by Beth Shaw, C-IAYT, E-RYT 500, Founder of YogaFit Worldwide
Throughout my life, I have struggled with depression and anxiety, despite all the exercise, yoga, meditation, healthy eating, and mindfulness. It looms in the background like a shadow, sometimes creeping up and overtaking me.
I’m not supposed to be depressed. I thought I had handled this. It’s summer. We’re enjoying our new life in Traverse City. I belong to two gyms. I’m hiking, swimming, kayaking, and sometimes working out to the point of exhaustion because I use exercise as my primary mood stabilizer.
I’ve spent more than three decades immersed in health and wellness. I’ve written books on yoga, nutrition, healthy aging, and trauma recovery. I’ve taught hundreds of thousands of yoga teachers around the world. I meditate. I practice yoga every day. I strength train. I understand sleep, hormones, breathwork, and the science behind building a resilient mind and body.
I’ve spent my career telling people that exercise is medicine. What I didn’t fully appreciate was that medicine isn’t always enough by itself. Sometimes healing also requires community, accountability, purpose, and the willingness to ask for help.
I believe two things can be true at the same time. While this has probably been the best move of my life recently, that shadow overtook me… I know when it’s coming; I spend more time in front of the screen, and by that I mean the television.
I spend more time listening to podcasts that are less than educational, and then I feel disconnected from the joy and sense of purpose that carries me through life’s challenges.
Is it hormones? Is it the weather? Is it situational? Is it a supplement that I’m taking or not taking?
And then I’m reminded of something important: depression doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t care how much you know about health or how many years you’ve spent helping others. Sometimes it arrives quietly during seasons of grief, uncertainty, and transition.
For me, this season brought all three.
I moved to Traverse City, Michigan after living in New York, Los Angeles, and most recently spending five and a half wonderful years in Fort Lauderdale. Leaving Florida wasn’t simply a change of address. It meant leaving behind the Be YogaFit community that had become my extended family. Those relationships weren’t just students attending class. They were friends. They were my tribe.
At the same time, I moved north to be closer to my cousin and to my ninety-year-old mother, whose health has declined rapidly following multiple strokes. Watching someone you love slowly disappear is one of life’s greatest heartbreaks. There is no yoga pose that makes that easier. Also, because her partner died unexpectedly over a year ago after she had been with him for 23 years, his daughters unceremoniously pushed her out of their shared household. He also made some health decisions on behalf of my mother that I would have never made that contributed to her strokes, so I’m dealing with anger. I’m dealing with a lot of questions why, and I’m dealing with the knowledge that I will never get answers to these questions.
Add to that rebuilding a life in a new city, making new friends, reflecting on another birthday, and wondering what this next chapter is supposed to look like, and I began to understand why my emotional foundation suddenly felt less stable.
I wasn’t falling apart.
But I wasn’t myself.
Ironically, I recently read an article discussing why exercise should finally be treated as legitimate medicine for depression rather than simply “good advice.” The article didn’t claim exercise was a miracle cure or that it should replace therapy or medication. Instead, it made a much more thoughtful argument:
That resonated deeply with me.
If your physician prescribed an antidepressant, they wouldn’t simply say, “Take some medicine.”
They would explain which medication.
How much.
How often.
When to take it.
How long before you might notice improvement.
Possible side effects.
What happens if it doesn’t work.
Yet when people are told to exercise for depression or anxiety, the recommendation is often little more than, “Go work out.”
That’s not a prescription.
That’s a suggestion.
Research now consistently demonstrates that exercise can significantly reduce symptoms of mild to moderate depression. Regular movement improves neuroplasticity by increasing Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), reduces chronic inflammation, regulates cortisol, improves insulin sensitivity, supports healthy sleep, enhances self-confidence, and creates opportunities for meaningful social connection.
In other words, movement changes both the body and the brain.
As yoga teachers, we’ve understood this intuitively for decades. Neuroscience is finally catching up.
For years I’ve said that yoga isn’t simply exercise.
It’s nervous system regulation.
It’s breath training.
It’s mindfulness.
It’s resilience training.
It’s learning to become an observer of your thoughts rather than a prisoner of them.
One of the reasons we created YogaFit’s Balancing Moods training was because I saw firsthand how many students were walking into yoga classes carrying invisible burdens. Anxiety. Depression. Chronic stress. Grief. Hormonal changes. Caregiver fatigue. Burnout.
They didn’t necessarily need a harder workout.
They needed a different nervous system.
The YogaFit Balancing Moods program combines movement, breathwork, meditation, mindfulness, restorative practices, and evidence-informed lifestyle strategies designed to support emotional well-being. It isn’t intended to diagnose or treat mental illness, but it provides yoga teachers with practical tools to help students regulate stress, improve resilience, and cultivate emotional balance.
Likewise, our YogaFit for Warriors® program was developed specifically to address the needs of veterans, first responders, trauma survivors, and anyone living with PTSD, anxiety, depression, or the lingering effects of chronic stress. The program integrates trauma-informed yoga, breathing techniques, mindfulness, and nervous system regulation in a way that helps participants feel safe, empowered, and connected to their bodies again.
If you’ve never explored these programs, I encourage you to learn more:
These programs represent decades of work integrating traditional yoga with modern research on trauma, mental health, and nervous system regulation.
