Therapeutic yoga
Therapeutic yoga is a branch of yoga which uses specific yogic techniques for the treatment of people with specific mental and physical conditions. Therapeutic yoga has been in practice in India for thousands of years. Yoga therapy is the application of yogic techniques such as kriyas, asanas, pranayamas, bandhas, mudras and meditation along with proper food habits, good lifestyle, regular sleeping habits and right mental attitude. It helps in achieving physiological, psychological and spiritual health.
Yoga lays great stress on the following aspects.
- Cultivation of correct psychological attitude.
- Reconditioning of the neuro-muscular and neuro-glandular system,- in fact, the whole body to enable it to withstand greater stress and strain, and at the same time.
- Laying great emphasis on health giving diet and encouraging the natural processes of elimination, whenever it is necessary, by resorting to special lavages and cleaning.
The autonomic nervous system is divided into the sympathetic system, which is often identified with the fight-or-flight response, and the parasympathetic, which is identified with what's been called the relaxation response. When you do yoga - the deep breathing, the stretching, the movements that release muscle tension, the relaxed focus is on the body - you initiate a process that turns the fight or flight system off and the relaxation response on. This has a dramatic effect on the body. The heartbeat slows, respiration decreases and the blood pressure decreases. The body seizes this chance to turn on the healing mechanisms.
We need to be protected from the imbalances created within ourselves due to lack of adjustment with the environment and result of the way we live. Yoga shows a way through the integrated practices to not only protect but also to fortify ourselves. The channels through which the results are brought about and mechanisms involved are stretch reflexes, control of autonomic responses and modification of higher nervous controls.
Yogic practices help to increase the power of adjustment which is normally expressed in terms of resistance, both physical and mental. We normally tend to blame different bacteria and viruses for our illness, but to a large extent we can control it by the way we live. Of course, we live in the world of bacteria and other micro organisms. But each has some purpose in ecology and balance of life for us as well as other forms of life. Yoga teaches the art of living in harmony with other forms of life. Yoga helps us to be protected from the imbalances created within ourselves.
Patanjali´s word for physical perfection is Kayasampat (body fitness). His theory states that any degree of perfection can be achieved for the body if the five Bhutas (elements) of which the body is composed of are concentrated upon. Patanjali suggests that mind trained to concentrate on subtlest entities is the one instrument with which all diseases can be conquered and a state of ideal health attained.