Shambhala Mountain Center Blog

Yoga teacher Amy Weintraub tells the story of a student who suffers from chronic depression, and descibes the ways her yoga practice visibly affects her.  Amy will be offering LifeForce Yoga® to Manage Your Mood at Shambhala Mountain Center in June.

For three years, Elizabeth knew that something beyond the pain she was feeling in her joints was wrong, but she didn’t know what it was.  A forty-one year-old art historian, she remembered a time when she rode her bike nearly every day, when she had a circle of women friends with whom she went salsa dancing at a Latin club on Friday nights, when she went to sleep with a new idea for an exhibit at the museum where she was a curator and woke up already writing the catalogue copy in her head.  But for the last three years, her bike had leaned against the wall with a flat tire, her friends had fallen away—some married, her best friend moved to Seattle, and the others, well, she didn’t know about the others.  Her phone didn’t ring anymore.  She stopped dancing when her physician diagnosed her aching joints as fibromyalgia and said she might have a degenerative arthritic condition in her spine.

 Though she had enjoyed decorating her house when she’d bought it seven years earlier, it had now fallen into disrepair.  She didn’t call the plumber when her toilet leaked, and the hard wood of her bathroom floor darkened and warped.  She rarely changed her sheets and almost never made the bed.  Most of the time, her shutters stayed closed against the Arizona sun, and when her dishwasher, then her disposal broke down, she didn’t bother to have them fixed. 

Elizabeth suffers from dysthymia, a chronic depression that at times has incapacitated her. In our work together, Elizabeth has found that a slow, gentle practice with longer holdings that also includes some dynamic movements and energizing breathing exercises works best to alleviate her symptoms.  I observe a significant difference in her appearance and her ability to connect with others when she’s practicing and when she isn’t.  A tall, thin woman, when she walks into class after a period of absence, she is hunched forward with her head lowered, as though, if she could make herself small enough, no one would notice she’s come back.  She has trouble breathing deeply into the bottom of her lungs and often sits with her eyes closed, while the rest of the class is taking deep belly breaths.  But during the times she is able to come to class regularly, there is a visible change in her bearing.  Her posture is better, she looks me straight in the eye, and I suddenly notice how attractive she is.

The mother hen in me would like to call her at six a.m. every morning to invite her to class.  But all I can do is be present for her when she does show up.  And her experience in class is always varied.  “Sometimes I come out feeling peaceful,” she says, “sometimes energized and alert, sometimes desperately sad.  But I rarely come out feeling dead or anxious, my usual “presentations” of depression.  Yoga short circuits the downward spiral for me—makes me feel less hateful toward my body, mind, and emotions.”  While I believe that a regular daily practice would make a difference in the way Elizabeth manages her dysthymia, I trust her when she tells me that her mat is “my little island of calm presence, even if I just sit on it.”

Excerpted from Yoga for Depression: A Compassionate Guide to Relieve Suffering Through Yoga (Broadway Books).

Amy Weintraub, MFA, E-RYT 500. Amy is the author of Yoga for Depression and founder of the LifeForce Yoga Healing Institute.  She’s a leader in the field of yoga and mental health, offering professional trainings in LifeForce Yoga® for Mood Management, and speaks at medical and psychological conferences internationally. Amy’s evidence-based yoga protocol is featured on the award-winning DVD series LifeForce Yoga to Beat the Blues. She edits a newsletter that includes current research, news and media reviews on Yoga and mental health.  www.yogafordepression.com

Here are some practical benefits of doing things you love, from Tama Kieves, who will be leading the retreat UNLEASHING YOUR CALLING: Create the Work & Life You Love at SMC in May.

Doing what you love connects you to Infinite Love: Every spiritual book tells us that the brightest gold is hidden in the present moment. We have what we seek. Many spiritual paths also tell us that as we give, we receive. It’s easier to feel less fear and constriction, when we’re in the mindset of offering love and sharing our gifts. You will also find that when you follow your inspiration, you tap a sense of being connected to a bigger reality. Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, says “Our dreams come from a divine source. Moving in the direction of our dreams moves us toward our divinity.” When you do what you love, you open the doors to serendipity and inexplicable grace. I know that personally I came to believe in a loving God more through writing and teaching. I felt so much love in doing these activities and I felt a presence that always left golden keys and love notes on my path. I enjoy what the wisdom tradition of A Course in Miracles says, “Once you have chosen what you cannot complete alone, you are no longer alone.”  

Doing what you love activates your secret strength:  Love empowers you in ways that nothing else can. Sy Safransky, founder of The Sun magazine, wrote about the bottomless strength he found by pursuing his passion. “Marrying who I am with what I do—earning a life, not just a living—has been an act of the purest magic, aligning me with some raw power in the universe, giving me the strength to stay up late, get up early, do what I ‘d never do just for the money.”  In their book Success Built to Last, Jerry Poras, Stewart Emery, Mark Thompson  pick up this same theme: “You may have noticed that we now live in a global economy where job security is a contradiction in terms. All you have is your personal capital, and we’re not talking about your money. It’s your talents, skills, relationships, and enthusiasm. Making success last takes a level of tenacity and passion only love can sustain. Without it, you’ll collapse under the weight of the hardship or long-lasting adversity that you are bound to encounter.” I’d also like to add, that in addition to wild stamina, you’ll also find you have more genius and aptitude in things you love.

Doing what you love is a clue to your next step: Doing what you love is not a static path. If you love playing the piano, it doesn’t mean you will always play the piano. It means you start with the piano, and the next step emerges. In my career, I started by writing poetry. That led to writing a personally intimate self-help book with poetic overtones. That led to doing workshops and offering individual coaching. That led to traveling and speaking. And I’m still romping onward on this dynamic path. Where you start off is not where you end up. The energy keeps building. But you have to take that first step in order to know the next step.

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Oh, I hear the restless murmurs in the background already. They spit, “Are you crazy, write poetry in an economy like this? Take salsa lessons? Play video games with my grandkids?”  Yes, by all means step away from your somber, limited mindset. You can always go back, if you like. But meanwhile step into the light. You were given your desire for a reason. You were given the talents you have. I wonder just how rich your life will be, once you tap your ultimate security.

Tama J. Kieves, an honors graduate of Harvard Law School, left her law practice to write and to encourage others to live fulfilling, meaningful lives. She is a sought-after speaker, career and transition coach and best-selling author of THIS TIME I DANCE! Creating the Work You Love (Tarcher/Penguin.) She is currently the founder and president of Awakening Artistry, an organization dedicated to inspiring and supporting a global family of creative souls, visionary minds, daredevil entrepreneurs, and empowered leaders. Visit her popular website at www.AwakeningArtistry.com and sign up to receive her free monthly e-newsletter filled with support for living your inspired life. Download her free transformational report on “Finding Your Calling Now” at www.AwakeningArtistry.com