Mental Health through the Yogic Lens
Who are you?
According to Yoga, all our answers to this question are ultimately describing the mind. Whatever we might say about ourselves, what we see in the world and what we think about the world is only what our minds are telling us. For the vast majority, unless steps are taken to quieten the mind, we never see the world as it is – only as it is shown to us by our own mind.
There is a Vedic statement: manam (mind) eva (only) manuṣyāṇāṃ (human being), which means that only because of the mind are we human beings.
So although it has suggestions for ethics, lifestyle, movement, breath regulation, counselling and many other guidelines for wellbeing and growth, Patanjali’s Yoga is really about achieving optimal health and functioning of the Mind (manomayam) so that we can attain ultimate freedom. This is why Yoga Sutra-s is known as a mano śāstram, a text talking only about the mind. In order to reduce the particular suffering associated with having an untrained human mind, we need to go beyond that mind. It is not so much about controlling the mind, but about seeing and working with its nature.
The mind is not just the cause of our bondage according to Yoga, but is also the instrument of our liberation. This is very important. The mind is both the cause and the way!
What is the mind and how do we acquire it?
We are each born in ānanda (a pure state of Bliss) and even in adulthood each night we have the experience of no mind in our sleep. Throughout our lifetime, we do incessant activities which create impressions and memories. Memory then drives our actions, for example pursuing something that was pleasurable yesterday even though today I may not need it, or avoiding something that feels uncomfortable. In this way, habits (saṃskāra) arise. Each saṃskāra can compel action – including unconscious and compulsive negative thought processes. Most of the time our habits are supportive, but there is a small percentage that create most of our problems!
In some ways the definition of mental health through the Yogic lens is very simple. A healthy mind should flow like a river, but when the mind is stuck in the past or future this stagnation is pathological, according to Yoga. In Yoga Therapy, it is important to support the mind to keep flowing, to cut through rumination with practices that anchor attention in present moment awareness. Our focus is less on the pathology and its symptoms, and more on the integrative process of directing the mind towards activities that bring clarity, calm, insight, stability and presence. Yoga harmonises body, breath, and awareness by re-patterning our constitution.
Balancing the guna-s (the three fundamental qualities that make up all of nature) plays a role as well:
- Is someone anxious and full of fear? Then the goal is to reduce rajas.
- Is someone experiencing low mood, low energy and negative thinking that is dull and depressed? Then the aim is to reduce tamas.
Either way, the person is stuck. Yoga is when that stuck feeling lifts. Maybe because of the practice, something is now possible that wasn’t yesterday. Gradually the limitations of mind are cleansed and we can act with freedom from the constraints of conditioning.
Understanding the nature of the mind
Healthy functioning of the mind is when impressions and stimulus flow like a river without undue colouring from the past and the future. Unfortunately the mind does not flow like this all the time, rather it travels to an imagined past or future – a situation where our mind stagnates. This is considered the cause of all psychological problems in Yoga Therapy. How many of us by this definition can claim to have perfect mental health?! Many people have accepted that life is miserable and that functioning in this trapped manner is universal. But every moment of life can be peaceful if we are healthy in body, breath, and mind.
In Yoga, we learn that a deeper knowing exists beyond words. It is innate, yet hidden by the surface mind, which is always changing like a kaleidoscope. If we try to hold onto anything in the mind it becomes disease; it is always thinking about me and mine, lingering thoughts of insufficiency, a deficit mindset.
Ultimately the Yogic definition of sound mental health is a state of absolute clarity and realisation of our true nature. It is the antidote to the state where we have forgotten who we are (avidya) and identify only with name, form, and function. Yoga is a process of gradually recovering our true Self. Anything else is false seeing, influenced by our conditioning.
Mainstream cultural views of mental health can at times see the individual through the stigma of pathology and not see the whole person. Yoga, on the orher hand, works with the whole constitution to address imbalances. For example, when someone is in a lot of chronic pain or their diet is very heavy, their psychology is affected directly. When someone’s breathing is shallow, irregular, forced or short, they experience tension at the level of the body and the psyche. Thus, food and lifestyle should be the first tools. We work with body and breath to influence the mind state, and over time redirect the mind towards more beneficial objects of attention.
Yoga Therapy does not treat the disease. Can we see depression? Or OCD? The truth is these conditions present differently in each individual. The problem ought not be reduced to a chemical imbalance. Yoga instead allows the student to experience their wholeness, at first in glimpses, then gradually becoming more established in that bigger sense of themselves.
Some cultural views of common mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression or OCD suppose they are mere chemistry, treatable through psychotropics (mood enhancers/ anti-depressants). There can also be a tendency to pathologise and label. While pharmaceuticals can play an important role in symptom relief, yoga addresses causes, and with proper practice and correct guidance individuals become established in their whole self.
The whole person: pañcamaya
We experience turbulence on three levels – physical, physiological, and psychological – and this can be translated as suffering or joy.
To optimise our mind state we go through body and breathing, governed by correct principles and with proper support and guidance. Re-patterning both will influence our mental health in a positive direction. For example, as we gradually train our breathing to be long, smooth, regular rather than short, choppy, shallow, we will certainly experience a shift in our mental state. Or if we do practices to open the upper spine and chest, in harmony with the breathing, we expect an elevation of mood, increased vitality and clearer thinking. Many people are tight because of mental tightness. To release the tightness of the mind, we cannot go to the mind directly so we begin with the tightness of the body/muscles.
The mind is not separate to or from the rest of our pañcamaya (our whole constitution consisting of Food Body, Prana Body, Mind Body, the deeper personality and Bliss Body). The role of Yoga and the Yoga Therapist in supporting mental health is thus of supreme value because of its understanding of the human constitution as a whole.
So much research and evidence is now emerging to confirm what the yogis have known for millennia – the power of breath, meditation, relaxation and somatic practices for supporting people with trauma and mental health conditions.
However, there are limitations in our ability to reach and help others; the teacher’s job is to know, practise, and teach the truth. In essence, to show the way. When a student takes this up, it is wonderful – but we can’t help them if they don’t. This is where Yoga is a path of self responsibility.
The astonishing thing about Yoga is the deeper we go, the more relevant it becomes. The more we embody the principles and practices, the more we are able to give. The practice first transforms us, then it expands to other people.
Simple things are greatest and all great things are the simplest.
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About the Author
Geraldine Coren is a Level 3 (Senior) Registered Teacher and Yoga Therapist. A student and practitioner of Yoga since 1997, Geraldine has been teaching since 2000, having initially trained with the Sydney Yoga Centre, then mentored in the tradition of Krishnamacharya by Michael de Manincor. Drawn by the holistic and individualised approach of this lineage, she has since studied with senior teachers including Dr Natesan Chandrasakeran and Saraswati Vasudevan. From her space in Newcastle NSW, she runs small-group yoga classes and Yoga Therapy (tailored one on ones) in the tradition of Krishnamacharya.
