Zen Jewel by Torei Enji
Last night I was thinking about someone close to me who is going through hard times—struggling with rather serious depression. Although he exercises regularly, he doesn't take yoga classes. He's considering starting, though, and naturally I'm the go-to expert on that topic so I spent some time reading up on the studios in his area in an attempt to help. But when it came down to it, I surprised myself by recommending a Zen center in his area instead of a yoga studio. That's because I felt that if he was going to do one thing for himself—in addition to western style therapy—it should be a practice that would reduce his stress levels. Stress, of course, can exacerbate or even cause depression and I know his lifestyle is stressful. And Zen style meditation is a great way to switch your nervous system from Stress mode to Relaxation mode, and to teach you to cultivate equanimity in the face of challenges.Still, why, when I have been writing about yoga for stress management practically since Day 1 (see The Relaxation Response and Yoga) wouldn't I recommend yoga? Well, the truth is that most yoga classes (like the ones in his neighborhood) are merely exercise classes. They don't teach meditation, pranayama or any forms of conscious relaxation, except maybe a brief Savasana at the end of a sweaty flow class. Gosh, one studio was even offering something called ariel yoga, which looked kind of like Cirque du Soleil. That might be fun but those acrobatic techniques didn't really seem like the most helpful skills for him to be cultivating at this point. I felt in the end that at least some basic instruction in meditation from an experienced teacher—and I knew he needed in-person instruction not just YFHA written instructions—and a group to practice with in beautiful, peaceful room would be more helpful to him than trying to learn to jump into Chaturanga Dandasana. It's kind of sad but I just didn't trust those unknown yoga teachers whose bios I read online to teach him the kind of yoga I felt he needed at this time. I know that fancy poses and the promise of a "yoga body" are what sells yoga these days but some really valuable techniques sure seem to be getting short shrift in the meantime. Well, that's my mini rant for the day. But I do want to add that if you're going through some difficult times yourself and you want to try just one thing, do something to bring your stress levels down—yoga (see here), Zen, whatever. Besides, the Buddha himself was a yogi, right?
