What is Yoga Therapy?
Yoga therapy aims to heal the body of any physical, mental, emotional by identifying the root of a dysfunction and practicing a set of techniques (asana, pranayama, meditation or relaxation techniques) intended to address the problem. It seems obvious to yoga teachers that people who suffer from problems ranging from persistent lower back pain to depression have been flocking to our classes in an attempt to alleviate their symptoms.
For example, a person suffering from intense lower back pain as a result of a ruptured disc might see a physical therapist and come away with some exercises that help stretch the back and correct any misalignment. Similarly, someone who sees a yoga therapist for the same problem will likely come away with a series of yoga techniques to practice in order to accomplish the same purpose of stretching the back and correcting the body’s bad habits. The difference is that physical therapy is truly focused on the physical, whereas yoga therapy works holistically to address the health of entire person on all levels of existence. In turn, student become more aware of methods to reduce or prevent pain.This self-awareness is also a reason that people with psychosomatic ailments like depression or anxiety try yoga. Not only are there physical and hormonal benefits derived from the exercise part of yoga, but achieving personal balance and more complete awareness can lead to the improvement of problems rooted in the psyche as well as the body.
Due to the fact that power yoga is a physical challenge, the answer to whether it can be used as therapy depends on the problem as well as the approach of the instructor or therapist. Many therapists prefer to work through poses at a slower pace to allow for more concentrated effort on each pose, but some advocate power yoga for certain cases. Clearly, because of the individualized nature of yoga therapy, power yoga can also be used as a form therapy, or adjunct therapy, for mental and emotional balance. However, it is not always the preferred school of yoga for cases where students have physical ailments.
Yoga With Swami Ram Dev
"I have brought to you a package of seven simple breathing exercises," Swami Ramdev " announcs. "these are enough to tackle all diseases". "The healthy can practise for two hours daily while the sick will have to put in more efforts". He urged the people to be moderate in their attempts and not over exert. He asked them to reduce medication as their health improved and not to stop medications all of a sudden. He also prescribed some simple stretching exercises to exercise the whole body."Do not go in for medication," was his constant refrain. "Whether it is allopathy, ayurveda or homeopathy, medicines should be the last resort if you wish for permanent relief. You cannot achieve good health without some physical effort on your part. Even those taking medicines should continue with the exercises. We are all being constantly bombarded with pollutants; without detoxification by way of deep breathing you cannot stay healthy"."It is breath that keeps you alive. Nobody has died while breathing. Life and death is in God's hands but let us not hasten our end by neglecting the breath. The breathing exercises provide oxygen to the cells, rejuvenate them, and takes away toxic waste. It regulates, digestion, assimilation and elimination. My brothers, take deep breaths, follow my advice of healthy food, high thoughts and a simple life to be happy and lead a productive, patriotic, altruistic life. Poverty is not the absence of wealth, it is the absence of humane qualities, lack of manly abilities, and the absence of the desire to serve humanity."
"These breathing exercises will clean you at all levels. Disease will fall off and also your bad habits and passions. Good thoughts will replace your destructive tendencies. Patriotism and social skills will improve. Your ability to work hard will improve. All sloth will go, your body and minds will feel light, you will be filled with energy and become model citizen. But my brothers you have to practise what I tell you. It will not do if you just sing my paens and crowd around me for blessings. Baba Ramdev does not cure anyone, pranayam does. I am not here to preach, my yoga is not oratorial, it is practical. Do the yoga and feel the benefits."What are these seven breathing exercises?
1. Bhastrika - Take deep breath and release. Do it effortlessly, fill up your lungs and force the entire breath out. Do it with a rhythm. Imagine that all the energy of the Cosmos is entering into you. Feel that all your poisons are being expelled. Do it for 5 minutes if you are relatively healthy. Repeat for another five minutes if you are ailing, but gradually as you get accustomed. Bhastrika is very important for all kinds of skin problems, however serious and howeve strange. Not only leucoderma but also people suffering discoloration due to burns have benefitted from sincerely practising this pranayama everyday. Its is benifit for health to take exercise daily to keep healthy and sharp body in your mind also be healthy.
2. Kapalbhati - Take in air into your stomach and push it out with a jerk. Only your stomach should move and not your body. Your outbreath should cause the adams apple to move as it pushes through the throat. Normally one should do this for fifteen minutes, five minutes each three times. People with cancers and other chronic diseases should do this twice a day totalling 30 minutes. Swamiji places a great importance on this pranayam which he says will help diabetes, regenerate insulin producing beta cells and also help the organs in the stomach, the lungs and the heart. It will open blocked arterie in the heart.
