hands are in namaskar (prayer hands). Or focus on the top mid-point of their mat. Or looking out from the nose at a 45degree angle downwards. This will lower the eyelids without closing the eyes. This will allow students to enjoy the effects of concentrating the mind without forcing it to withdraw. This is an open-eyed practice used in Zen Buddhist meditation. The practice of Pratyahara, one of the 8 limbs of yoga is the withdrawal of the senses, or inward focus. Most yoga classes will begin with some form of withdrawing the senses. However, I would not recommended this to be practiced with students experiencing mental health symptoms and acute Rajasic or Tamasic energies.
What I have found is that the mind calms down on its own as we continue to practice. So Pratyahara, which is practiced in many yoga classes should happen very naturally in yoga for mental health, almost unnoticed and not focussed on. That is not to say that we aren’t going to concentrate the mind and ask it to become more peaceful. Students with mental health issues will need to experience the relaxation response to let the mind relax and focus quite gently over time before coming to meditation, or Pratyahara and closing the eyes during the practice.
There is a story about the Buddha of his early renunciate period when he first left the householders life and was trying the austere practices. One day during meditation he had the thought that he could force himself to concentrate, by really trying. So he did really strain to force his mind to concentrate and hopefully thereby evolve. His body heated up quite quickly, and he began to sweat, he was straining his teeth and forcing his tongue into the roof of his mouth. He immediately began to get stabbing pain around the head and eyes, an sat through that for as long as seemed practical and then stopped. The Buddha noticed that his mind was concentrated, but not with the peace and purity he was trying to achieve. For this reason the Buddha believed that a mind trained with gentleness is the ideal. We can use this story as a good reason why yoga for mental health is much more about becoming aware of the peace we are trying to experience rather than pushing the mindbodyspirit to achieve some expectation or goal, even if it is a peaceful one.
No.3 – Yoga for Mental Wellbeing Tip Be careful about not disturbing the inhalation, nor the natural pause at the end of the exhalation; and when possible elongate the exhalation. ‘Pranayama is to the nervous system what the physical asana practice is to the musculoskeletal system.’ (McCall 2011) The most beneficial practice of yoga for mental health is one where the breath and the yogasana are practiced together. Cited in McCall (2011) Yoga as Medicine; ‘When the postures were done without attention to the breath (which many yogis consider essential), there was no significant reduction in anxiety… The best response was seen in the group that did the postures combined with diaphragmatic breathing…this points out the synergistic effects of different aspects of yoga practice.‘ For this reason, the breath being linked to postures is an important part of Mindful Yoga for Mental Wellbeing. This may be a slight change to how some students and teachers practice. While most yogis know that the breath is important, knowing why it’s important to mental health may be a new reason to include more breath work linked with yoga postures. I have found that using pranayama practices which do not withhold the inhalation or disturb the natural pause at the end of the exhale to be the most beneficial for balancing mental health symptoms. Any disruption of inhalation should be avoided when experiencing acute Rajasic or Tamasic energy. Withholding an inhale even for a few moments can stimulate a fright/ flight response in someone who has mental health symptoms such as anxiety, trauma, or over-active Rajasic energy. For those experiencing lethargy or Rajasic energy breathing a full inhalation can begin in the most profound sense to re-energise the entire body through increasing the oxygen in the blood, which then flows through the entire system. For these reasons not disturbing the inhalation is also recommended.
I look forward to seeing you in class! Please feel free to contact me with any questions...
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