By Christine Saari, MA, C-IAYT
This article includes a link to free video practice! Check it out here.
February has a particular texture.
By this point in winter, many people notice the same quiet shifts. Mornings feel darker and slower. The light fades early enough that the day can feel unfinished. Cold keeps people inside more than they expect, even in places that usually feel insulated from winter. Movement drops without much planning. Social plans narrow. Sleep stretches longer or becomes oddly restless. Meals change.
Over time, these small changes accumulate in the body. People describe feeling foggier, slower to start, or less motivated than they expect. Energy moves differently in winter. Attention wanders more easily. Tasks that once felt simple take more effort.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is often framed as a mood issue tied to reduced sunlight. There is truth in that, but the experience is broader. Winter shifts circadian timing, hormone rhythms, inflammatory signaling, nervous system tone, and the way energy becomes available for action. Mood tends to follow those shifts rather than lead them.
This is where yoga therapy can be especially helpful. Yoga therapy works with the body as it is in this season, using breath, movement, attention, and rhythm to support regulation when energy is low. It is not about pushing through or forcing change. It is about responding to winter with practices that are realistic, adaptive, and grounded in both physiology and lived experience.
What Seasonal Affective Disorder Is Really Doing to the System
Many people experience SAD as a kind of internal delay.
The body wants to sleep longer, and waking up feels harder. Energy comes online later in the day, sometimes too late. Appetite and cravings can shift, especially toward heavier foods. Focus becomes less reliable. Motivation is inconsistent, and that inconsistency can feel confusing if the person is used to pushing through.
From a circadian perspective, light is not just visual input. It is an endocrine signal. Morning light helps anchor the body’s daily rhythm, including the timing of cortisol and melatonin, and the broader neurochemical choreography that supports alertness, mood stability, and sleep quality. When that signal weakens, and evenings are spent indoors under artificial light, the body can drift into a pattern where day and night are not clearly differentiated. The result is often a system that is biologically late, while life still requires an early start.
That mismatch is exhausting. It also makes sense.
Homeostasis, Allostasis, and Why Winter Adaptation Can Become Sticky
Homeostasis is the body’s baseline regulation. Allostasis is the body’s ability to adapt to changing conditions.
Winter is a changing condition.
When the environment shifts toward less light, less movement, and less outdoor time, the body adapts. Sometimes it adapts in ways that are protective. This protection might look like slower mornings, more sleep, and more conserving of energy. In a short window, that can be appropriate.
But in some people, the adaptation overshoots and becomes persistent. Depression symptoms deepen and the nervous system becomes less flexible. The body stays in low arousal states longer than it needs to. That is one way to understand the lived experience of SAD: not as weakness, but as an allostatic pattern that got locked in.
This is also one reason why advice that sounds logical in theory can fail in practice. Telling someone to exercise more, get outside, and stay positive can be correct and still unhelpful if the system does not have the capacity to mobilize.
Winter Behavior Changes the Body Before It Changes the Mind
One of the most overlooked drivers of winter depression is behavioral, not motivational.
People move less without choosing to. They spend less time outdoors. They walk less. They do fewer spontaneous errands. They shrink their world to keep warm and conserve energy. Even people who normally exercise regularly often do less in winter because it simply takes more effort to make it happen.
But movement is not only fitness. It is regulation.
Research and clinical guidelines support physical activity as a treatment component for depression, and there is a strong link between depressive symptoms and sedentary lifestyle.1 At the same time, researchers emphasize that depression treatment has to be pragmatic, because prescribing exercise is not the same as helping someone follow through when motivation and energy are impaired. This is where the yoga therapy model matters, because it is designed around adherence in real life, not ideal behavior.
Intensity also matters. Moderate and low intensity movement can reduce inflammatory markers like interleukin-6 (IL-6), while vigorous intensity can increase IL-6 in some contexts.2 That distinction fits what many depressed clients already know in their bodies. Pushing hard can backfire. A steady, moderate dose is often more effective.
Seasonal Affective Disorder is Also a Cardiovascular and Inflammatory story
Seasonal Affective Disorder and depression are not only mental health conditions. They are increasingly understood as a whole body condition with measurable effects in autonomic regulation and inflammation.
