depression

This can be a challenging time of the year. Some parts of the world have had extreme conditions in recent months. The Eastern US has had extreme snowfall. Across much of Europe and the northern temperate zone, this time of year brings cold, and daylight hours are short. After the celebration, lights, and parties of Christmas, or the ancient festivals of the Winter Solstice, plunging back into the gray chill of winter is notorious for inflicting the “winter blues,” sometimes giving rise to a depressive seasonal affective disorder, aka SAD.

Travelers in a snowstorm round forward against a harsh wind. Francisco Goya, La Nevada c.1786.

Some parts of the world have had unusual challenges, even devastation. An example is the unprecedented wildfires around Los Angeles, which have made thousands of people homeless. 

With these extreme events impacting us, I have been thinking a good deal about how our posture reflects—and in turn affects—our own emotional weather. That is not to say that you can posture your way out of extreme situations, but rather that how we feel in any given moment, and especially in sustained situations, gets reflected in our posture. Posture is part and parcel of a strong mind-body connection, and can be used in reverse to improve our state of mind.

Our postural stance can reflect wellness and an uplifted mood, as Gokhale Method teacher Doreen Giles is embodying here… or show that we are experiencing physical or emotional adversity, like the travelers in the snowstorm image.

We explored this mind-body connection deeply in last year's Women’s Empowerment course. Many of our students and teachers report feeling better not only physically, but also emotionally, for finding healthier posture. Gokhale^® Method teacher Doreen Giles describes her experience here:

“I’ve been happily surprised to find that using the Gokhale Method techniques has lifted my day-to-day baseline mood. In thinking about why this has happened, I’ve concluded that our ‘body language,’ whether conscious or unconscious, not only communicates to other people, but also to our own mind.”

The result that Doreen reports on will be familiar to those of us who observe animals. In fact, the way we tell how an animal is feeling is via its posture. A few years ago I did some research into the posture–emotional health connection. Emily Hatfield’s book Emotional Contagion was very important in helping my understanding of the pathway of “emotional contagion”:

1. One’s emotional state gets reflected in one’s posture
2. We copy each other (we’re a monkey see, monkey do kind of species)
3. Our brain scans our body for clues on how we are feeling—when our brain “finds” our mimicked posture, it concludes that we have the corresponding mood.

As Doreen says:

“When I try on my old unconscious habit of shoulders rounded and head forward with a rather sunken chest, and then feel into what this posture communicates to myself, it’s a message of, ‘Uh-oh, I need to protect myself, something bad is coming.’

When I make simple changes I learned from the Gokhale Method—mainly the shoulder roll and adjustment to head/neck position, along with the rib anchor—what’s the new message?  ‘I belong here. All is well. I have everything I need. I am safe!’ No wonder I feel better!”

Another account of how posture connects to wellness comes from our student Madeleine Picozzi in Scotland.

After finishing her Gokhale Foundations course, Madeleine’s pain had improved significantly, but she said “For me, the acid test will be the winter; I am prone to hunching over in the cold weather in an attempt to keep warm. It’s certainly cooling down a lot already and I’m still making progress, which bodes well but we’ll see how things are in a couple of months."

Gokhale student Madeleine Picozzi used to hunch her shoulders against the Scottish chill.

Here’s Madeleine’s update from midwinter:

“I was just thinking, while I was at church on Saturday that, this time last year, my back was causing me a lot of grief. Now it's great!

I realized that, as well as hunching forward, there is a tendency to bunch up the shoulders and bend the neck, in an attempt to keep that wind out. The cold can definitely be the enemy of good posture!

I'm now better equipped to avoid hunching, since I know to keep my pelvis anteverted and my neck as long and straight as possible.

I'm also prone to SAD. However, the improvement in my back is cause for me to feel relief and gratitude.”

No matter where you are in the world, and whatever weather you’re experiencing—outdoors, indoors, or in your mind—improving your posture is likely to give you a welcome and uplifting boost. In our next blog post, we’ll explore how gait can reflect and cue our emotional state.

   
If you’ve found yourself in a slump these past months, you aren’t alone. Exercise can support mental wellness if you go about it skillfully. Image courtesy United Nations COVID-19 Response on Unsplash.

It’s no secret that depression and anxiety are rampant these days. So many people worldwide are feeling the effects of the ongoing pandemic, and dealing with its many, varied results, not to mention other stressors. It can seem that there is so little in our lives that we can have influence over, exacerbating feelings of powerlessness and depression.

In addition to the range of standard therapeutic interventions like psychotherapy and medication, there’s something all of us can adopt that will help boost our mood: adding exercise to our routine. However, it pays to be skillful in trying this approach. Here are a few practical pointers for how to realistically approach exercise when you’re depressed.

When you’re just starting (or even simply trying) to emerge from your chrysalis, it’s important to be gentle with yourself and set modest, realistic goals. This extends to starting exercise while also dealing with depression. Image courtesy Miriam Fischer on Pexels.

If You’re Depressed, Set Small Exercise Goals
When someone is depressed, it’s crucial to have realistic expectations for how much exercise they are likely to be able to do. A depressed person isn’t merely being “lazy,” and can’t simply “snap out of it” and go run a marathon; there is a physiological cause at work. In severe cases, it can take significant effort merely to get up out of bed. Because of this, setting the bar low and taking a gentle approach is the most likely to yield good results.

Could you commit to taking a few deep breaths when you get out of bed? Or how about a little no-judgment, freestyle dancing?

