Can yoga help defeat depression?

When a lamp has many shades, the light is very dim and person may think is darker than it really is. When you take off the shades, you’ll see the center of light.

What may prevent one from seeing light are “impurities” of both body and mind.

There are various techniques that can be used when it comes to body - exercise (yogic asanas can be helpful, but also some other form of activity is good), changing the diet and cleansing the body from the toxins.

Then we can “work” on breath- diaphragmatic breathing should be practiced, nadi shodana and even some advanced pranayama techniques (but only under the surveillance of an experienced teacher)

Next comes the mind. After the breath exercise and cleansing the body from the excessive food and heavy metal remains, we may feel the effects on the mind. However, there are still much to be done. “Cleansing” of the mind can be more effective if the person is willing to change the perspective of looking at things. Negativity simply means an absolute believe in negative outcome. If person can only decrease a percentage of believe (negative one) and give it a little bit of hope, that can be a huge step forward. That’ll need a help of a close relative or a friend that depressed person has trust in.

Also Japa yoga can be included since it is good for the purification of the mind. Any mantra can be chosen to be repeated and person can start with repeating the AUM sound 21 times (7 times each letter- A,U,M).

These are only a few techniques that have helped people from my surroundings. It is not meant to be universal cure for the disease (especially when it comes to clinical depression), but it can produce amazing results.