Iyengar Yoga for Depression
Manli Nouri
Lesley University
Abstract
This paper will focus on the development and uses of Iyengar Yoga. It will cover B.K.S. Iyengar’s life and how Iyengar yoga was first started. It will also cover how it used in the west to cure ailments. The ailment that this paper will focus on will be depression, including research done on it and the results that have been found on how it is known as being a treatment for depression. It will end with what research has not done yet, but will also look at what it can do in the future.
Introduction
I chose to do this topic because it interested me on many different levels. Since my dad has depression, I first wanted to write my paper on how yoga is used to treat depression. However, after doing some research, I came to find that most of the research done on yoga being used as an alternate form of treatment for depression had to specifically do with Iyengar yoga. This finding made me interested in Iyengar yoga and what was special about it. Therefore, I changed my topic to learn more about Iyengar yoga: its roots and how it is used to treat depression. Prior to taking this class and specially before doing this research, I had never heard of yoga being used to treat different types ailments, specifically depression. I had heard of people doing yoga to relieve stress, but treating depression seemed much more serious than daily stress. To my surprise, there is much research and data on this ailment and why Iyengar yoga was used to treat depression instead of other types of yogas.
B.K.S. Iyengar
Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar was the founder of Iyengar yoga. He was born on December 14, 1918 as a very ill and sickly baby. Iyengar suffered many diseases as a child. He had gotten malaria, tuberculosis, and typhoid by thirteen. Because his father passed away when he was nine years old, the family was left with a large financial burden and Iyengar was sent to live with his brother in Bangalore. During this time, his health kept getting worse, making his attendance at school very poor (Iyengar, 2007).
In 1934, Iyengar was invited by his sister to stay with her and her new husband, Professor Tirumalai Krishnamarcharya. It was here that yoga would become part of B.K.S. Iyengar’s life. Krishnamarcharya, a gifted man who was very advanced at yoga, ran a yoga school where Iyengar was invited to attend and learn yoga asanas (Iyengar, 2007). At first, Iyengar struggled and found the asanas to be very painful and difficult to complete, not only due to the limitations of his body but also mind, as well. His mind was not yet ready to let go of certain thoughts during meditation and he struggled when he had to clear his mind to concentrate. However, with his determination and his guru’s strict ways, he gradually mastered some of the asanas. While he was mastering these poses, he realized that his health was improving (Iyengar, 2007).
The Start of Teaching
Seeing how well he was advancing, Krishnamarcharya asked Iyengar, who was at this time eighteen years old, to start teaching. Iyengar did not know how to speak Marathi, which was problematic, because Marathi was the only language his students knew how to speak. He had never been explained the techniques for the asanas by his teachers, which caused him to struggle as a teacher. To overcome this, he practiced persistently in hopes of gaining an in-depth knowledge of each posture and the movement of each body part (Iyengar, 2007). The accuracy he established was later reflected in his teaching. By working as a teacher, he had also become fluent in Marathi, as well as English, Sanskrit, Hindi, Tamil, and Kannada, which enabled him to communicate with all of his students.
With a growing reputation as a successful teacher, more and more people of all ages and abilities started coming to him, including many people with ailments. Since yoga had improved his health, they thought it could do something for theirs (Iyengar, 2007). Iyengar “developed the use of props, such as ropes, belts, wooden blocks, and bolsters to help the elderly, weak, and inflexible experience the therapeutic effects of yoga” (Iyengar, 2007, p. 12). He would come up with different asana patterns for people with different ailments (Pilkington, Kirkwood, Rampes, & Richardson, 2005).
Iyengar Goes International
As his reputation spread, members of the Indian royalty and important business, sports, and entertainment individuals came to Iyengar. In 1952, a violin expert, Yehudi Menuhin came to Iyengar for help from his constant fatigue and lack of sleep. Iyengar prescribed him with a list of asanas and after doing so, Menuhin saw that his pains completely disappeared and his regular sleeping pattern was restored. After this, Menuhin arranged Iyengar to teach abroad in London, Switzerland, Paris, and other places around the world (Iyengar, 2007).
B.K.S. Iyengar traveled to the United States for the first time in 1956, returning often in the 1970s. His different and new way of yoga helped popularize and promote yoga within the United States. His first book, Light on Yoga, was published in 1966 and became an international success and was soon translated into seventeen languages. His second book, Light on Pranayama, was published in 1981 and was also a success, being translated into twelve languages (Iyengar, 2007). He has toured twenty-five countries and has published fourteen books. He has also won hundreds of awards and is widely known for popularizing yoga. Some even consider him as the Michelangelo of Yoga (Eirk, 2011). These all show his importance and significance to what people think of all he has brought in the world of yoga.
Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute
In 1975, in memory of his wife, Iyengar opened the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, India (Iyengar, 2007). Iyengar started out teaching all of the yoga classes and kept teaching until 2003 when he officially retired from teaching, because he believed it was time to “let the next generation come through” (Iyengar, 2007, p. 13). After he retired, his daughter, Geeta, and son, Prashant, as well as other senior teachers who were trained under Iyengar’s strict teachings, took over and still teach his classes today (Iyengar, 2007). Today, he lives with his family in a house next to the institution and still vigorously practices yoga. Although he is retired, he still teaches the special needs’ classes. These classes consist of people with problems such as “heart conditions, arthritis, diabetes, migraines, multiple sclerosis, and cancer” (Iyengar, 2007, p. 22).
His success has to do with many aspects of yoga that Iyengar did differently. Iyengar looked beyond the body’s muscular and skeletal systems, using his own body to see how each asana affected internal organs and the nervous systems. As a result of this knowledge, he came up with a system of yoga that was different. He organized over two hundred classical yoga asanas and fourteen different types of pranayamas, which allowed beginners to easily move from basic levels to more advance ones. His success may also have to do with the fact that he was not fully concerned with the perfection of the postures (Iyengar, 2007). He was more concerned with the “harmony and spiritual awakening as the mind, body, and soul are united” (Iyengar, 2007, p. 24). He also recognized that each person is different and may need different accommodations. His use of props allowed the people needing them not have to concentrate on their limitation, while getting the same practice as people without their limitations. These props were also for beginners who were not yet flexible enough to still be able to enjoy yoga without harming or straining himself or herself (Garfinkel & Schumacher, 2000).
Remedy for Ailments
Yoga, in general, has therapeutic effects that aid in relaxation. It teaches one how to develop a greater awareness of his or her physical and psychological state. This gives one coping mechanism, which then increases one’s ability to deal with everyday stress, which may be the cause of their depression (Iyengar, 2007). Iyengar yoga had become very popular to people with ailments. Since Iyengar himself overcame his sickness with yoga, others believe, and have proven, that yoga can help them, too. People have overcome not only illnesses, but addictions and traumas (Iyengar, 2001). They “are taught yoga, meditation, introspection, group therapy alongside a 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous Program” (Iyengar, 2007, p. 22). After finding out about their ailments, Iyengar would come up with a group of asanas for that person, which was different for every ailment (Iyengar, 2007).
Depression
Yoga is sometimes referred to as a self-soothing technique and compared to meditation, relaxation, exercise, and even socializing with friends, because all of these activities are known to distress and relax oneself. After going to a yoga class, people usually say that they feel less stressed and their moods are uplifted. That is why yoga is the perfect treatment for depression. In a survey conducted by the Iyengar Yoga National Association of the US (IYNAUS), depression was ranked as one of the top five reasons for participation in yoga (Shapiro, Cook, Davydov, Ottaviani, Leuchter, Abrams, 2007). Ever since the 1970s, there have been a lot of studies done on finding possible treatments for depression (“Yoga for anxiety and depression,” 2009). In the West, most people that have depression take pills, which does not get rid of the depression, but just supposedly makes you feel better for a short amount of time. Recently, there are been studies done on exercise, and more specifically, yoga as a form of treatment. Many of the studies done on Iyengar yoga being used as a treatment for depression have been proven to be successful. Most research has showed that it does make people less depressed, if not cures their depression altogether. It has been found to increase positive and decrease negative moods (Woolery, Myers, Stemliebm, & Zeltzer, 2004). These studies show that its benefits are similar to that of exercise and relaxation techniques (“Yoga for anxiety and depression,” 2009).
What Research Has Been Done
In 2004, there was a pilot study done to examine the effects of a five-week Iyengar yoga course on symptoms of depression on young adults. Since B.K.S. Iyengar chose specific sequences of asanas for different ailments, there was a sequence specific to depression. These “include asanas that open and lift the chest, especially back bends, inversions, and vigorous standing poses” (Woolery et al., 2004, p. 60). The study was predicted to have reduced levels of depression and since depression has been associated with abnormal levels of cortisol, it was predicted that there would be a change in cortisol levels (Woolery et al., 2004).
It was found that depression levels did, in fact, reduce in the experimental group who was practicing yoga. In the wait-list, or the control group, there was not much of a change found. It was found that the yoga participants showed a higher morning cortisol level than that of the control group (Woolery et al., 2004).
In 2005, a similar study was done on twenty-four women who were described as being “emotionally distressed.” Like the last study, this research also had a control group that consisted of people who maintained their normal activities. At the end of three months, women in the yoga group reported improvements with their depression scores improving by fifty percent (“Yoga for anxiety and depression,” 2009).
