Yoga for chronic diseases is not a select few asanas but a holistic health-preserving lifestyle. It includes drinking lot of water; eating fresh healthy foods, including 8 to 10 daily servings of fruits and vegetables, eliminating white flour and sugar; exercising and sweating regularly; moving the bowels daily; taking high-quality vitamins and minerals; taking time to relax every day, with a positive attitude towards life that accepts the unchangeable, is full of gratitude and forgiveness.
All asanas help as they cleanse the energy channels off the toxins. The stressors of the present time life-style keep us on the ebb of our nervous system keeping the sympathetic nervous system on a high, which pumps the stress hormones. The effects can be balanced by the ‘ease and release’ mechanism governed by the parasympathetic nervous system, provided we give it a chance to take over.
Researches have shown that with a program of yoga, which had a mix of asanas, pranayama and relaxation, there was an increased activation of the parasympathetic nervous system (the calming side that made the practitioners feel better. Even a single session of yoga practice can encourage the nervous system to find flexibility and balance. After yoga practice, participants weren't just more relaxed; they were in a state of autonomic balance and flexibility driven by the parasympathetic—which is exactly the type of balance and flexibility that predicts greater resilience to stress and good health.
I believe that the key is yoga's dual effect on body and mind. As we learn to hold the poses with a calm mind, focusing on the breath, the poses become a training in how to remain calm in stressful situations.
The great sage, Patanjali, must have been aware of the power of asana when he wrote the sutra - Sthira sukham asanam: Postures should embody steadiness and ease. If you can find both elements in the midst of a posture, you're also training your mind. This happens during a yoga practice by focusing on the breathing and thoughts. You're enabling your nervous system to imprint that response of comfort and steadiness to return to it during everyday stress.
Letting go of all effort in Shavasana trains the practitioner to let go off the undesired in daily living, because the pose teaches the nervous system to let go once the challenges of our practice have been met.
Breath Management
An apple a day is all well and good, but 30 minutes minimum of daily mindful breathing and meditation might prove far more effective in keeping us healthy. With simple techniques of breath-management, we can attain better physical, emotional and psychological health. Breath-management helps our life energy to resume its internal healing activities, and streamlines our mind towards harmony and balance.
Breath is the bridge between the body and the mind. The way we breathe is an indicator of the level of emotional and physical well being that we are experiencing at that moment. Breath is the physical counterpart of the mind, hence breathing is also known as ‘mind in action’.
Whatever happens in the mind influences the breath. The rate and depth of our breath changes depending on our mental state. When we are excited the breath becomes quicker, and when we are calm and relaxed, it becomes quieter.
When the mental state has a strong influence on our breath, can we not work upon our breaths to influence the mind? Yes, we can voluntarily tackle our mind and our emotions through the breath and the life force that connects us all, and that is the science of pranayama. One uses the breath to manage the amount, flow and distribution of energy to both the body and the mind. If we can manage the breath, we can manage both the body and the mind As we breathe, so shall we live! Heal the breath and heal the body and the mind!
A simple sequence
We need to first cleanse the body and the mind of the toxins and waste products to create more room for prana, the vital energy we need, which then has to get properly redistributed to different parts. The pranayamic practice should thus follow this basic sequence:
1. Cleansing breaths: Kapalabhati, Bhastrika
2. Energizing breaths: Anuloma Viloma Nadi Shuddhi (alternate-nostril breathing), Ujjayi breathing
3. Balancing breaths: Bhramari (honey bee sound) and OM chanting
Beyond the protocol –
‘Attitude’ is the most important factor in healing incurable diseases. Many people actually want to remain unhappy, dissatisfied, sad, miserable and unhealthy. Their negative personality traits develop into a tendency to attract diseases. They then assume that healing is something done to them, and their job is just to go to a doctor, who will then heal them. It is true to a certain degree but it is not the whole story. Rather than just receive treatment passively, the individual has to play an active role in this journey towards health and that is where the entire science, art and philosophy of yoga comes to play.
Yoga just does not provide ways to burn through toxins and and escape from stress. It doesn't only offer stress-reduction techniques for anxious moments. It goes deeper, transforming how the mind and body intuitively respond to stress. Just as the body can learn a new standing posture that eventually becomes ingrained, so the mind can learn new thought patterns, and the nervous system can learn new ways of reacting to stress. This is the most important step to healing skin diseases. The result: When you roll up your mat and walk out the door, you can more skillfully take on whatever life brings. Yes, it takes a particular commitment to say “ I am the one who has to taps these resources. No one can do that for me.’
