Is Yoga Therapy?

Since “yoga therapy” shows up in so many publications, it may seem like a moot question, but I am called to consider it for myself…

Last spring I took a LifeForce Yoga weekend workshop and then in the summer I took the Level I intensive training with Amy Weintraub, author of the book Yoga for Depression. There were about fifty of us in the five-day training that took place at Kripalu, half of us were yoga teachers and half were mental health professionals. This made for a fascinating and lively experience. I was there looking for the connection between yoga and mental health. Most of the social workers, psychologists, and the psychiatrist were also yogis. Some were looking at ways to integrate yogic techniques into their therapy sessions. Yoga teachers seemed to be into learning to help themselves and students with mental turmoil and stagnation, perhaps...

LifeForce Yoga promises to “Manage Your Mood” which seems to indicate a focus on the mood. This title is designed to appeal to people believing that their moods cause them to suffer, and that their moods need “management”. I can relate… However, the yoga technique, itself calls for the practitioner to bring their attention back to the body. Emotional releasing happens, but the yoga practice isn’t the time to focus on the story around emotions. The stories are to be processed with the mental health professionals. So everybody has a place in the LifeForce Yoga strategy.

I thought it was really interesting to try out the technique, and do a mostly Kripalu style yoga practice with Amy. I learned some things. And the community aspect was really cool. Everybody was really interesting. I worked with it on my own and have integrated aspects of it into my practice and teaching. Looking at yoga from the mental health perspective was worthwhile.

But I just don’t think you can put yoga in a box. People come to yoga to de-stress, relieve depression, or manage back pain, etc… And yoga does help people mentally, physically, and emotionally.

Yoga itself goes way beyond our suffering. Suffering may lead someone to yoga, but yoga is not a prescription. Yoga is a vastness. Yoga transcends ordinary experience. Yoga is wonder.

To say yoga is “therapy” is to bring yoga into human proportions, when yoga is rapture and awe that is so much larger than the words any individual can use to describe it.

Yoga is not therapy.

"You made your bed..."

"... now LIE in it." I was told as I was receiving my punishments growing up. This is one of the ways I learned my depression.

At the time I didn't get the sense that you could make a nice bed. It was the kind of hopeless bed that one laid in to die.

But why not? Couldn't I learn to do it better? What about a fresh set of sheets? Wouldn't that spruce things up? No I could not (because authority said so... End of story.). There was no making things good in that house--unless authority was drunk or bizarrely happy. And then it was just fate--the gods had forgotten.

I think that I'd like to learn to make a nice bed today... In fact, I think that it's kind of interesting that I've almost never made my bed unless it affected someone else...

I think that I'm DEATHLY AFRAID to make my own bed, because then I'll have to LIE IN IT.

I am trying to embody the truth that I can heal. There is hope. Everybody makes mistakes. I have made mistakes, too. Except I want to make a bed that I can heal in.

I want to get a brand new bed that will protect me when I sleep, and watch over me while I heal. …a bed that allows me to wake up fresh and ready to start things anew.

From the old bed I would wake up feeling groggy and still tired. …for I had been punished and forced to PAY.

In my new bed I wake up fresh-as-a-daisy, and welcome the sunshine as well as a little rain.

I am making a new bed that I can make over and over again.

Soul Yoga

BlissChick wrote a post about moving through depression that Svasti has been talking about, too. In her post BlissChick identified something I have been working on, and explained it really well. It has to do with unpacking the stories of one’s life.

I have had some old stories packed away inside myself and during these last several years I have been unpacking these treasures in every way I can.

One thing I think it’s important to understand about this process is that you can control the flow. In fact it might be unhealthy to do this too much or too quickly. We have the rest of our lives to unpack our baggage so there is really no rush. Working too fast can be overwhelming. It is of vital importance to move forward compassionately, and it can be helpful to include other people that you trust.

The benefits of defining your story are enormous. Unrecognized past trauma festers under the surface like a psychological boil. And when it is released we are free to heal from it. Otherwise, our reactions in everyday life can come from this unresolved stuff, resulting in unintended consequences that we do not want.

There are a number of ways to do this. As BlissChick said in her post, journaling is one—a good one. There can be fears around telling (even a piece of paper) your darkest moments. So you have to find a way that feels safe.

A student once voiced a fear of the evidence a journal might leave, and said there might be situations where a journal might be used in the court of law (perhaps, in a divorce). If this is the case, I recommend opening up a blank file on the computer, write your story and don’t save it. Just trash it at the end of the session. To be psychologically free of something we have to define it. Otherwise we can become like marionettes controlled by the unconscious machinations of repressed trauma. And there is no reason to go back to these words. Once it is done, it’s done. So I think it’s okay to throw away old journals. The benefit comes from understanding your self better, not from having a bunch of old books.

This being said, I realize that it could seem funny coming from me. After all, I write this public blog where I write personally. However, as you might imagine, I do consider what I want to share. I find a way to share the personal story if I feel that it serves the purpose of this blog. That being said, I have experienced incredible healing benefit from keeping this blog. My commitment to it has kept me moving with writing in an incredibly satisfying way. And knowing that I am sharing it with others forces me to communicate an idea fully—so someone else can get what I’m talking about. So keeping this blog has helped my growth tremendously. Another thing I consider is how these words might affect someone else. And I hope that this work is helpful to others.

Another way to define your personal story (besides journaling) is to tell it to someone else. You must trust this person, so your truth can flow freely. And this person must listen and show that they understand. It is crucial that you get a caring and non-judgmental ear for these revelations about your self.

You can also find the support of a group. I have found some of the techniques taught by Woman Within to be helpful. And I meet with a group of supportive women every two weeks.

There are also other psychological techniques where people get to experience or act out their stories. Find a way that suits you, if it suits you to do so. As I say this a mama-bear aspect of myself comes up and says: Do not allow someone else tell you that they know the answer for you, because they can’t. At this level of personal, soul work we are each on our own. What another person can teach you is a helpful technique. You must find your own understanding.

This is soul yoga—another level of integration. When we are repressing our stories to show the world an unblemished face, we (perhaps unknowingly) are also cutting ourselves off from our life force and our personal treasure. And when we become more integrated and accepting of ourselves, we also become happier and able to live more fully. Loving your self enough to define those dark bits by expressing what happened AND how you felt about it, with words written or said (possibly also with other arts like music, painting, dance, etc.) has the power to take you out of despair. I know this through my experience. It is ongoing work. It is worthwhile work. It also becomes joyful work. I dance on the bones of my past trauma. I know it might sound macabre, but this is a strange world where there is wisdom and insight to be found in birth and death.