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Low Mood and Low Energy

Yoga for Low Mood and Low Energy

Everybody already knows that movement helps. The gap is not information. It is that a plan built for someone with normal energy is exactly the wrong plan for someone without it, and every failed attempt makes the next one less likely.

This guide is written from that angle. Why the practice is built around the obstacle rather than around progression, which poses the effective trials actually used, how often is enough, and how long this realistically takes, which is longer than most people are told.

Who this guide is for

Signs this guide was written for you

This is for the version where the energy went first and the interest followed. Nothing is dramatic, and getting started is the whole problem.

  • ·Your energy and your interest in things have been low for weeks rather than days.
  • ·You know movement helps and knowing has stopped being enough.
  • ·Previous attempts stalled because the plan assumed more energy than you had.
  • ·You are not in a crisis and you have no thoughts of harming yourself.
  • ·You can find twenty minutes twice a week, most weeks.

Research based yoga sequences for Low Mood and Low Energy

8-Week Yoga Program for Low Mood and Low Energy

Our yoga teachers built this eight-week program around the actual obstacle, which the research is clear about: not whether the practice works, but whether it happens. Eight weeks, two sessions a week, and a five-minute version for the days when that is all there is.

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What causes Low Mood and Low Energy

The obstacle is not whether it works. It is whether it happens.

When the researchers behind the largest trial in this field went back and asked people what had got in the way, almost nobody said the yoga had not helped. What they said was that they had been too low to leave the house, and that some of the classes had been physically beyond what they could manage that week.

That is a design brief, not a footnote. It means the useful decisions are about lowering the barrier rather than about progression: a session that starts on the floor because standing up is the hard part, a five-minute version that involves no decisions, and a clear rule that doing the short one counts.

  • ·Across 12 trials with 619 people, yoga reduced depressive symptoms against usual care, against relaxation and against aerobic exercise.
  • ·In a stricter analysis of 20 trials with 1,333 people, people practising yoga were about three times more likely to reach remission than a passive control group.
  • ·In a trial where yoga was the only treatment, 60 percent reached remission after eight weeks against 10 percent of the control group.
  • ·Two supervised sessions a week produced the same result as three, with 87 percent of the lower dose group in remission.
  • ·In people already on medication with ongoing symptoms, there was no difference at ten weeks and a clear one at six months. Continuing is the strategy.

Safety

When to practise and when to get it looked at

The risks here are not physical. They are about expectation and about using a practice as a substitute for something else.

How to practise so it works

  • ·Doing the five-minute version is not falling behind. It is what keeps the habit intact, and the habit is the thing that works.
  • ·Twice a week is the target, not the minimum. Two supervised sessions a week performed as well as three in the trial that tested it.
  • ·Expect the routine to change before the mood does, by weeks and sometimes by months. Expecting it the other way round is the most common reason people stop.
  • ·Take the easier version of any pose without treating it as a concession. Several people in the research dropped out because a class felt physically beyond them.
  • ·This does not replace therapy or medication, and it is not the right first step if your mood is severe or worsening. Any thought of harming yourself needs a person, today.

The asanas

The yoga poses that matter for Low Mood and Low Energy

Grouped by what each one asks the body to do. Tap any pose to see how it is done, what it works on and who should leave it out.

Getting upright

Mountain Pose

Mountain Pose

Tadasana

Mountain Pose with Side Bend

Mountain Pose with Side Bend

Parshva Tadasana

Upward Salute

Upward Salute

Urdhva Hastasana

Triangle Pose

Triangle Pose

Trikonasana

Warrior II

Warrior II

Virabhadrasana II

Opening the front of the body

High Cobra Pose

High Cobra Pose

Bhujangasana

Locust Pose

Locust Pose

Shalabhasana

Bridge Pose

Bridge Pose

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

Camel Pose

Camel Pose

Ustrasana

Fish Pose

Fish Pose

Matsyasana

Standing work that asks something

Chair Pose

Chair Pose

Utkatasana

Warrior I

Warrior I

Virabhadrasana 1

Extended Side Angle Pose

Extended Side Angle Pose

Utthita Parsvakonasana

Cow Pose

Cow Pose

Bitilasana

Upward Plank Pose

Upward Plank Pose

Purvottanasana

For yoga teachers

Teaching a class for Low Mood and Low Energy

The most useful thing you can do in this room is make it easy to be there badly. People with low mood arrive with a long history of plans that assumed more energy than they had, and one class that felt beyond them is enough to end the attempt. Say at the start that lying down and watching is a complete way to attend, and mean it.

Cue effort as optional in every pose that has any. Two rounds of Chair Pose is the same session as five for the purposes of this room, and it is the person who did two who is more likely to come back next week.

Give back bends and chest opening real space. Both of the trials with the clearest results named that direction specifically, one as Iyengar back bends and inversions, the other as chest opening poses. It is the closest thing this literature has to a structural recommendation.

Two things worth saying out loud, once:

  • ·That twice a week is the target rather than the minimum. The dosing trial found two supervised sessions no worse than three, and people who feel behind on everything need to hear a number they can hit.
  • ·That the mood change usually lags the routine change by weeks, and in one trial by months. People who expect to feel better after session three and do not are the ones who stop.

Hand made yoga sequences for Low Mood and Low Energy

Full sequences you can teach or practise today

Our yoga teachers built each of these around the same trials the guide above is based on. The order of the poses, the length of the holds and the props are not a stylistic choice. They follow what the studied programmes actually did.

