Wanderlust Can Yoga Help Suicidal Men?

There's no shortage of a burgeoning conversation about troubled men in America. Depression and suicide rates among men continue to rise – according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide rates in men were more than 3.5 times higher than women in 2016. In a 2011 episode of Oxford University's New Psychology of Depression podcast, Professor Mark Williams and Dr. Danny Penman predicted that if depression were eradicated from the world overnight, suicides would drop by 80%. Some psychologists believe that suicides occur almost exclusively in depressive episodes.

The trick is that depression is still a taboo subject in many parts of the world, including the United States. It is often seen as a sign of weakness; that a little boy is taught to hide from an early age. We have taken great strides to make female gender stereotypes fluid (“My daughter can SAFELY play with cars”); In a recent Gallup survey, young women place just as much emphasis on the importance of career advancement as their male counterparts, while older women place significantly less value on it. This idea that "you can be anything you want?" Our daughters get it … But what about our sons?

As part of #MeToo, we're starting to have some difficult national (and international) conversations about what it means to raise a healthy boy. Feminist icon Gloria Steinem summed up the problem in a 2015 Facebook post with the words: “I'm glad we started raising our daughters more like our sons – but it will never work until we like our sons more raise our daughters. ”

When we teach our sons that it is okay to be sensitive, to slow down, to breathe – when we teach them that it is okay (no, necessary!) To be healthy, functioning, not depressed or aggressive men. You will find it difficult to find someone who does not want to stand up for it.

So what can we do? And can yoga help?

Physical benefits

Of course, yoga can help. Practicing asana has deep physical effects on the brain that require no effort other than movement. In his book "Yoga as Medicine", Dr. Timothy McCall Studies showing that prolonged practices (3–6 months) of hatha yoga can lower levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) and increase serotonin (the happiness hormone) in the brain. When practiced along with meditation and pranayama, 60 percent of patients showed improvements in sleep patterns, digestive symptoms, mood, and social interactions.

And it goes deeper than that. In his book Ashtanga Yoga – Practice and Philosophy, Gregor Maehle writes that “the body today is nothing but the accumulation of our past, our thoughts, emotions and actions”. The yoga community has long known that opening certain parts of the body can cause deep-seated emotional releases. There is no shortage of yogis who have experienced significant emotional release from deep back bends or hip opening classes. And simply letting go of physical tension can alleviate the feeling of tension built up by stress and depression.

It is also directly related to attitude and mood. Improving posture through prolonged yoga helps promote deeper natural breathing, which can increase blood oxygenation and raise energy levels.

Emotional opening

Young men often do not want to talk about their problems, which makes traditional therapy a little difficult. But with a regular yoga practice that moves and opens the body, a man can learn to break away from and gain insight into self-destructive patterns. This could have profound therapeutic benefits for a young man's mental health … Without ever having to sit down and go through a traditionally awkward therapy session.

It is also often known that people with depression have prolonged activation of their sympathetic nervous system (the fight-or-flight mechanism) and elevated cortisol levels. Relaxation and restorative yoga has been shown to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, the system the body uses for rest and recovery.

Use your breath

Pranayama practices – especially Nadi Shodhana and Bhramari – are effective in preventing depression. Nadi Shodhana balances the left and right hemispheres of the brain and also balances the chemical levels in the brain, especially cortisol and serotonin. Practiced at bedtime, bhramrhi can promote better sleep and reduce the risk of falling into a sleep-depression cycle.

Meditation promotes mindfulness and observation of the body and mind. By becoming more aware of the body and breath and learning to observe emerging thoughts and their patterns, awareness of the onset of a depressive episode is created. By identifying episodes before they begin and using tools – like asana and pranayama – to refer to when the early symptoms of depression appear, the episode can be stopped before it begins.

By bringing yoga to young men at a young age, perhaps during their most difficult teenage years, we can provide them with a tool to help them navigate a rapidly changing world. In this way, we can begin to reduce these alarming suicide rates among men – wisely.

This piece was adapted for Wanderlust by Himalaya Yoga Valley International Yoga Training Centers. You can find more similar articles on her blog here. You can find more information about their training programs here on their website.

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Dan Kirby completed his teacher training in India at the established and renowned Himalaya Yoga Valley Center in Goa. His training in the Himalayas was led by Sri Yogacharya Lalit, a yoga master who was initiated into the tradition of Swami Rama and the Himalayan sages before him. His studies included traditional asanas (Ashtanga and Hatha styles), pranayama, meditation, yoga philosophy, anatomy and Ayurvedic medicine. Dan is most passionate about removing stigma around yoga that make it seem inaccessible. "It's about integrating the traditional principles and practices into a modern routine," he says, "and I believe that it is the job of a yoga teacher to guide his students on this path."