Yoga offers many physical, emotional and mental benefits.
Across the United States more than an estimated 15million people practice yoga. This represents an amazing almost 7% of the population being involved in the most amazing way to unwind, relax and exercise.
Yoga offers many physical, emotional and mental benefits; and after all 15 million people can’t be wrong!
Of course the practice of yoga and the enjoyment of its associated benefits is far from being a new thing. It is believed that a form of yoga was practiced as far back as c 3300-1700 BC, but it was brought in its current form to the States in the 1950s.
A newer aspect to yoga is the application of it in the world of medicine as a complementary treatment.
Supporting in the world of medicine
Yoga focuses many things on the participant aligning their vertebrae and opening up the vertebral column. With improved alignments, improvements in flexibility and suppleness follow alongside the improvement in the muscle strength in surrounding areas. This can present great benefits to sufferers of a persistent bad back or neck and also with patients suffering from poor posture issues.
It focuses to a great extent on strengthening the core muscle group. As these core functionalities improve, (and your abs begin to peek through), internal systems such as the digestion and lymphatic systems also become more toned and better able to cope with the process of cleansing the body. Because of this improved cleansing process, blood cells become more oxygenated and the brain will be better stimulated. The outcome is that mental clarity is improved and when mentally you feel better you are far better equipped to deal with the challenges of treatment and your emotions.
Patients fighting all kinds of cancers are beginning to find the benefits of trying yoga. In conjunction with their medical treatment such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy, yoga has a recognized value in the support process. Its practice can help in the tackling of depression, easing the frustrations of insomnia and fatigue, as well as also targeting and in some cases reducing the degree of pain and nausea associated with the disease and its medical treatments.
The physical challenge of working a yoga session into a patient’s week of heavy hospital appointments can in itself be a challenge, but certainly a worthwhile one since attending a regular class gives a new social aspect to your life. Not everyone goes to yoga to make friends, though many do find it becomes an important area of their social agenda through time. For cancer fighters it can offer another form of support mechanism, by meeting new people and making friends and relationships may give you an avenue through which to share your experiences or fears in a safe environment.
Under development in Children
Yoga can present great supporting therapy for young people.
Yoga can present great supporting therapy for young people with a physically underdeveloped condition, for example children with Down’s Syndome.
Children with this condition generally have a delay in the development of their motor skills amongst other things. Motor skills are the very broad range of movements that children have and are obviously controlled by their muscles, which in their case are underdeveloped.
Fine motor skills refers to holding a pencil, turning the pages of a book or even wiggling their toes in their sandals.
Gross motor skills refers to the bigger movements of running and jumping. Not surprisingly, the under development of the relevant muscle groups can result in a very real delay in development, though usually a patient will develop these skills at an older age.
Through the practice of yoga, some of these improvements to motor skills can be accelerated.
Learning Disabilities
People with all kinds of learning disability will be likely to have certain limitations in their ability to think, store, process and recall facts and information, though of course the degree to which this is true will vary individual by individual. Not surprisingly, their learning disability may also impact their ability to read, write, speak, reason, or listen.
Yoga can be a very helpful tool for people with a learning disability because it can help them to ease their frustrations and develop skills. By simply enjoying yoga poses, they can fairly quickly begin feeling calm and improve their balance. In addition, the breathing techniques help with the nervous system, which in turn controls their immune system. It also helps the individual to work on their concentration skills and this mixed in with the feelings of relaxation, a development of body awareness, memory, and concentration can lead to a very fruitful session.
Whatever the condition, the prospect of providing an effective supporting role in the world of medicine is very exciting for the world of yoga. The messages about its positive value in so many wide reaching fields is a great opportunity and one which the world of yoga is very much ready to embrace.
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Jackie Francis is a freelance writer from England. She believes strongly in the power of Yoga to heal whether on issues as serious as how to help an alcoholic wife or simply to banish stress from your life.
