Yoga for Anxiety: Krista's Story

by Krista Wood

Beams of Light by Melina Meza

Around 1990, at the age of twenty-four, I was diagnosed and treated for depression. Depression was just becoming a topic of discussion in mainstream along with the top antidepressant at the time, Prozac. Thankfully, I responded well to medication, and a year and a half later was able to stop taking it. I was doing well for a while but two years after being off anti-depressants I began to experience my first bouts of anxiety. I would lay awake at night drenched in sweat, gripped with fear, my heart pounding, and I didn�t know why. I made an appointment to see a doctor, was given a clean bill of health, and told I was suffering with anxiety and that I should try not to let stress get the better of me (though I was not given guidance on how to accomplish this). The only bit of comfort I received was that though the symptoms were frightening, they would not kill me. Luckily, this initial episode was short lived and I was anxiety-free for a few years. 

Around the age of thirty-one or so, however, my anxiety came back with a vengeance. One day heading to work, I began to feel out of sorts. I began to sweat and felt unable to breathe deeply. I pulled off to the side of the road and rolled down the driver-side window to get some air. Though this particular episode passed quickly, the attacks began to occur more frequently and my symptoms got progressively worse, including, profuse sweating, tingling in my extremities, tunnel vision, dizziness, and inability to catch my breath. After a particularly intense episode I found myself in the emergency room, followed with a visit with my family doctor who promptly put me on anti-anxiety medication. Though it helped, I didn�t like how it made me feel; I felt disconnected from my surroundings and my anxiety seemed more intense after the medication wore off. 

It was during this time that someone suggested yoga and gave me a video to try. My initial reaction, like many people�s, was there is no way I can do yoga; I can�t twist my body in those crazy poses, and, besides, how was it going to help with my anxiety? Still, I decided to give it a shot. The tape was �Yoga for Beginners� by Patricia Walden. I didn�t know why or how it worked, all I knew is I began to feel a sense of calm when I practiced. So I continued practicing along with this tape every day for months, gradually adding additional yoga tapes. Then I began going to yoga classes, and it was during this time that I was introduced to meditation and pranayama. Wanting to deepen my practice even more, I purchased books such as Light on Yoga, The Heart of Yoga, and The Women�s Book of Yoga and Health, to name a few. 

Since that introduction to yoga back in 1997, I continued to practice yoga and also added in complementary modalities, such as acupuncture, and all have worked wonders in helping me manage my anxiety and panic attacks. I say �manage� because, though few and far between, there are still days when the anxiety tries (and sometimes succeeds) in rearing its ugly head. However, instead of feeling helpless and out of control, my yoga practice enables me to bring myself back to a state of calm. 

The practice of sama vritti (equal breathing) and extended exhalations (where the exhalations are longer then the inhalations) are beneficial whenever I�m feeling anxious. My daily practice includes asanas and meditation, whether sitting in the classical sense or a walking meditation. My practice may be for 15 minutes or an hour. There are days when I favor a more physical practice and days when I feel the need to sit and just be. Yoga has taught me to be in the present moment; it has given me the tools to work with, not against, my anxiety. It is because of this I decided to embark on a yoga teacher training in 2011 so that I could share the benefits of a yoga practice with others. I now teach weekly yoga classes, one of which is geared toward others facing the same challenges as me. I can so relate to the struggles of others living with anxiety (the frustration, the helplessness, the fear, the anger) and to be able to share what has been beneficial for me and to see it help them is an incredible feeling.

Krista Wood lives and practices yoga in Rockaway, New Jersey. After many years of practice and experiencing firsthand the therapeutic benefits of a consistent yoga practice, Krista wanted to share this with others so she decided to embark on a teacher training. She completed her 200-hour training in 2011 and 500-hour training in 2015. She continues to broaden her knowledge about yoga's effects on mental health, addiction, and trauma, and is currently in the process of achieving her 700-hour Yoga Therapy certification. She teaches a mixed level hatha class at Purple Om Yoga, www.purpleomyoga.com in Denville, NJ. She teachers her small class geared toward those with anxiety in Rockaway, at 77 W. Main Street. See kristawood.com for information about how to contact Krista.

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Using Stress Management Techniques for Medical Conditions

by Baxter and Nina

Dandelion by Melina Meza

If you're suffering from a stress-related disease, such as heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, obesity and digestive disorders, reducing chronic stress can be very beneficial. Stress management can also help with emotional disorders�including anxiety and depression�that are caused by or worsened by stress.

Because stress management helps reduce inflammation, reducing chronic stress can also help with inflammation-related problems, including most forms of arthritis, as well as certain gastrointestinal conditions, such as celiac disease and leaky gut syndrome. 