3. Bahya Pranayam - Take a deep breath and release. Completely push the stomach in as you force the breath out and hold. Move you head downwards till the chin is fully in touch with the upper portion of the torso. Hold this position for 15 seconds and then move the head up as you breathe in. This is to be repeated five to 11 times.
4. Agnisar - Take a deep breath, pull the stomach in as you breathe out. Now hold the breathe as you move the stomach in and out in a rhythmic fashion for 15 seconds. Then breathe in again. Repeat this three to five times. This helps a lot with the digestive and eliminative process.
5. Anulom Bilom - Another very important pranayam. Sit straight, close the right nostril with your thumb. Place the forefinger on the forehead, then breathe in deeply with the left nostril. Now close the left nostril with the third and fourth fingers joined together and breathe out through the right nostril. Take a deep breath again through the right nostril, close it with the thumb, release the left nostril and breathe out. This is one cycle. Repeat this cycle continuously for five minutes. In total do it for fifteen minutes five minutes at a time three times.This pranayam recharges the entire body, opens all closed apperatures, sets right the entire flow of energy within the body and activates the chakras.
6. Bhramari - Close the ears with your thumbs, with the second third and fourth fingers close the eyes, rest the first finger on the forehead, keep the mouth closed. Now take a deep breath. Release the breath through the nose while making a loud humming noise with the throat. The noise should reverbate through the entire body. Repeat the exercise five to 11 times. You will quite enjoy this pranayam which will relax you and activate all the glands of the head.
7. Udgeeth - This is also a very enjoyable pranayam. Take a deep breath and release the breath through the mouth making the sound "Om". Repeat this five to 11 times. This puts you in touch with the divine element within you.
"Finish the pranayam exercises with a short contemplative meditation. Thank your Guru and God. Request the divine for a healthy, productive life. Then raise your hands, rub the palms to generate some heat and then place your palms on the face as slightly massage your face. This is the package of the seven pranayams.""Do this daily. Take care to see you do not overexert yourself in any manner. Do it according to capacity but follow the minimum routine to get the benefits.
These pranayams are a talisman that will help you and besides ensuring a disease free life will lead you towards the ultimate goal of life, samadhi or merger with the divine. While you do your aerobic exercises with loud western music do you pranayams interspersed with thoughts of the divine and prayers on your lips."The Swami also suggested some simple stretching exercises and proposed some yoga asanas, namely, vajrasana, makarasana, bhungasana, naukasana, utthanpadasana, jogging standing at one place etc, to exercise the spine and keep it flexible and also to reduce flab. The pranayams and the exercises, noted the reporter, did not result in any tiredness or weariness rather they left one fresh and energised. The Swami also pointed this out as a measure to know whether one was doing them correctly. He also taught and demonostrated the Surya Namaskar.
He said people from three years to 90 years all could do the pranayam. Children should perform the Bhastrika, Bhramari and Udgeeth for two minutes, the Kapalbhati and Anulom Bilom for five minutes. Bahya Pranayam and Agnisar also for two minutes. He showed many intricate exercises for the children to perform.He urged all children to master yoga as their bodies were supple and they could easily master the science. He also asked them to respect parents and elders, stay away from bad habits, burgers, pizzas, noodles and colas. He urged all to become vegetarians. "Children, honour the simple lintels, roti and vegetable dishes your parents serve at home. Do your studies instead of watching dirty programmes on TV. Go to temples instead of parties."
"Life starts with pranayama, the child is made to cry and perform the first pranayam, bhastrika, as it takes a deep breath and starts crying. This ensures blood flow to the brain as well as oxygen. The nervous system and the brain depends on oxygen for optimum performance. It is pranayam that ensures adequate oxygen supply.""Within nine days of practising pranayama the biochemistry of the body begins to change. In nine months of sincere practice the genetic element changes for the better. This is similar to the way a child gets a shape in nine days and the complete body in nine months. Pranayam gives a completely transformed body mind complex. It gives a person a new life."
The Swamy urged the people to educate themselves about the health benefits of various vegetables, herbs and spices. That way one could have the benefits of ayurveda and make it an integral part of ones life. The people should not hanker after neither the doctor nor medicines, but by learning yoga, pranayama, and the preventive aspects of ayurveda one should take charge of ones own health and life. It is only under extraordinary circumstances that one should go to a doctor and take medicines of any kind."The body has within it the capability of healing itself. Learn meditation, accupressure, and such other natural methods so that you yourself can be your own guide. The system has made you dependant and unsure of yourself. The perverted medical system has made you a slave to further its own interests. Break free and be independant once again."