Multiple studies show that depression is associated with autonomic nervous system imbalance and reduced vagal tone, often reflected in lower heart rate variability and higher sympathetic activation.3 This matters because autonomic patterns influence sleep, digestion, energy availability, emotional reactivity, and cardiovascular health. Depression is also associated with increased cardiovascular risk, and inflammatory processes appear to contribute to that risk.
Inflammation is not a metaphor here. That same IL-6 that can be reduced by movement is frequently elevated in depressive disorders and is linked with symptom severity and persistence. Increased IL-6 can influence neurotransmitter systems and stress response pathways, contributing to fatigue, sleep disruption, appetite changes, and low mood.
In winter, these factors can stack. Reduced movement and circadian disruption can worsen inflammation and autonomic flexibility. The body may feel sluggish and less responsive. People often interpret that as personal failure. It is more accurate to interpret it as physiology.
Prana and Ojas: Yoga’s Wisdom for Seasonal Affective Disorder
Yogic language is useful because it describes experience, not just mechanism.
Prana is the felt sense of life force, the ability to engage, initiate, breathe fully, and feel some spark of aliveness. Ojas is reserve, the capacity to recover, stabilize, and maintain resilience without feeling depleted.
In February, many people experience both low prana and low ojas.
Low prana feels like fog, flatness, disconnection, and inertia. Low ojas feels like fragility, overwhelm, and the sense that even small demands drain the system. When ojas is low, intensity depletes. That is why people can attempt a hard workout, crash afterward, and then avoid movement entirely for several days. The system is not lazy. It is protecting itself.
Yoga therapy done well is designed to build prana without draining ojas.
What the evidence says about yoga for depression and why it matters for Seasonal Affective Disorder
There is a growing evidence base supporting the use of yoga for reducing depressive symptoms, including in people with major depressive disorder. Meta analyses and reviews have found that yoga can reduce depression severity, and that frequency of practice is associated with greater benefit. A recent meta analysis of randomized controlled trials found yoga significantly improved depressive symptoms and reported no adverse events, supporting both efficacy and tolerability.4
Yoga therapy, in particular, brings a clinical advantage because it is not one standardized class. It is individualized. It is paced. It adapts as symptoms change.
That matters because depression is not one simple state. As depression improves, some people experience increased restlessness, residual stress responses, or anxiety that becomes more visible once the fog lifts. A progressive approach is needed, and yoga therapy is built for progression.
Reduced Inflammation
Research also supports specific physiological pathways that align with what yoga therapists observe clinically. Yoga and mindfulness based interventions have been linked with changes in inflammatory markers, including IL-6.5 A randomized controlled trial of adjunctive yoga for persistent major depression found meaningful symptom improvement and improvements in physiological stress markers, including reductions in cortisol and IL-6.6 Other studies show brief mindfulness training can reduce inflammatory markers and that these reductions may persist beyond the immediate intervention period.7
Addressing Cognitive Symptoms
Cognitive symptoms matter too. Depression is associated with rumination, difficulty updating working memory, and reduced cognitive flexibility. Meditation and compassion based practices have shown promise for supporting memory specificity and cognitive resilience during recovery. This is not just about relaxation. It is about restoring executive function and the ability to shift attention, which directly affects a person’s sense of agency.
Spirituality
Meaning matters as well. Research on spirituality and mental health suggests measurable neurophysiological effects, and emerging work describes how certain spiritual practices can reinforce cycles of attention, arousal, and release that create felt experiences of focus and joy.8 Yoga therapy can incorporate meaning and spiritual language in a way that aligns with the client’s beliefs, without requiring any particular ideology. For many people in winter, meaning is part of what goes missing. Bringing it back can be neurologically relevant, not just emotionally comforting.
Why Yoga Therapy Tends to be Easier to Stick with than Exercise Alone
Many people with depression have already been told to exercise. Often they have tried. Often they could not sustain it, especially in winter. That does not mean exercise is useless. It means the dosage was not matched to the system.
Yoga therapy improves adherence because it starts where the person is. It can be done indoors. It can be done in very small doses. It can be designed for mornings when the system feels like it is moving through wet cement. It can include practices that require almost no physical effort on the hardest days, while still giving the nervous system a signal that something is changing.
A practice that only happens on good days does not shift the system. A practice that can happen on hard days often does.
The Yoga Therapy Approach to Seasonal Affective Disorder
In yoga therapy, the goal is not to force happiness. It is to support regulation.
