Yoga Can Be a Help for Chronic Pain
So what is Yoga? That is a tough question to answer as yoga can accomplish different goals for each individual. A basic definintion of yoga might be, a system of developing the mind and body using natural methods. Using these natural methods Yoga helps to improve the person's confidence, discipline, and fitness, which will leave them as a more contented individual. There are literaly thousands of different asanas, (positons or techniques) and the proper ones for each person must be determined on an individual basis with the help of a trained instructor. You will find there are yoga positions for beginners, to more advanced techniques for the masters of yoga. Retreats dedicated soley to yoga can be found just about anywhere in the world. As you do your research into yoga you will find information about clothes for yoga, yoga books, yoga mats, yoga videos, and the list goes on.
Yoga Can Be a Help for Chronic PainYoga practices and Yoga teachers can help you deal with chronic pain. Chronic pain can be an irritating situation that can keep you from living life to the fullest. You can learn to relieve the feeling of chronic pain and relieve it if not erase it. The first step is to start taking full, deep breaths. When you are in pain, your breath tends to be shallow and you don’t fully inhale and breathe out. By not breathing out properly, the toxins that would normally be released from your body are not able to escape. The lungs keep the stale air and toxin residues build up. Chronic pain also tens to make your muscles cold and then with restricted oxygen, they suffer from poor circulation. When you are practicing deep breathing Yoga routines your lungs work harder, it moves the diaphragm, the back and abdominal muscles. This in turn creates heat in the core of your body. This heat is an aid to healing and controlling severe pain. Another results of controlled breathing is that it has a calming effect on your emotions. Fear and anxiety are reduced and in turn, you feel safer, more at ease with your body, and more relaxed physically. Deep breathing also helps with tension that collect near the part of the body you are having pain. This extra tension will make the pain worse. The second step in controlling chronic pain is changing your mental attitude toward the part of your body that is in pain. How do you feel mentally toward the part of your body that is in pain? Some attitudes associated with chronic pain are anger, despair, depression, and helplessness and this is just a few of the feelings you might experience. We deny that part of our body and by doing that refuse to give that body part the love and attention it deserves and needs to heal. Lying on the floor in a comfortable relaxed position is a restful posture. Place your hand over the part of the body that is in pain. Direct your thoughts and energy to that part of your body. Putting hands on the part of the body that is hurting is soothing and sends it the message that you care about it. By laying hands on the hurting part, it sends heat and fluids to it and creates and overall feeling of happiness and healthiness. Think and concentrate on your breathing, send it to the part of the body that needs healed. Concentrate on the part that hurts, placing your hands on that part is comforting and soothing to the painful area. Some religions pray and lay hands on the person as they pray for healing. Hands are comforting, and the warmth of many hands touching your body can be a huge influence in your pain and give you a step up toward your healing. Don’t allow yourself to be a victim of chronic pain. By practicing gentle Yoga stretches and deep breathing exercises, you can learn to control and even erase your pain. Yoga is not without it's Christian criticsMany in the Christian circles are dead set against the practice of yoga, citing the Hindu background of yoga and claiming that the practices of yoga are designed to have the practioner become one with other gods. It is considered to be another facet of the new age movement by many Christians. Christians hold to one God in three "persons" (The Trinity) Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to give recognition to another so called god is considered to be blasphemy. There have been attempts to create what is being called "Christian Yoga" but even this is being opposed in many circles. Better Your Health will be doing further research into this matter, and by signing up for our newsletter, you will be notified as soon as the material is availiable.
We at Better Your Health hope you have found this article to be very helpful in your research into Yoga. Please feel free to check out the many other articles we have on this site about Yoga. Click here to add this page to your favorites. Be sure to check out Better Your Health for more Health Related Topics. |
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