yoga benefits

Scientists and medical doctors pursuing yoga-related research are focusing on its ability to help prevent, heal, or alleviate specific conditions, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, carpal tunnel syndrome, asthma, diabetes, and symptoms of menopause, and its benefits as a technique for relieving stress and coping with chronic conditions or disabilities. In fact, the NCCAM itself, identifying yoga as a therapy worth pursuing in the research arena, says that, “During the past 80 years, health professionals in India and the West have begun to investigate the therapeutic potential of yoga. To date, thousands of research studies have been undertaken and have shown that with the practice of yoga a person can, indeed, learn to control such physiologic parameters as blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory function, metabolic rate, skin resistance, brain waves, body temperature, and many other bodily functions.” Though it’s difficult to find most of these studies, some current, accessible research reports significant results for challenging medical conditions:

Asthma. At the Northern Colorado Allergy Asthma Clinic in Fort Collins, a controlled clinical study of university students (19 to 52 years old) with asthma concluded that yoga techniques seem beneficial as an adjunct to the medical management of asthma, according to the 1998 published abstract. Using a set of asanas, pranayama, and meditation, the yoga group practiced three times a week for 16 weeks. Though pulmonary functions did not show a significant variance between yoga and control groups, “analysis of the data showed that the subjects in the yoga group reported a significant degree of relaxation, positive attitude, and better yoga exercise tolerance. There was also a tendency toward lesser usage of beta adrenergic inhalers.”

Cardiovascular Risk Factors. A three-month residential study treating patients with yoga, meditation, and a vegetarian diet at Hanover Medical University in Germany found a substantial reduction in risk factors for heart disease (including blood pressure and cholesterol) in participants, according to an abstract published in Acta physiologica Scandinavica Supplementum in 1997.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. A randomized, single-blind, controlled clinical trial at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia concluded, “In this preliminary study, a yoga-based regimen was more effective than wrist splinting or no treatment in relieving some symptoms and signs of carpal tunnel syndrome.” The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1998, also noted that “Subjects in the yoga groups had significant improvement in grip strength and pain reduction, but changes in grip strength and pain were not significant for control subjects.”

Arthritis. Also at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, a yoga-treated group with osteoarthritis of the hands improved significantly more than the control group in “pain during activity, tenderness, and finger range of motion.” The randomized controlled clinical trial, published in the Journal of Rheumatology in 1994, concluded, “This yoga-derived program was effective in providing relief in hand osteoarthritis. Further studies are needed to compare this with other treatments and to examine long-term effects.”

adapted from Yoga Journal by Elaine Lipson

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be of service

Commit to one selfless act each week. You’ll be surprised at how even a simple act like offering your seat on a crowded bus can foster a sense of connection and a respect for the welfare of others. Bring a meal to a busy friend; babysit your neighbors’ kids; give a few hours to a community garden. These moments are a chance to share someone else;s experience of the world and see the richness of your own existence. “All yoga begins with karma yoga, which is action done as a service to others and as a form of worship of the divine,” writes David Frawley in Yoga: The Greater Tradition.

adapted from Yoga Journal by Charity Ferreira

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zen like rock

Bake bread, knit a cap, build a birdhouse, design your own thank-you notes. Creating something may feel like a small way of enriching the world, but making something with your hands can be an active meditation, an opportunity to take a break from conscious thought and allow yourself to freely engage with your creative side. “Like other contemplative practices, knitting opens space in the mind,” says Tara Jon Manning, author of Mindful Knitting. “By simply creating a quiet state of being, you begin to notice—notice your thoughts, notice your feelings, and notice the workings of your mind and experience.” Like the practice of yoga, creative acts are about the process, not the result; your sense of satisfaction when you pull on a warm hat you made yourself, mail a beautiful card to a friend, or bite into a sandwich on homemade bread is just an added benefit.

adapted from Yoga Journal by Charity Ferreira

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silence helps build awareness

Spend some time in silence. “Silence is one of the best ways of cultivating self-awareness,” Boccio says. “When you’re talking, you don’t realize how noisy your mind is. When you’re practicing silence, you’re trying to step back from your reactivity to your mind. That alone is a profound insight.”