Finding alternate ways to connect during COVID times can be a great boost to our well-being, both physical and mental. Image courtesy United Nations COVID-19 Response on Unsplash.

Exercise in (Virtual) Company to Combat Isolation
Just like the “oomph” to easily get out of bed, both motivation and accountability can be hard to come by for people dealing with depression. I recently came across a great quote by Keith Johnsgård, PhD, emeritus professor of psychology at San Jose State University and author of Conquering Depression & Anxiety through Exercise. “Having social support for exercise is crucial when you’re depressed,” he says. “A lot of folks won’t exercise on their own, so I tell patients to enlist a family member or good friend to be their exercise partner. It should be someone who is willing to help them...exercise every day.”

Considering the limitations of the pandemic, virtual fitness is a great option for connecting with others safely. If you have a low day you have the option to turn off your camera and still participate without “showing up” — you won’t have missed a session, and odds are you will feel all the better for it.

Exercise in ways that improve flow in your body
According to Chinese medicine, “liver Qi Stagnation” is a common contributor to depression. The solution is to get the Qi flowing; exercise and movement are important ways to make that happen. If you prefer to think in terms other than Chinese medicine, exercise stimulates both blood circulation and our natural “happy hormones”. At a moderate intensity, 20 minutes or so of exercise stimulates the body to release endorphins, giving the “runner’s high” that joggers so enjoy. 

Less talked about are the benefits of low-intensity exercise sustained over time. Even at this level, you can feel better because your brain chemistry changes. Dr. Michael Craig Miller, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School writes "In people who are depressed, neuroscientists have noticed that the hippocampus in the brain—the region that helps regulate mood—is smaller. Exercise supports nerve cell growth in the hippocampus, improving nerve cell connections, which helps relieve depression." 

Just like the rest of nature, our bodies require a lack of impediments in order to function optimally. According to traditional Chinese medicine, getting your liver Qi flowing with exercise is one way to help clear the stagnation of depression. Image courtesy Tom Fisk on Pexels.

Some forms of exercise offer benefits beyond the usual and customary. Exercise that improves your body architecture, posture, and movement patterns, sets you up for benefits 24/7 — your flow is augmented even as you sleep, sit, and stand, and you are much more likely to proceed doing your daily activities with the same health-enhancing form.

In the Gokhale Exercise program, born on January 1, 2020, the focus is on one movement principle a day — this keeps it digestible and fun, even if you are starting off feeling a little (or a lot) glum. Even through a Zoom window, it’s possible to siphon a little of the high energy that has built in this community over the past year and uplift your mood. In addition to high spirits, the community is generous in sharing their discoveries, thoughts, and feelings. For many who have written emails to me, as well as for myself, the support has been invaluable through difficult times.

Would you like to let us do the heavy lifting and just show up to one of our daily programs? Change the course of your New Year with a new exercise program, new habits, and bolstered spirits. 

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For some, Summer is a time of rest, relaxation and vacation. Unfortunately, for teens and young adults, these months are often wrought with the anxiety of life ahead: starting college, searching for a job...It is important to address the major role our bodies play in how we weather times of stress and uncertainty.

We’ve always known that there is a connection between the physical and the emotional. We know how hard it is not to get grumpy when we aren’t feeling our best. Being laid up with a cold or fighting a headache can spoil anyone’s mood.

Now there is a mounting body of scientific research suggesting this connection is much stronger than simply reacting to discomfort or pain. It appears that, to some extent, our emotional states are actually determined by the position of our bodies. In her book, Emotional Contagion, researcher Elaine Hatfield compiles evidence that our physical states are interpreted by our brains to create the emotions we feel. In her view, it is our bodies, rather than our minds, that react to situations, and this physical response tells the brain what we feel.

A beautiful girl in a Goan market whose regal affect matches her glowing smile (India)

Amy Cuddy introduced this concept to millions in her extremely popular TED talk on “power posing.” Her research shows that people like you better when you are more confident - and you can make yourself more confident by standing tall and throwing your hands high in the air. This almost instantly increases your feelings of power (testosterone) and lowers your stress levels (cortisol). In other words, just moving your body in a certain way for a few minutes causes measurable differences in your hormone levels.

This teacher in Otovalo, Ecuador does not compromise his form in order to please the children, and they are not the least bit put off by this! 

Another group of researchers found that bipolar patients felt significantly less depressed when they stood erect with their heads up, smiled and breathed deeply. In fact, this position eliminated the need for medication as long as they maintained it.

A recent Gokhale Method Foundations course graduate wrote eloquently about some surprising emotional effects of her posture training in her blog, the Moody Pinata.

Rates of depression are often lower in developing countries than in the west. One has to ponder whether we have more to learn. 

When dealing with the stresses of young adult life, posture probably isn’t the primary source of anxiety and depression. However, upright posture may be a successful coping mechanism for stress, as researchers at the University of Auckland recently demonstrated by subjecting participants to stressful tasks. Those that had been coached to sit up straight were “enthusiastic, excited, and strong,” while those who had been instructed to slump were “more fearful, hostile, nervous, quiet...and sluggish” while completing the same tasks.

Actors use posture to portray a variety of mind states. More than many, they understand the value of the body in establishing character - both mental and physical. 

This field of research deserves the attention it has received in the press lately. While human emotions are complicated and should be approached holistically, posture may be the easiest variable to control, and the fastest step toward a more balanced life—literally! After all, any of life’s hurdles are more easily cleared when our bodies are functioning at their fullest capacity.

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