This was the part that surprised me.
Yoga remained essential.
Meditation remained essential.
Walking remained essential.
Strength training remained essential.
But I realized I needed something else.
I needed accountability.
I needed community.
I needed to stop being the teacher for a while and become the student again.
So I joined a CrossFit gym.
That decision surprised even me.
CrossFit challenges me physically in ways I probably wouldn’t challenge myself if I were exercising alone. More importantly, someone else writes the workout. Someone else pushes me. Someone else expects me to show up.
So now every morning, I’m getting up to be at a 6:45 AM class, and guess what? I am not a morning person, but I need this discipline, consistency, and regimen.
As someone who has spent most of her life telling other people what to do in the classroom, meaning I teach Fitness, Pilates, and yoga, this is like a vacation. There’s something incredibly liberating about simply arriving and following instructions.
No decisions.
No negotiating.
No excuses.
Just movement.
And little by little, my energy began returning.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is that healing rarely happens in isolation.
When we’re anxious or depressed, our instinct is often to withdraw.
We cancel plans.
We skip workouts.
We promise ourselves we’ll start tomorrow.
Tomorrow becomes next week.
Next week becomes next month.
Whether it’s a yoga class, a CrossFit workout, a hiking group, a walking partner, or a meditation circle, community creates accountability.
People notice when you’re missing.
They celebrate when you return.
Human connection is one of the most overlooked natural mood elevators available.
This summer I decided to stop waiting until I felt motivated.
Instead, I created structure.
No alcohol.
Not because I had a drinking problem, but because I wanted to eliminate anything interfering with sleep, recovery, mood, or mental clarity.
No late nights.
Sleep has become sacred.
Five CrossFit classes each week.
Daily yoga.
Daily meditation.
At least 10,000 steps every day.
Time outdoors.
Time building new friendships.
Time reconnecting with joy.
None of these habits by themselves is a cure for depression.
Together, they create momentum.
It’s a question I’ve been asked thousands of times.
The answer is yes—with an important qualification.
Yoga is not a replacement for appropriate medical or psychological care when it is needed.
However, research continues to demonstrate that yoga can reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, improve sleep quality, decrease perceived stress, enhance emotional regulation, improve heart rate variability, and help calm an overactive nervous system.
For many people, yoga becomes part of an integrated treatment plan that may also include therapy, medication, nutrition, strength training, social connection, and lifestyle changes.
Healing is rarely about one magic solution.
It’s about building a resilient life.
People often search online for “natural cures for depression,” “natural remedies for anxiety,” or “natural mood elevators.”
I understand why.
We all want simple answers.
Unfortunately, depression is complex.
What I’ve found personally—and what research increasingly supports—is that emotional well-being is often strengthened by combining multiple healthy habits rather than relying on just one.
For me those include:
None of those habits guarantees happiness.
Together, they dramatically increase the odds of resilience.
I’m still finding my footing in this new chapter.
I’m learning a new city.
Building a new community.
Caring for an aging parent.
Redefining what home means.
Some days are easier than others.
But every morning I have a choice.
I can stay inside my thoughts.
Or I can move.
Lately, movement has been winning.
Not because it erases grief.
Not because it eliminates uncertainty.
But because every yoga practice, every CrossFit workout, every walk, every meditation reminds me that I still have agency.
Perhaps that’s the greatest gift movement gives us.
Not simply stronger muscles.
Not greater flexibility.
Not lower blood pressure.
Hope.
And sometimes hope is the most powerful medicine of all.
If you’re struggling with anxiety, depression, chronic stress, or trauma, I encourage you to explore yoga as one part of a comprehensive healing plan. At YogaFit, we’ve spent decades developing evidence-informed trainings that combine movement, breath, mindfulness, and nervous system regulation to help people build resilience from the inside out.
Learn more about YogaFit, Balancing Moods, YogaFit for Warriors®, yoga for anxiety, yoga for depression, and trauma-informed yoga at www.yogafit.com.
If you’re dealing with a challenging mood, consider joining us in beautiful Traverse City this fall for our Yoga and Senior Fitness Retreat, and yes, there will be some wine tasting. Get details here.
Beth Shaw is the founder and CEO of YogaFit Worldwide, the world’s largest yoga mind-body education school, and the author of numerous books on yoga, nutrition, healthy aging, trauma recovery, and wellness. For nearly three decades, she has trained hundreds of thousands of yoga teachers and fitness professionals worldwide, integrating evidence-informed movement, nervous system regulation, and lifestyle medicine into practical programs that help people build resilience and improve well-being. Through her writing and teaching, Beth is passionate about helping others discover how exercise is medicine—and how movement, mindfulness, and community can support a healthier, more resilient life.
Ready to learn how yoga can support emotional well-being?
Explore YogaFit Balancing Moods and YogaFit for Warriors®, two evidence-informed trainings designed to help yoga teachers, health professionals, and wellness practitioners confidently support students experiencing stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, and the challenges of modern life.
Learn more at YogaFit.com.
Take your practice and teaching to the next level with our 300-Hour Advanced Yoga Teacher Training.
Stay Connected With Us
Monthly inspiration in your inbox