Practicing silence can also be a way of conserving prana, or “life force.” “When you speak a lot, you are using up prana,” Boccio says. So unplug your iPod, hide your BlackBerry, and commit to a period of silence—as short as a 10-minute tea break or as luxurious as a whole day. Initially, being quiet can feel agitating, but simply notice your urge to speak or to take in other people’s words or ideas. See if you can appreciate all the ambient noises: the sounds of birds, wind in the trees, the movements of other people, even traffic. Soon, you’ll likely find the respite from speech to be deeply restful. “After a period of silence, my students find that they are more alert and even need less sleep,” Boccio says.

adapted from Yoga Journal by Charity Ferreira

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quiet yoga poses

As an antidote to striving for success in all that you do (including asana), devote one practice a week to poses that quiet, nourish, and center. Begin your restorative practice by sitting quietly for a few moments and connecting with your breath. Next, warm up with movement that gently stretches your muscles, such as Cat-Cow Pose and Happy Baby Pose. Move into postures like Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclining Bound Angle Pose), Supta Padangusthasana (Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose), and Viparita Karani (Legs-up-the-Wall Pose), followed by an extended Savasana (Corpse Pose). If doing a restorative practice on your own sounds daunting, try a restorative class. Sunday evening is a good time for a restorative practice, helping you to wind down from the previous week and emerge revitalized for the week that’s about to begin. Over time, a regular restorative practice will offer you a depth of self-awareness that’s hard to come by any other way.

adapted from Yoga Journal by Charity Ferreira

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awareness

To radically shift your outlook, break out of your regular routine. Go a different way to work, try a new food, take a class from a yoga teacher you’ve never studied with before. Then notice how one seemingly simple change affects the way everything else appears to you. “Our whole world is basically what we perceive,” says Frank Jude Boccio, a meditation teacher and the author of Mindfulness Yoga. “The opening verse of the Dharmapada—an anthology of quotes attributed to the Buddha—says, ‘We create the world with our thoughts and our perceptions.’ This means that the only thing we know about this world we are living in is how we perceive it.”

To show how changeable our perceptions are, Boccio directs his students to visit a store and try on a hat that they would describe as “not me,” then notice how wearing it changes the way they feel. “Even without looking in the mirror, just having the hat on changes your perception of your reality in that moment,” Boccio says. Changing your perspective, whether it’s as dramatic as taking a trip to another country or as mundane as taking a different seat at your dining table, can make you more aware of how conditioned your perceptions are. This awareness can soften your attachment to your perceptions, says Boccio, and open your heart to change. “Seeing the conditioning of perceptions is an essential aspect of the yogic path of liberation,” he says.

adapted from Yoga Journal by By Charity Ferreira

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joy and happiness

If you live your life as though there is a fixed amount of happiness in the world, it’s easy to fall into an embittered, resentful state of competition with others. But happiness isn’t a limited commodity that has to be rationed or hoarded. There’s no chance that someone will get the last of it. Happiness, like love, increases when it is shared. When you feel truly happy for others, your own happiness increases, along with, as Patanjali reminds us, your peace of mind. What’s more, when you share happiness or love with all sentient beings, by the very nature of your own sentience, you are included! Cultivating mudita is a way of gaining a truer understanding of the interconnectedness of all beings, and it allows you to increase your own joy, exponentially. 

adapted from Yoga Journal by Frank Jude Boccio

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joy

The formal practice of mudita bhavana (cultivating joy) from the Buddhist yoga tradition celebrates the happiness of all beings, yourself included! In fact, through your growing insight into the interdependent nature of the world, you see that the happiness of others is indeed your happiness. Begin by recalling your own innate goodness. Bring to mind a time when you said or did something that was kind, generous, caring, or loving. Then begin to offer yourself these appreciative and encouraging phrases.

May I learn to appreciate the 
happiness and joy I experience.

May the joy I experience 
continue and grow.

May I be filled with joy and gratitude.

adapted from Yoga Journal by Frank Jude Boccio

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meditation practice

Experiences and sensations don’t necessarily have to be positive in order to bring us joy; neutral experiences, too, can help grow more joy. Thich Nhat Hanh uses the example of the “non-toothache.” When you last had a toothache, you knew for sure that it was unpleasant and that to not have a toothache would be pleasant. But now, you overlook the joy of the nontoothache, because it is neutral. By bringing your attention to the fact that your teeth do not hurt (or indeed, to any part of you that doesn’t hurt!), you may feel a gentle smile of appreciation arise. With this kind of mindfulness, you have access to a new category of experiences that can nourish greater joy.

adapted from Yoga Journal by Frank Jude Boccio

Bamboo Chime Clock for a Gentle Awakening

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