For more on this - read 'Power Pranayama' - Discover the healing potential of your breaths.
All asanas help as they cleanse the energy channels off the toxins. The stressors of the present time life-style keep us on the ebb of our nervous system keeping the sympathetic nervous system on a high, which pumps the stress hormones. The effects can be balanced by the ‘ease and release’ mechanism governed by the parasympathetic nervous system, provided we give it a chance to take over.
Researches have shown that with a program of yoga, which had a mix of asanas, pranayama and relaxation, there was an increased activation of the parasympathetic nervous system (the calming side that made the practitioners feel better. Even a single session of yoga practice can encourage the nervous system to find flexibility and balance. After yoga practice, participants weren't just more relaxed; they were in a state of autonomic balance and flexibility driven by the parasympathetic—which is exactly the type of balance and flexibility that predicts greater resilience to stress and good health.
I believe that the key is yoga's dual effect on body and mind. As we learn to hold the poses with a calm mind, focusing on the breath, the poses become a training in how to remain calm in stressful situations.
The great sage, Patanjali, must have been aware of the power of asana when he wrote the sutra - Sthira sukham asanam: Postures should embody steadiness and ease. If you can find both elements in the midst of a posture, you're also training your mind. This happens during a yoga practice by focusing on the breathing and thoughts. You're enabling your nervous system to imprint that response of comfort and steadiness to return to it during everyday stress.
Letting go of all effort in Shavasana trains the practitioner to let go off the undesired in daily living, because the pose teaches the nervous system to let go once the challenges of our practice have been met.
Breath Management
An apple a day is all well and good, but 30 minutes minimum of daily mindful breathing and meditation might prove far more effective in keeping us healthy. With simple techniques of breath-management, we can attain better physical, emotional and psychological health. Breath-management helps our life energy to resume its internal healing activities, and streamlines our mind towards harmony and balance.
Breath is the bridge between the body and the mind. The way we breathe is an indicator of the level of emotional and physical well being that we are experiencing at that moment. Breath is the physical counterpart of the mind, hence breathing is also known as ‘mind in action’.
Whatever happens in the mind influences the breath. The rate and depth of our breath changes depending on our mental state. When we are excited the breath becomes quicker, and when we are calm and relaxed, it becomes quieter.
When the mental state has a strong influence on our breath, can we not work upon our breaths to influence the mind? Yes, we can voluntarily tackle our mind and our emotions through the breath and the life force that connects us all, and that is the science of pranayama. One uses the breath to manage the amount, flow and distribution of energy to both the body and the mind. If we can manage the breath, we can manage both the body and the mind As we breathe, so shall we live! Heal the breath and heal the body and the mind!
A simple sequence
We need to first cleanse the body and the mind of the toxins and waste products to create more room for prana, the vital energy we need, which then has to get properly redistributed to different parts. The pranayamic practice should thus follow this basic sequence:
1. Cleansing breaths: Kapalabhati, Bhastrika
2. Energizing breaths: Anuloma Viloma Nadi Shuddhi (alternate-nostril breathing), Ujjayi breathing
3. Balancing breaths: Bhramari (honey bee sound) and OM chanting
Beyond the protocol –
‘Attitude’ is the most important factor in healing incurable diseases. Many people actually want to remain unhappy, dissatisfied, sad, miserable and unhealthy. Their negative personality traits develop into a tendency to attract diseases. They then assume that healing is something done to them, and their job is just to go to a doctor, who will then heal them. It is true to a certain degree but it is not the whole story. Rather than just receive treatment passively, the individual has to play an active role in this journey towards health and that is where the entire science, art and philosophy of yoga comes to play.
Yoga just does not provide ways to burn through toxins and and escape from stress. It doesn't only offer stress-reduction techniques for anxious moments. It goes deeper, transforming how the mind and body intuitively respond to stress. Just as the body can learn a new standing posture that eventually becomes ingrained, so the mind can learn new thought patterns, and the nervous system can learn new ways of reacting to stress. This is the most important step to healing skin diseases. The result: When you roll up your mat and walk out the door, you can more skillfully take on whatever life brings. Yes, it takes a particular commitment to say “ I am the one who has to taps these resources. No one can do that for me.’
For more on this - read 'Power Pranayama' - Discover the healing potential of your breaths.
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