Yoga Therapy as a Whole-Person Approach to Health by Lee Majewski

Author:Lee Majewski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Published: 2020-05-21T00:00:00+00:00

Yoga therapy

This is where yoga therapy shines and can be a great help for anyone dealing with emotional tension, fear, often anger, and high levels of stress brought on by the prolonged process of diagnosis and uncertain future prospects.

A skillfully conducted asana class can also become a meditative practice. It will bring relief to the tensed body and frightened, busy mind.

Connecting to your breath and slowing it down will also slow thoughts running here and there.3 It may help with sleep patterns, which are often disrupted at such times.

There are pranayama (breathing) techniques, which are distinctively for activating our parasympathetic nervous system (relaxation of all body systems) and calming down the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight mode). The ability to manage our autonomic nervous system to a certain degree is perhaps one of the most important gifts that yoga therapy can give to us. According to traditional medicine, this is something we have no control over. And yet, a body of research4, 5, 6 confirms that by using yogic techniques skillfully on a daily basis, we are actually able to influence the balance of our autonomic nervous system.

Techniques like guided meditation, yoga nidra, and chanting have a deep healing impact on all levels of human existence. Research7, 8, 9 shows that by using yogic techniques over time, we can change our brains on physical and functional levels. We can become calm and collected while standing in the eye of the storm.

A few sessions with a yoga therapist will hopefully result in building a daily yoga practice geared specifically to help us deal with the great challenges we meet at the beginning of the journey.

We often need to make decisions with very little information. These decisions are difficult to make in the first place, and a lot of conflicting pressures from family, friends, and doctors only adds to stress levels.

But throughout the diagnosis process we can use yoga therapy tools to bring us internally to the place from where we can act in a rational and calm way to choose the best option possible, despite our anxiety, fear, and confusion.

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