Is Yoga a healing method? If you practice yoga on a regular basis, you know the benefits it provides. You know the light, uplifted feeling of exhilaration that sets in directly after a good yoga class, or the long, lean feel of your muscles after a good stretch. Perhaps you do a pose as the afternoon slump sets in to get you through the rest of the workday, or maybe you take a few deep breaths before giving a big presentation to clear your mind and focus. The health benefits of yoga training go much deeper than that. Yoga training has been proven to have positive healing effects for a number of common ailments, chronic pain, and diseases.
Yoga can also be beneficial for people with mental disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, or other conditions due to trauma or abuse. The important aspect of healing lies in the mind-body connection that yogic methods provide. Victims can learn how to become more conscious of what is happening in their bodies, and learn how to regulate stresses through breathing. Yoga can teach people to accept their selves as they are, letting go of negative self-images. Anyone suffering from panic attacks could benefit greatly from regular practice, including soldiers, physical, mental, and sexual abuse victims, or other type of trauma.
There are also specific poses that work to relieve pain or discomfort in specific areas of the body. Relaxation and breathing are particularly helpful in decreasing blood pressure, and relieving stress. The Forward Bend, the Wall Plank, and Downward-Facing Dog are good poses for relieving back pain. For arthritic fingers, the Flower pose can help. The Should Stand and the Fish posture focus specifically on the thyroid gland, and can be used to target health problems related to the thyroid.
When wishing to heal the body from serious ailments, like cancer, yoga will not provide a miracle cure, but it will encourage the body to heal, improve circulation, and balance the energy in the body to allow this Yogic healing method to work. The mind and the body work powerfully together, and sometimes people just need to trust their bodies to heal, and have faith and patience that it will.