If you teach, take one of them straight into your class. Every pose comes with its timing, the cue that matters and the reason it sits where it sits.

5-Minute Yoga Sequence for the Lowest Days

5 min · Beginner

5-Minute Yoga Sequence for the Lowest Days

For a day when nothing is going to happen. Five minutes on a floor, and it counts as a session.

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20-Minute Yoga Sequence for Low Mood and Low Energy

20 min · Beginner

20-Minute Yoga Sequence for Low Mood and Low Energy

The first three weeks. Deliberately easy, because the hard part here is starting rather than the poses.

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25-Minute Yoga Sequence to Keep Going

25 min · Beginner

25-Minute Yoga Sequence to Keep Going

The last two weeks and the one to keep, because the trial that followed people longest found the effect after six months rather than after eight weeks.

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35-Minute Yoga Sequence for Energy and Opening

35 min · Beginner

35-Minute Yoga Sequence for Energy and Opening

Weeks four to six. Standing work and back bends, which is what the strongest protocols were made of.

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Build your own

Put together your own class for Low Mood and Low Energy

The sequence builder gives you all 108 asanas and lets you arrange them yourself. While you build, it watches the shape of the class: whether the intensity rises and falls the way a practice should, whether every strong pose gets its counterpose, and whether the order makes anatomical sense.

Save what you build, come back to it, and teach it. It is the fastest way to turn what you just read into a class of your own.

The research

What the studies actually found

The overall picture is good and the detail is more useful than the headline. Across 12 trials with 619 people, yoga reduced depressive symptoms against usual care, relaxation and aerobic exercise. In a trial where yoga was the only treatment, 60 percent of participants reached remission in eight weeks against 10 percent of controls. A dosing trial found two sessions a week as good as three. And the trial most relevant to people already in treatment found nothing at ten weeks and a clear difference at six months, which is the single most useful thing this literature has to say about expectations.

Depression and Anxiety2013

Yoga for depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis

12 randomised trials with 619 people. Yoga reduced depressive symptoms against usual care, against relaxation and against aerobic exercise, in people with and without a formal diagnosis. The broadest summary of the case.

Read the source →
PLOS ONE2017

Treating major depression with yoga: A prospective, randomized, controlled pilot trial

Adults with mild to moderate depression who were not in therapy or on medication, eight weeks, twice a week. 60 percent of the yoga group reached remission against 10 percent of the control group, with a large effect size. The sample was small, so read it as a strong signal rather than a settled number, but the design was clean and this is where our eight weeks come from.

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PubMed Central2017

Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder with Iyengar Yoga and Coherent Breathing: a randomized dosing trial

Two supervised sessions a week plus homework against three, over twelve weeks. No significant difference between them, with 87 percent of the lower dose group in remission. It documents its whole protocol, with Iyengar back bends and inversions at the centre, and no new suicidal thoughts occurred during the trial.

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Psychological Medicine2017

Adjunctive yoga v. health education for persistent major depression

122 adults with ongoing symptoms despite stable antidepressant treatment. At the end of the ten-week programme there was no significant difference from the control group. Over the following six months the yoga group had significantly lower depressive symptoms. This is the study that sets the expectations on this page.

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PubMed Central2024

Yoga for Depressive Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

20 randomised trials with 1,333 people, and the strictest look anyone has taken at this question. People practising yoga were about three times more likely to reach remission than a passive control group. The programmes ran four to twelve weeks, twice a week, which is exactly the shape of this program.

Read the source →

Frequently Asked Questions

Does yoga help with low mood?

Across 12 trials with 619 people it reduced depressive symptoms against usual care, against relaxation and against aerobic exercise. A stricter analysis of 20 trials found people about three times more likely to reach remission than in a passive control group.

What kind of yoga helps most?

The trials with the clearest results both emphasised chest opening and back bends, one describing its protocol as Iyengar back bends and inversions. That is the one structural feature the strongest studies share.

How often?

Twice a week. The one trial that compared two supervised sessions a week against three found no difference, with 87 percent of the twice weekly group in remission at the end.

How long until it helps?

The routine changes in a couple of weeks. Mood is slower. In the trial where yoga was the only treatment, 60 percent were in remission at eight weeks. In the trial of people already on medication, there was no difference at ten weeks and a clear one at six months.

What do I do on a day when I cannot face it?

Five minutes on the floor. Sit, do Cat and Cow, lift your hips once, lie down. It is a complete session on a day like that, and it is the single most important thing in this program because it keeps the habit from breaking.

When should I be talking to someone instead?

If your mood is severe or getting worse, if you have lost interest in everything rather than most things, or if you have any thought of harming yourself. Using a practice to put off that conversation is the one real risk in a program like this.

Ready to practice Low Mood and Low Energy8-Week Yoga Program for Low Mood and Low EnergyStart the practice →

Related Practices

Joy & VitalityHeart OpeningChest Opening

Creator of this guide

Manish Rana

Manish Rana

Founder of Asanaverse.de. Manish writes about yoga, Ayurveda and meditation, and owes his deep connection to yoga to his Indian roots. With over 1,000 hours of Yoga Alliance Teacher Training, he shares his knowledge with the community.

More about Manish →
Registered Experienced Yoga Teacher, E-RYT 500VEAT

Where to next

All programs

See the other programs

Every program here was built around one complaint and around the trials that studied it. Back, neck, knees, hips, sleep and stress, each one running for as long as the research says it takes.

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