Yoga for Bipolar Disorder

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…)

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…)

Welcome to the Yoga for Bipolar blog. Here I’ll update you on developments in the forthcoming releases of the Yoga for Bipolar audios and workbook, as well as keep you apprised of new research findings and more.

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