Yoga

Here's why I love yoga.  Like practicing music, you never get to the end of making it better.  Every Triangle, you can try to twist more, breathe more deeply, reach farther.   And if you run out of ideas for making a posture better, you can always look in your yoga book for fun instructions like "Hit back the inner calf", try to figure out what it means and then do that.

I also love how certain postures produce certain states of mind.  (All good states of mind, too--there are no postures that foster jealousy or anger or despair, although some people are prone to tears during their yoga workouts.)  Sitting in a Lotus, I really do feel calm and holy and connected, just like the pictures of Buddha.  A few intense sitting postures, and I lose all ambition and become almost alarmingly blissed-out.  Standing postures make me feel like I can do anything.

My 87 year old mother took a gentle yoga class for several years.  "When I come out of that class," she said once, "I feel like the most beautiful woman in the world."  

I doubt there's an antidepressant in the world that could match that.