In general, yoga stress management techniques can be preventive medicine, as lowering overall stress levels may reduce your chances of even developing stress-related illnesses. They could also be curative because spending significant amounts of time in Rest and Digest keeps your immune system and repair systems functioning optimally. Finally, you can use stress management as a palliative technique to help you cope with the stress of living with a chronic illness, improving the quality of your life.

This provides some basic tips for practicing stress management when you have a medical condition. We'll address physical disorders first and then discuss emotional disorders. See The Relaxation Response and Yoga for general information about using stress management when you're healthy. 

Cautions: Generally stress management techniques are very safe. However, meditation is generally not recommended for depression or anxiety, because sitting alone with your thoughts can cause you to spiral downward. So avoid meditation unless you have a teacher experienced at working with your condition who can guide you. People who have uncontrolled high blood pressure should not practice full or partial inverted poses. 

For Physical Disorders

For digestive disorders, for periods without active symptoms, practice a well-rounded stress reducing sequence, combining active poses, both dynamic and static, and restorative poses, as well as meditation and breath work. For periods with active symptoms, stay with gentle poses, including easy dynamic poses and restorative poses, that do not create pressure on your abdomen (for example, no Cobra or Locust pose), and avoid twists. But you can practice any stress management techniques that work well for you, including focused relaxation, quieting breath practices, and meditation. For most digestive issues, you can include supported inversions. However, for hiatal hernias and gastro-esophageal reflux (GERD), symptoms will often worsen with inverted poses, so you should avoid them. 

For inflammation-related conditions, for the non-asana part of your practice, you can practice whatever stress management techniques work best for you. For arthritis of the lower back on down to the feet, supported inverted poses can be particularly helpful. 

For cardiovascular disorders, all of the stress management tools can be helpful, particularly meditation, calming breath practices, restorative poses, and focused relaxation. Just be aware that for certain conditions, such as congestive heart failure, lying flat in Savasana may bring on symptoms. In such cases, elevating your head and chest may relieve the symptoms. the head and chest may permit you to do Savasana safely. 

For cardiovascular diseases for which your doctor has warned you about situations that may increase your blood pressure, such as coronary artery disease and risk of stroke, practice supported inversion only if they do not cause an increase in your blood pressure. (Check your blood pressure with a home monitor immediately before trying a short hold of supported inversion and check again immediately afterwards to see if your numbers go high. Discuss with your doctor if you are uncertain how to proceed.)

One of the significant issues for people with just about any chronic is that the illness itself if a significant daily stressor. Examples are cardiovascular disease, diabetes and related conditions (metabolic syndrome), autoimmune diseases such as and rheumatoid arthritis, to name just a few. For all these conditions, you can use whichever stress management techniques make you feel better and do not aggravate your symptoms. Obviously, if you are seriously ill, practices that are physically undemanding, such as meditation, breath work, and focused relaxation (which you can do lying down as well as sitting) will be more accessible to you.

For Emotional Disorders

Because emotional disorders, including depression and anxiety, are either caused by or worsened by stress, practicing stress management for these medical conditions is extremely beneficial and may make you feel better, either immediately or with consistent practice over time. 

However, many stress management practices, such as restorative yoga, focused relaxation, and mediation are typically practiced with closed eyes. If this causes you to become more depressed or anxious, try practicing with your eyes open instead, keeping them softly focused. If trying to concentrate on your breath or physical sensations causes your symptoms to worsen, try using a mantra, a formal meditation practice, or a recorded relaxation practice that employs vivid imagery.

Anxiety. Because people with anxiety often have a hard time staying still, we recommend that you begin with a strong asana sequence to tire yourself out a bit before trying stress management techniques. Supported Inverted poses are particularly beneficial for anxiety, as the physical orientation of the poses triggers the Relaxation Response and concentration isn�t as essential. But if you find other techniques effective, use whichever ones you prefer. 

Lying on your back with your front body exposed can increase anxiety in some people, so for you prone restorative poses, such as Child�s pose, may be better than supine poses, such as Reclined Cobbler�s pose. If Savasana on your back creates anxiety, try lying on your belly or on your side instead, or skip the pose entirely and do Legs Up the Wall pose instead. 

Depression. For clinical depression, which has symptoms of lethargy and despair, if lying or sitting still causes symptoms to worsen, try a mindful asana practice with either short holds in static poses or slow dynamic poses. For restorative poses, choose backbend shapes, such as Reclined Cobbler�s pose, which can be uplifting, rather than forward bend shapes. In Savasana, try a supported version, with your torso lifted and your chest open, rather than lying flat.

For agitated depression, follow our suggestions for anxiety, adding in restorative backbends if those work for you.

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