What is Therapeutic Yoga?
Yoga is a 5,000-year-old ancient science classified by the National Institutes of Health as one of the most integrative and effective Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM).
- Is the adaptation of yoga movement, breathing, and meditation, for people with different health conditions.
- The goal of Yoga Therapy includes working with pain, preventing, reducing, managing, and alleviating physiological, psychological, and emotional pain.
- The practice is tailored to individual needs and enables the individual to take initiative and action and has an active role in gaining back his health.
- As a result, a greater sense of autonomy is attained.
Yoga Therapy is a holistic model of health and healing and everyone can benefit from it through sustained practice. It offers the most effective methods and techniques of managing stress, anxiety, depression, chronic pain, insomnia, fibromyalgia, heart conditions, arthritis, respiratory conditions, addiction, the nervous system, and many more.
Medical research shows that Yoga Therapy is among the most effective complementary therapies for several common ailments. It was found that having a daily yoga routine can prevent, restore, and maintain his/her health, inner peace, and well-being through the practice.
YOGA THERAPY BENEFITS:
Regular Yoga practice improves respiratory and cardiovascular function, and the nervous system, reduces stress, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain, improves sleep patterns, restores hormonal balance, promotes recovery from and treatment of addiction, muscular strength and body flexibility, joint health, and improves overall well-being and quality of life.
STRESS AND ANXIETY: calms your breath and improves heart rate, decreases blood pressure, lowers cortisol levels, and increases blood flow to the intestines and vital organs, keeping you focused on the present.
DEPRESSION: A number of studies demonstrate the potential beneficial effects of yoga on depression. Consistent yoga practice leads to significant increases in serotonin levels coupled with decreases in the levels of monoamine oxidase, an enzyme that breaks down neurotransmitters and cortisol.
REDUCED PAIN IN PEOPLE WITH ARTHRITIS: Reduce pain, lower stress, increase flexibility, improve sleep, build strength, and coordinate your body in space with more awareness; improve range of motion in your joints. Gentle yoga movement releases the discomfort of tender, swollen joints and improves blood circulation into those areas. Breathing increases blood flow and warms up the muscles.
REDUCES THE RISKS FOR HEART ATTACK: increases blood flow and levels of hemoglobin and red blood cells which allows for more oxygen to reach the body cells; thins the blood which can decrease the risk of heart attack and stroke; lowers the resting heart rate, increases endurance, and can improve the maximum uptake and utilization of oxygen during exercise.
CANCER: Yoga can produce an invigorating effect on mental and physical energy and reduces fatigue; cultivates a healthy sense of acceptance, tension is released, energy flows more readily throughout the body, and allows patients to experience a sense of increased well-being. Yoga increases physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness, and brings about a certain peace, of which many cancer patients desire. Breathing exercises and meditation can reduce stress, promote healing, and enhance the quality of life for patients with cancer.
BENEFITS FOR THE NERVOUS SYSTEM: provides relief from excess stimulation and the stressors and hectic nature of modern life. Restorative postures, relaxation, and breathing techniques encourage a turning inward of the senses which enables downtime for the nervous system, the byproduct often being improved sleep, more energy, and less stress.
CHRONIC PAIN: Numerous studies show that movement, meditation, or a combination of the two can reduce pain and disability while improving flexibility and functional mobility in people with a number of conditions causing chronic pain experienced significantly lower levels of pain and fatigue, and higher levels of invigoration, acceptance, and relaxation following participation in a yoga intervention.
ADDICTION: Yoga and meditation practices exert a positive influence on addictive behaviors. Through the practice of yoga, you will learn to love your body, care, and nourish.
SCIATICA: strengthens muscles to support the spine, and brings flexibility to your hamstrings which plays a major role in relieving sciatica pain. Helps strengthen, align, and stretch the muscles around your lower back, hips, and pelvis. Relieves contracted muscles and myofascial trigger points, hyper-constriction in the affected muscles, and is restoring proper biomechanics to the body and flexibility to the tissues. Cultivates body awareness and helps you to give proper attention to your body. Leads to a greater state of self-awareness, body awareness, and breath-awareness.
FIBROMYALGIA: gentle restorative movements, breathing, and meditation help you to relax the tight muscles and joints, release mental tension, stress, and depression, build confidence and self-esteem.
ASTHMA, BRONCHITIS, ALLERGIES, COPD, SLEEP APNEA: You will experience significant improvement in the peak expiratory flow rate, improved quality of life, asthma improved symptom score, better control of asthma, decreased number of day and night attacks, and use of drugs. The energy level will increase, emotional release, eliminating overwhelming feelings related to Asthma attacks. This practice will make you more aware of your habits, routines, and how you react to certain situations will help you to develop peace and harmony, stay positive, and believe in yourself.
Yoga therapy practice has to be done under the proper guidance of a certified Yoga Therapist.