Yoga for Bipolar Disorder

So from time to time I practice mudras (hand gestures) to stimulate mood or get more grounded. This is more on the far-out esoteric end of yoga, and no doubt some will scoff. That’s fine.

If you are even slightly sensitive to subtle shifts of energy, you will notice a difference to a small or great degree while practicing mudras.

I had forgotten some of the names of what it was I had been practicing (intended to write about this ages ago), but recently stumbled upon an article with a great many mudras accompanied by photos.

The mudras I recommend for bipolar depression are abhaya mudra (my favorite), gyan and purn gyan mudras, prithvi mudra, and pran mudra.

For more groundedness during manic, hypomanic or mixed states, practice prithvi mudra, kalesvara mudra, or gyan mudra. (Actually, if you’re manic, go to the hospital first.)

There are many, many mudras, each providing a subtle shift in your energy body. Try them out for yourself.

Now that this project is rolling again, look forward to some mudra how-to videos.

A study published in May of this year documented how yoga can have a positive influence on a brain chemical that affects mood¹.

In the study, several subjects did yoga for an hour while another group read. At the end of the hour, measurements were taken of GABA (gamma amino butyric acid) levels in the participants’ brains. The yoga group experienced a 27% increase in GABA, while the readers had no change. (more…)

1. Chris C. Streeter, J. Eric Jensen, Ruth M. Perlmutter, Howard J. Cabral, Hua Tian, Devin B. Terhune, Domenic A. Ciraulo, Perry F. Renshaw. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2007, 13(4): 419-426. doi:10.1089/acm.2007.6338. [↩]

As soon as you can make your own suffering mean something, you start to transcend it and serve a higher purpose.

Everyone has their own suffering, whether they are bipolar or not. The challenge is to embrace your darkness as much as the light so you can hold it, have compassion for it, and see the beauty in it. Your bipolar disorder can serve a spiritual purpose. (more…)

A complaint I hear a lot is that people feel too depressed to exercise, even though they know it’d help relieve some of the symptoms of bipolar depression.

I know those awful feelings of depression all too well, so I can totally sympathize. I’m not about to beat you up with one of those “make yourself do it” speeches. We all know it’s not about willpower. (You know that, right?) (more…)

A quick jaunt around the Internet would lead you to believe that the only treatment options for people still in the “suffering” stage of bipolar disorder are meds, meds, more meds, talk therapy, electo-shock therapy, and still more medications.

Now here’s something interesting — take a look at who advertises on these sites . Sure, there are the Google ads on some of the sites, which most site owners don’t know they can control the content of. But look at the non-Google ads, and you’ll see a trend: the advertisers are major pharmaceutical corporations. (more…)

One group of yoga postures is particularly helpful in managing bipolar mood swings.

They are useful not only for their potency, but also for their ease: You can easily do them even if you are not flexible, strong, or if you can’t get up and down. (more…)