  |
12-A W.
Aylesbury Rd., |
||||
|
Home | Class Schedule | Event Calendar | ||
| ||||||||||||
 Promote Your Page Too
|
by Debbie Grossblatt Introduction to Yoga TherapeuticsGreetings! Since this is my first article about this subject, I would like to introduce myself. I have been a student of yoga for seven years and a teacher for three. My training, from the school of Integrative Yoga Therapy (IYT), was conducted at the Kripalu Center, a major center for yoga teacher training located in Lenox, Massachusetts. Joseph Le Page, the founder of this school, defines yoga therapy (therapeutics) as follows: “The application of yoga in the field of health and healing was termed yoga therapy. This arose out of a focus by numerous schools (in India) that focused on those aspects of yoga related to health and its relation to various fields of science.” The concept of applying yoga for health and healing has spawned an extensive menu of classes such as yoga for: MS, osteoporosis, bad backs, stress reduction, cardiac care, cancer, and for numerous other special needs populations. Yoga is a 5,000 year-old science of breath (pranayama) and postures (asanas) that was used by ancient people in the Indus Valley to prepare themselves for long periods of seated meditation. Yoga was recognized by these ancients as having the ability to prevent the chronic stiffness that comes from sitting in one position for hours at a time. As I sit in my chair typing, I like to think that what I am doing is similar to what those ancients were doing when they meditated. I too am sitting static, with my hands extended onto a keyboard, hitting thousands of keys to create words. So that my body can tolerate this uncomfortable activity, which places stress on my neck and spinal column, I know that I should do some yoga stretches during and after the writing process to allow my body to recover. My yogic data bank tells me that a series of simple stretches should help to release the tight muscles and lubricate the joints to prevent stiffening in the spine, hips, arms, neck and fingers. Using my knowledge about the primary asanas, I consider which ones would be the best to release the tightness in my spine, hands and neck since those are the places where I feel the most tension. The menu of asanas in yoga is extensive (84 primary postures and 840,000 possible natural bodily movements) so I choose a few postures to free the main areas of stress. First I stand up in Mountain posture, with feet hip width apart and toes forward, elongating my spine, drawing my leg muscles up and then letting them go, to ease my hip flexors and quadriceps. Then I side bend my neck gently to the right and then to the left, do some slow shoulder rolls front and back and lastly stretch my fingers and open my hands to their full extent. It’s that simple and oh so effective in releasing the stiffness and tension in the parts of my body that are most affected by sitting and typing. Lastly I remind myself to take a few deep diaphragmatic breaths and relax. It’s amazing how much better I feel. You can try this stretching series the next time you feel your body stiffening. Notice if this helps to reduce the tension. Now that you have a general idea, I would like to provide you with some interesting sites you may wish to visit to learn more about yoga therapeutics. Healthcentral.com (click on alternative and then click on yoga) OneBody.com (click on yoga) Yrec.org (Yoga Research and Education Center)
Namaste! Visit YogaVoices.com for additional information.
|
