Yoga as Therapy
As per World Health Organization, health is not a mere absence of disease. It is a positive state of well being at physical, mental and emotional layers of our personality.
Objective of Yoga Therapy
Yoga has shown to have reduced hospital stay, improve quality of life and has enabled faster recovery for people who have suffered major episodes of illness such as heart attack, stroke, neurological disorders, cancer, etc. Yoga, recognized as mind-body intervention, is shown to have been useful in rehabilitation to:
• Enhance general well being-thus preventing clinical episodes that require medical attention
• Improve physical health – in terms of strength; flexibility; endurance; coordinated movements; gait and balance. [Thus would prevent falls in the elderly]
• Improve cardio-respiratory functions in changed circumstances
• Increase immune responses and reduced episodes of infection
• Induce cortical plasticity to facilitate alternative functions as a compensatory effect
• Preserve and Enhance cognitive functions [thus preserve/facilitate speech; memory and learning]
• Cope with disease/age related stress/anxiety and thus reduce negative symptoms and increase positive emotions
• Resume active daily living
• Empower the individual to engage in vocations that suit altered lifestyle by virtue of changes circumstances
• Add years to life and life to years by enhancing quality of life
Holistic Yoga Therapy
Our holistic yoga practice is a technique that includes breath and body movement synchronization, loosening and strengthening practices, asana or body postures, pranayama (breath control), relaxation techniques and meditation techniques with optional simple sounds to enhance awareness. Any one or all of them can be practiced with awareness to reach the yogic state of bliss – happiness.
Integrated Approach to Yoga as Therapy is a technique used by Yoga Bharati USA, in affiliation with Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation (SVYASA), Bangalore, India to help people with various ailments such as back pain, asthma, diabetes, hypertension, anxiety/depression and arthritis to mention a few.
Stress is not the unfavorable situations we meet, but our reaction to the situations. Yoga can help us respond to the situations without getting stressed. A range of practices involving stimulation and relaxation as a theme for the well being of different layers of human faculty such as physical, pranic (vital), emotional and intellectual levels of personality.
SVYASA has conducted research for the last 25 years on yoga’s effectiveness in addressing various ailments and has published more than 150 research papers in various medical and alternative therapy related journals, most of them peer reviewed and pubmed indexed.
Healing through Happiness
Yoga is a conscious process of going back to our own nature, which is simply a blissful state of being. According to yogic psychology, happiness is not in the objects outside, but it is about contentment with what we have. Yoga helps us to get in touch with our inner being and teaches us to be in the moment. Being happy enhances our creativity and productivity. Yoga also helps us understand that we have choices in life – a choice to be happy, in spite of adverse circumstances. When we understand and realize this aspect of life, we develop positive outlook, clarity of thoughts and we are able to handle situations better. When one is in a happy state, diseases are accepted, tolerated and managed better and then the healing begins. This is yoga’s way of addressing ailments in a holistic way.