That begins with timing. Morning practices tend to be gently energizing, because the system needs help mobilizing and differentiating day from night. Movement is often rhythmic and repetitive, because rhythm supports autonomic flexibility and makes initiation easier. Breathwork is selected carefully, because breath can increase energy or settle agitation depending on how it is done. Meditation is chosen with cognitive symptoms in mind, not as an instruction to sit still and be calm.
The work is progressive. Early winter and deep winter often require practices that counter inertia without demanding high output. As energy returns, practices can shift toward resilience, stress regulation, and relapse prevention. If anxiety emerges as depression lifts, practices can downshift arousal and support autonomic balance.
This approach is informed by both science and seasonal wisdom. It is also informed by respect for the reality of February.
A Note on Safety and Care
Yoga therapy is generally well tolerated, and large reviews of yoga interventions for depression report a strong safety profile. It is also adaptable, which is one reason it tends to be safe in clinical practice when guided by a trained yoga therapist.
At the same time, depression can be serious and life threatening. Yoga therapists do not replace mental health or medical providers, and yoga therapy should be part of an integrated care plan. If symptoms are severe, rapidly worsening, or include thoughts of self harm, immediate professional support matters.
February Can Be Tough. It Can Also Be Workable.
If winter has been flattening your energy, narrowing your world, and making everything feel harder, it is not because you are doing life wrong.
It is because your system is responding to a season that is biologically demanding.
Yoga therapy offers a way to meet that demand with precision and care. It brings together circadian support, nervous system regulation, inflammation informed pacing, and the wisdom of yoga. It helps you understand what is happening, and then gives you tools that are actually doable when motivation is low.
Small inputs, repeated consistently, can change the trajectory of a season.
Try a Free Yoga Therapy Practice for Winter Depression
To help you experience what this looks like in real time, we are offering a short, guided yoga therapy practice you can try at home.
This video includes gentle rhythmic movement, breath guidance, and a short grounding meditation designed specifically for low energy winter days. It is appropriate for beginners, can be done indoors, and does not require special equipment or a yoga background.
You can practice it in the morning or early afternoon, seated or lying down, and adjust the intensity to match your energy.
Fill out the form below to get emailed a link to a video practice!
"*" indicates required fields
If you find the practice helpful and want more individualized support, working one on one with a certified yoga therapist can help tailor these approaches to your specific symptoms, schedule, and needs.
At Yoga Therapy Associates, our certified yoga therapists provide private yoga therapy for Seasonal Affective Disorder along with many other health conditions. You can learn more about yoga therapy, book your intake, or schedule a confidential and complimentary phone consultation. We look forward to meeting you.
References
- Singh, B. et al. (2023). Effectiveness of physical activity interventions for improving depression, anxiety and distress: An overview of systematic reviews. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 57(18), 1203–1209. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2022-106195 ↩︎
- Lavebratt, C. et al. (2017). Interleukin-6 and depressive symptom severity in response to physical exercise. Psychiatry research, 252, 270–276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.03.012 ↩︎
- Kop, W. J. et al. (2010). Autonomic nervous system dysfunction and inflammation contribute to the increased cardiovascular mortality risk associated with depression. Psychosomatic medicine, 72(7), 626–635. https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0b013e3181eadd2b ↩︎
- Wu, Y., Yan, X., Jiang, Z., Yu, L., & Ye, J. (2023). Effectiveness of yoga for major depressive disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14, Article 1138205. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1138205 ↩︎
- Ting, E. Y. et al. (2020). Role of Interleukin-6 in Depressive Disorder. International journal of molecular sciences, 21(6), 2194. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21062194 ↩︎
- Nugent, N. R. et al. (2021). Benefits of Yoga on IL-6: Findings from a Randomized Controlled Trial of Yoga for Depression. Behavioral medicine (Washington, D.C.), 47(1), 21–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/08964289.2019.1604489 ↩︎
- Walsh, E., Eisenlohr-Moul, T., & Baer, R. (2016). Brief mindfulness training reduces salivary IL-6 and TNF-α in young women with depressive symptomatology. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 84(10), 887–897. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000122 ↩︎
- Bonelli, R. M., Dew, R. E., Koenig, H. G., Rosmarin, D. H., & Vasegh, S. (2012). Religious and spiritual factors in depression: Review and integration of the research. Depression Research and Treatment, 2012, Article 962860. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/962860 ↩︎