"The system wants you to be a swechchachari, a debauch, so that it can have you in its clutches. If you can control your food, thoughts and passions, you will realise your own worth and the truth will be revealed to you. Whatever you do, how you live your life, how you behave towards others, determines your destiny. All this is in your hands, nobody can do this for you. Wake up from your sloth and sleep and make your own destiny. Do not be afraid of troubles for if you live a good, devoted life, you will get the strength to overcome all obstacles, the world will be at your feet. If all Indians take up pranayama in earnest we will soon have a happy, healthy and transparent India. That is what I am aiming for.""It is the breath, the gift of God, that is the ultimate medicine. It is the perfect nano medicine. It reaches all corners of the body and cures all ailments. It is the ultimate detoxifier and also the ultimate regenerator as with the breath comes prana, the vital force. This prana takes care of the body, the mind, the emotions, the five elements and also the five bodies that make up our presence in this world. It is a great force, a great teacher, a great guide. One who has control over prana can control anything and everything."
At the camp people narrated on camera how they had benefitted from pranayama and helped control obesity, diabetes, nervous disorders, skin problems, various forms of cancers, brain tumours, eye problems, urticaria, fibroma's, muscular dystrophies etc.The Swami also narrated how he had met patients with some very rare and strange diseases and helped them with diet, changed lifestyle, yoga and pranayama. "I don't do anything. It is pranayama that cures people.""It is only those who do not know about yoga who speak against its merits," countered Swami Ramdev, " but when they start practicing and derive benefits they then start singing its praise. I do not blame anybody. People speak according to what they are taught. The medical community should learn that disease management is not the last thing they should aim for. Cures are possible and they are happening. If something can be destroyed it can again be regenerated. Our scriptures have spoken in depth about these things."
Increase Height Through Yoga - in few months, this is a big benefit to increase your height few inches feat with Height Growth.Yoga increases the physical power but also the elegance and beauty of the face. Yogic practice carries beauty of shape, graceful carriage, harmonious voice, glowing face and delightful smile. If practiced habitually, Yoga asana help men and women to obtain a body that improve their good looks and give them flexibility.
Yoga therapy aims to heal the body of any physical, mental, emotional by identifying the root of a dysfunction and practicing a set of techniques (asana, pranayama, meditation or relaxation techniques) intended to address the problem. It seems obvious to yoga teachers that people who suffer from problems ranging from persistent lower back pain to depression have been flocking to our classes in an attempt to alleviate their symptoms.
For example, a person suffering from intense lower back pain as a result of a ruptured disc might see a physical therapist and come away with some exercises that help stretch the back and correct any misalignment. Similarly, someone who sees a yoga therapist for the same problem will likely come away with a series of yoga techniques to practice in order to accomplish the same purpose of stretching the back and correcting the body’s bad habits. The difference is that physical therapy is truly focused on the physical, whereas yoga therapy works holistically to address the health of entire person on all levels of existence. In turn, student become more aware of methods to reduce or prevent pain.This self-awareness is also a reason that people with psychosomatic ailments like depression or anxiety try yoga. Not only are there physical and hormonal benefits derived from the exercise part of yoga, but achieving personal balance and more complete awareness can lead to the improvement of problems rooted in the psyche as well as the body.
Can Power Yoga be Practiced as Therapy?
Due to the fact that power yoga is a physical challenge, the answer to whether it can be used as therapy depends on the problem as well as the approach of the instructor or therapist. Many therapists prefer to work through poses at a slower pace to allow for more concentrated effort on each pose, but some advocate power yoga for certain cases. Clearly, because of the individualized nature of yoga therapy, power yoga can also be used as a form therapy, or adjunct therapy, for mental and emotional balance. However, it is not always the preferred school of yoga for cases where students have physical ailments.
