depression vs. sadness

[Guest guest]

Many of you here said that chronic depression

should not be confused with sadness, hopefulness etc.

Also that yoga is not a cure for

depression.<br><br>But what about less severe types of depression? Aka

sadness that go on for a long time? <br>Have anyone found

yoga (or something else) to be helpful? <br>My

experience is that sometimes yoga makes it all even worse.

<br><br><br>(FBL, especially appreciated your posting.)

[Guest guest]

I do think that the distinction between chronic

depression vs prolonged sadness is unclear, and there is no

clear line to separate the two states. It's sort of a

grey zone. Also it is dangerous to assume that since

one is funtioning in society, the individual is not

chronically depressed. I thought my brother was fine, just a

bit troubled, but a year later, I realised that he IS

not well from a medical point of view. I do not know

when he 'slilpped' into the chronic state, but no one

thought that he would ever get there.<br><br>In any

event, I agree that yoga does bring out a lot of

'darker' stuff you didn't expect to find. People just tell

you about the nice effects of yoga, like 'it will

relax you', 'de-stress you', 'you will feel balanced',

etc. BUT no one ever tells you about the sense of

deeper anxiety and sadness which have been repressed.

One teacher I had told me that sometimes during

intense retreats, some people 'freak out' because the

intense practice brings out a lot of things that were at

the bottom of the pot. <br><br>And actually, I

stopped practicing for a while because every time I did a

session, it made me feel angry and really tense. I picked

up another activity - kick boxing - which has helped

me get back into yoga. It's just a different sense

of energy within you physically, and kickboxing made

me miss the ashtanga practice. <br><br>Alright

enough from me, but I do hope that you know that you are

not alone.

[Guest guest]

I have been practicing since last autumn and from

the very beginning we had a talk about what are the

expectations and what are the experiences of the teachers and

then also this possibility of all kinds of feelings

coming out was disgussed. Changing from level to another

we have always this disgussion and I have found it

very useful.<br> <br>I have also (on side of the nice

feelings )experienced anger, frustration or tension and

it is not so easy to define where it comes from. I

have realised that for me it is often a question about

weather I had a "good" practice or not (so to say: what

are my excpectations). This comes to a question of

what is good practice then? Is it a good practice if

your body is bending well and you have a good balance

and a bad one if your muscles seem tight? One of my

instructors told me quite nicely that you should except the

practice as it comes - it is not always the same. This is

the nature of ashtangayoga I think. Then by observing

and excepting your feelings and reactions you can get

closer to their origins.<br> <br>For me the practice has

brought courage to take a look at the sad feelings or

fears in me instead of the usual way of mine to tender

them or to press them down. <br><br>Maybe this is some

kind of an answer to a question about yoga being

helpful in dealing with sadness..or at least it travels

somewhere near to this subject.

[Guest guest]

"In any event, I agree that yoga does bring out a

lot of 'darker' stuff you didn't expect to

find."<br><br>The joyful and exhilarating and the dark and

depressing - both states are necessary for our evolution. I

think many people don't want to face this and

oftentimes don't realize that our greatest hurts are also

our greatest teachers. This has definitely proven to

be true in my own life. But that still makes me one

of those who has a preference for the happy happy

states.