One research, done in 2007, took a different approach by choosing patients who were on anti-depressants, but who still had lasting symptoms of depression. The study was initially done with a sample of twenty-five adults who had major depression. However, the result contains twelve more participants who underwent the same treatment after the initial testing. It was found that there were significant improvements in their moods after the testing, compared to before. For those who were on anti-depressants, their depression severity scores were significantly dropped (Shapiro et al., 2007).
Issues in Studies
There were a number of problems in each research. For example, none of the researches looked at how the practice of physical postures (asanas), as opposed to breathing and meditation impacts mood in persons who are depressed” (Woolery et al., 2004). Although yoga consists of asanas and meditation exercises, this is problematic, because reduced levels of depression may only have to do with one aspect of yoga and not all of it. If there was research done comparing the two parts, it might find an easier or another treatment for depression. Another problem has to do with the number of participants in each study. The first study mentioned above only had twenty-eight participants. The second study had only twenty-four participants and the third only thirty-seven. Furthermore, the last study had six participants not attending any class, six attending only one of whom did not participate in the final assessment (Shapiro et al., 2007). The results in all studies did show a drastic reduction in depression, but the studies did not consist of a large number of people, making the researches not generalizable. Another limitation lies in the participants describing themselves as depressed or emotionally distressed, instead of a counselor giving them that label. This is problematic, because any person can be going through a tough time in their life and describe themselves as being depressed. However, if a psychologist or counselor could talk to and analyze a patient and give them that label, it would make the research more reliable and accurate, because the patient would not be using their own judgment to diagnose themselves. Another problem rests on the fact that people usually feel better about themselves after mastering something. In this case, they are mastering yoga poses, which could make them feel happier. However, if mastering were the case, then anything worth mastering to the patient could be used instead of the treatment of depression being reduced to only yoga. The spiritual component to yoga is also in affect and could be seen as a shortcoming in the studies, because there is no way to test and measure how yoga has affected someone spiritually, thus never knowing whether or not it was the spiritual aspect of yoga that reduced their depression.
Depression is usually associated with a slumped back and yoga consists of many back bends and other chest opening asanas, which would get rid of the slumped back. This is important, because many psychological studies have shown a “connection between open body posture and mood” (Woolery et al., 2004). These classes may have done more joint and muscle movements in the beginning of class, focusing on getting rid of the bad posture. Exercise in general is also known for relieving stress and making someone’s mood better. That is why it would make sense that some classes focused on intense exercise in the beginning of the class and left relaxation for the end of the class, so that by the time the participants had gotten to the relaxation part, they would be able to relax. However, this would in return cause errors for the result, because not all classes would be having the same routine of exercise followed by relaxation. Opposing this idea, meditation “has been associated with diminish[ing] stress and worry [and] descreas[ing] anxiety and depressive symptomology” (Smith, Greer, Sheets, & Watson, 2011). Therefore, the data could have been swayed because of this, as well.
Similar to all other researches done on human beings, the placebo affect might have had an affect on some of the participants in these studies. Knowing that this study was supposed to make them feel better, the participants may have felt better just by knowing that they were suppose to (Chaoul & Cohen, 2010).
Conclusion
Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar had a very inspirational life that has made an impact in many people’s lives. His defeat of his illnesses made people all around the world, especially in the West, believe that they could have similar results. In the west, Iyengar is more commonly known for being used for treating ailments, one of which include depression. It is interesting to look at the Western view on Iyengar yoga and how they are taking a more biomedical approach towards yoga. Westerners always have to have a label for everything and only do something that will benefit themselves. They want to get something out of everything they do (Lea, 2009). Therefore, by thinking of yoga as an alternative treatment for depression, it puts a label on it and gives a reason why they should be preforming yoga. Whereas in the East, they do not need this label to perform yoga. They just perform it merely to perform it, not because they are getting something out of it. Iyengar also makes it more suited to biomedical application by his use of props (Shapiro et al., 2007).
In the past decade, there have been many studies, three of which are mentioned in this paper, done on how Iyengar yoga is used to treat depression. Most research has proven this to be correct. However, there is much more that the research has not looked at. For example, the research has not looked at if there is specifically a part during the yoga class, such as the meditation or the physical exercise, that causes the mood change or the affects of different types of yogas on depression. Some questions researches may want to consider, for their research in the future, may include whether or not the pace of the yoga matters and whether or the not the time of day when yoga is practiced matters. They may also want to look at different types of depression, such as major and postpartum depressions, and test how well Iyengar yoga works with each type. Research on this topic right now is still in its beginnings, however I am sure in the next decade there will be much more research done and many more conclusions made on yoga being used as an alternate treatment for depression.
References
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