Yoga With Swami Ram Dev
"I have brought to you a package of seven simple breathing exercises," Swami Ramdev " announcs. "these are enough to tackle all diseases". "The healthy can practise for two hours daily while the sick will have to put in more efforts". He urged the people to be moderate in their attempts and not over exert. He asked them to reduce medication as their health improved and not to stop medications all of a sudden. He also prescribed some simple stretching exercises to exercise the whole body."Do not go in for medication," was his constant refrain. "Whether it is allopathy, ayurveda or homeopathy, medicines should be the last resort if you wish for permanent relief. You cannot achieve good health without some physical effort on your part. Even those taking medicines should continue with the exercises. We are all being constantly bombarded with pollutants; without detoxification by way of deep breathing you cannot stay healthy"."It is breath that keeps you alive. Nobody has died while breathing. Life and death is in God's hands but let us not hasten our end by neglecting the breath. The breathing exercises provide oxygen to the cells, rejuvenate them, and takes away toxic waste. It regulates, digestion, assimilation and elimination. My brothers, take deep breaths, follow my advice of healthy food, high thoughts and a simple life to be happy and lead a productive, patriotic, altruistic life. Poverty is not the absence of wealth, it is the absence of humane qualities, lack of manly abilities, and the absence of the desire to serve humanity."
"These breathing exercises will clean you at all levels. Disease will fall off and also your bad habits and passions. Good thoughts will replace your destructive tendencies. Patriotism and social skills will improve. Your ability to work hard will improve. All sloth will go, your body and minds will feel light, you will be filled with energy and become model citizen. But my brothers you have to practise what I tell you. It will not do if you just sing my paens and crowd around me for blessings. Baba Ramdev does not cure anyone, pranayam does. I am not here to preach, my yoga is not oratorial, it is practical. Do the yoga and feel the benefits."What are these seven breathing exercises?
1. Bhastrika - Take deep breath and release. Do it effortlessly, fill up your lungs and force the entire breath out. Do it with a rhythm. Imagine that all the energy of the Cosmos is entering into you. Feel that all your poisons are being expelled. Do it for 5 minutes if you are relatively healthy. Repeat for another five minutes if you are ailing, but gradually as you get accustomed. Bhastrika is very important for all kinds of skin problems, however serious and howeve strange. Not only leucoderma but also people suffering discoloration due to burns have benefitted from sincerely practising this pranayama everyday. Its is benifit for health to take exercise daily to keep healthy and sharp body in your mind also be healthy.
2. Kapalbhati - Take in air into your stomach and push it out with a jerk. Only your stomach should move and not your body. Your outbreath should cause the adams apple to move as it pushes through the throat. Normally one should do this for fifteen minutes, five minutes each three times. People with cancers and other chronic diseases should do this twice a day totalling 30 minutes. Swamiji places a great importance on this pranayam which he says will help diabetes, regenerate insulin producing beta cells and also help the organs in the stomach, the lungs and the heart. It will open blocked arterie in the heart.
3. Bahya Pranayam - Take a deep breath and release. Completely push the stomach in as you force the breath out and hold. Move you head downwards till the chin is fully in touch with the upper portion of the torso. Hold this position for 15 seconds and then move the head up as you breathe in. This is to be repeated five to 11 times.
5. Anulom Bilom - Another very important pranayam. Sit straight, close the right nostril with your thumb. Place the forefinger on the forehead, then breathe in deeply with the left nostril. Now close the left nostril with the third and fourth fingers joined together and breathe out through the right nostril. Take a deep breath again through the right nostril, close it with the thumb, release the left nostril and breathe out. This is one cycle. Repeat this cycle continuously for five minutes. In total do it for fifteen minutes five minutes at a time three times.This pranayam recharges the entire body, opens all closed apperatures, sets right the entire flow of energy within the body and activates the chakras.
6. Bhramari - Close the ears with your thumbs, with the second third and fourth fingers close the eyes, rest the first finger on the forehead, keep the mouth closed. Now take a deep breath. Release the breath through the nose while making a loud humming noise with the throat. The noise should reverbate through the entire body. Repeat the exercise five to 11 times. You will quite enjoy this pranayam which will relax you and activate all the glands of the head.
7. Udgeeth - This is also a very enjoyable pranayam. Take a deep breath and release the breath through the mouth making the sound "Om". Repeat this five to 11 times. This puts you in touch with the divine element within you.
"Finish the pranayam exercises with a short contemplative meditation. Thank your Guru and God. Request the divine for a healthy, productive life. Then raise your hands, rub the palms to generate some heat and then place your palms on the face as slightly massage your face. This is the package of the seven pranayams.""Do this daily. Take care to see you do not overexert yourself in any manner. Do it according to capacity but follow the minimum routine to get the benefits.
