Yoga Routine to Help Depression

This is yoga to ease anxiety and depression. These poses reduce stress hormones and help you beat back the blues. Begin by lying down. Just take resting pose. Start to focus on your breath. When you're ready, hug your feet into happy baby pose. You can take the sides of the feet or your big toes. Sway a little bit, just opening up your hips.

Rub the hamstrings, and just do a little rock and roll on the spine. Slowly, easy, kind of waking up the spinal nerves. Come on up into a table pose, spread the fingers, take a breath here, lengthen the spine. We're going to thread the needle with the right arm to the sky, and just slide it through. Gently let the right shoulder touch the mat. This is a dynamic movement. We're going to do the same movement several times on each side. We'll just lift the right arm to the sky, and then slide it back under.

You're just starting to release tension in the shoulders here. And a little bit of a dynamic twist, toning up the spinal nerves. Now, you're moving to the left side, left arm to the sky. And then just slide it through. Very easy and gentle on the neck and the head.

Come back to the center, table pose. Reach your arms, your hands forward. Take down dog, where you lift the tailbone, lengthen the arms, spread your fingers. You can lift the heels off the ground if you'd like, opening up the backs of your hamstrings. Your heels don't have to be on the floor. They can be anywhere. Just lengthen the whole back body.

For down dog, you can also put your hands on a block if they can't reach the floor, or you can do this against the wall. You can just put the hands on the wall and stretch the back.

Starting to lift the heels off the ground and slowly walk your way forward. Into forward fold, box your elbows, soft bend in the knees. Relax the neck. On your inhale, rise up, arms over head. Easy side stretch-- take the right hand and just pull the wrist-- the left wrist over-- opening up tiny muscles along the side of your body. Lengthen your torso as you come to the center, and go to the other side.

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Let your palms turn inward, hands down by your side. We're going to do a mountain breath here. As you inhale, reach your arms to the sky. Touch your palms, bring your hands to the heart. Just flow through a few of these. Inhale, arms up, touch your palms, slide the hands to your heart on your exhale. Inhale, lift, long exhale, hands to the heart.

Next exhale, just come back to forward fold. Inhale, half lift, lengthen the spine. You can walk back to plank or lightly hop. Just hang out in plank. With the heels, move back. Lengthen the spine. This strengthens the core and the back. Inhale here, exhale long. And bending the knees and chest, touch the floor, sliding the heart through easy lift into cobra. Press your feet into the floor. Roll the shoulders a few times, just removing tension-- the upper back shoulders, the neck. Relax the face.

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Just a little bit of weight in the hands, then push up into your child's pose, resting your forehead on the mat. Child's Pose is a relaxing, completely restorative pose, easy on the hips. As you inhale, come up to standing on the knees. Reach your arms to the sky. You can just stay here with the breath. Bring the hands to the heart. If you want to try camel, you can reach back. Just gently reach back toward the heels, very slowly lifting the sternum, stretching the chest muscles, opening the heart.

Camel pose is a gently stimulating pose, opening the muscles in the chest, opening the heart, toning up the back body. Slowly come out of camel pose. As you reach for the block, we're going to go into some supported poses on the floor, lying down.

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You can slide the block right under your tailbone or go against the wall. Legs up against the wall, you're reversing the blood flow. This pose gives the heart a break. You just gently lift the legs to the sky. Relax your arms down by your side. Relax the shoulders and the face.

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This is a supported bridge pose, so just flip the block up, planting it either on the short or the long edge of the block. Let your tailbone touch the block for supported bridge. If you want, you can interlace your fingers or press your hands into the mat. Let the chin moved toward the chest bone. If you want a little more dynamic pose here, you can lift a leg, or you can just stay with the feet on the floor, taking bridge pose-- opening the muscles in the chest as you strengthen the back body.

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This also relieves tension along the shoulders and the neck-- very restorative for the whole back of the neck. Slowly take the block out. And just giving yourself a hug. Hug your knees in, sway or circle the knees.

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Focusing on the low back here, stretching the muscles of the low back. Let the right leg cross over the left, knee down twist, turning the head away from the knees.

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Spinal twists help to tone the spinal nerves.

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Moving to the other side of the twist, just cross your left leg over.

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After several breaths, take it right back into a happy baby pose. This resets the vertebrae, letting your spine go back into alignment. You can grab the feet or the toes.

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Letting yourself move into corpse pose, completely relax, resting the body. Resting yourself, completely relax the toes, the legs, the belly. Just let your arms melt down by your side. Let each breath take you deeper into a state of relaxation.

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