What is Yoga and How Can it Help?
Yoga is an ancient Sanskrit word meaning unity. There are many different sorts of yoga which have evolved over the ages but the yoga I use takes that unity to be the unity of the mind, the physical body and the breath.
There are four phases working together:-
1. Relaxing and relieving tension in the body which restricts breathing and blocks the free flow of energy.
2. Learning to breath deeply using the full lung area.
3. Targeting energy to specific areas using the yoga postures.
4. Relaxing and quietening the mind and training it to work with the body
we have rather than the body we wish we had.
Yoga is a particularly good regime for people with multiple sclerosis as it is gentle, will not make fatigue worse and is done slowly to ease length back into tendons which have shortened due to extended periods of time sitting.
Contrary to popular belief, yoga is not putting your legs behind
your head, standing on your head or even moving a muscle if you
don't feel like it. Yoga is a method of using your body to the
best of its ability, improving posture, increasing depth of
breathing and relaxing the mind that combines to give back the sense
of control so easily lost with something like MS.
As a teacher of yoga with 33 years experience and an in-depth
understanding of MS and all its associated aches, pains, spasms
and stiffness I can assure you that NOBODY has ever finished one
of my sessions feeling worse than before. People feel taller;
more relaxed and, perhaps surprisingly, report fewer colds and
coughs (because I teach them to use their lungs properly to exhale
all the pollution from cars, tobacco and other people's colds).
Yoga classes are fun and regularly filled with surprises.
Most of the benefits from practicing yoga are about RELAXING muscles
- NOT pushing them into positions they fight against. Bad backs,
spasming legs, low energy and fatigue are all things that can be
improved with yoga and many branches of the MS Society offer local
classes. The very least you can do is give it a try - after the
first session you will wonder what it was all about and after the
first few sessions you will feel worse if you miss one although you
will still not be exactly sure what good it is doing. Within a month
you will realize that you are looser, you don't ache so much in the
mornings and you will know how to relax when your body seems to be
fighting back.
The most important lesson in yoga is to LISTEN TO YOUR BODY, stretch
it when it is asking to be stretched (and spasms are a request to
be stretched), rest it (properly) when it wants to rest and supply
it with the vital fuels it needs to work properly. Everybody worries about
what they eat and drink and most people forget about the most
important fuel for the body...OXYGEN!
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