These pranayams are a talisman that will help you and besides ensuring a disease free life will lead you towards the ultimate goal of life, samadhi or merger with the divine. While you do your aerobic exercises with loud western music do you pranayams interspersed with thoughts of the divine and prayers on your lips."The Swami also suggested some simple stretching exercises and proposed some yoga asanas, namely, vajrasana, makarasana, bhungasana, naukasana, utthanpadasana, jogging standing at one place etc, to exercise the spine and keep it flexible and also to reduce flab. The pranayams and the exercises, noted the reporter, did not result in any tiredness or weariness rather they left one fresh and energised. The Swami also pointed this out as a measure to know whether one was doing them correctly. He also taught and demonostrated the Surya Namaskar.
He said people from three years to 90 years all could do the pranayam. Children should perform the Bhastrika, Bhramari and Udgeeth for two minutes, the Kapalbhati and Anulom Bilom for five minutes. Bahya Pranayam and Agnisar also for two minutes. He showed many intricate exercises for the children to perform.He urged all children to master yoga as their bodies were supple and they could easily master the science. He also asked them to respect parents and elders, stay away from bad habits, burgers, pizzas, noodles and colas. He urged all to become vegetarians. "Children, honour the simple lintels, roti and vegetable dishes your parents serve at home. Do your studies instead of watching dirty programmes on TV. Go to temples instead of parties."
"Life starts with pranayama, the child is made to cry and perform the first pranayam, bhastrika, as it takes a deep breath and starts crying. This ensures blood flow to the brain as well as oxygen. The nervous system and the brain depends on oxygen for optimum performance. It is pranayam that ensures adequate oxygen supply.""Within nine days of practising pranayama the biochemistry of the body begins to change. In nine months of sincere practice the genetic element changes for the better. This is similar to the way a child gets a shape in nine days and the complete body in nine months. Pranayam gives a completely transformed body mind complex. It gives a person a new life."
The Swamy urged the people to educate themselves about the health benefits of various vegetables, herbs and spices. That way one could have the benefits of ayurveda and make it an integral part of ones life. The people should not hanker after neither the doctor nor medicines, but by learning yoga, pranayama, and the preventive aspects of ayurveda one should take charge of ones own health and life. It is only under extraordinary circumstances that one should go to a doctor and take medicines of any kind."The body has within it the capability of healing itself. Learn meditation, accupressure, and such other natural methods so that you yourself can be your own guide. The system has made you dependant and unsure of yourself. The perverted medical system has made you a slave to further its own interests. Break free and be independant once again."
"The system wants you to be a swechchachari, a debauch, so that it can have you in its clutches. If you can control your food, thoughts and passions, you will realise your own worth and the truth will be revealed to you. Whatever you do, how you live your life, how you behave towards others, determines your destiny. All this is in your hands, nobody can do this for you. Wake up from your sloth and sleep and make your own destiny. Do not be afraid of troubles for if you live a good, devoted life, you will get the strength to overcome all obstacles, the world will be at your feet. If all Indians take up pranayama in earnest we will soon have a happy, healthy and transparent India. That is what I am aiming for.""It is the breath, the gift of God, that is the ultimate medicine. It is the perfect nano medicine. It reaches all corners of the body and cures all ailments. It is the ultimate detoxifier and also the ultimate regenerator as with the breath comes prana, the vital force. This prana takes care of the body, the mind, the emotions, the five elements and also the five bodies that make up our presence in this world. It is a great force, a great teacher, a great guide. One who has control over prana can control anything and everything."
At the camp people narrated on camera how they had benefitted from pranayama and helped control obesity, diabetes, nervous disorders, skin problems, various forms of cancers, brain tumours, eye problems, urticaria, fibroma's, muscular dystrophies etc.The Swami also narrated how he had met patients with some very rare and strange diseases and helped them with diet, changed lifestyle, yoga and pranayama. "I don't do anything. It is pranayama that cures people.""It is only those who do not know about yoga who speak against its merits," countered Swami Ramdev, " but when they start practicing and derive benefits they then start singing its praise. I do not blame anybody. People speak according to what they are taught. The medical community should learn that disease management is not the last thing they should aim for. Cures are possible and they are happening. If something can be destroyed it can again be regenerated. Our scriptures have spoken in depth about these things."
Increase Height Through Yoga - in few months, this is a big benefit to increase your height few inches feat with Height Growth.Yoga increases the physical power but also the elegance and beauty of the face. Yogic practice carries beauty of shape, graceful carriage, harmonious voice, glowing face and delightful smile. If practiced habitually, Yoga asana help men and women to obtain a body that improve their good looks and give them flexibility.