Yoga for Maintaining and Restoring Health
It is said that one needs to be in optimal health to practice yoga, yet its practice is instrumental in maintaining and restoring health. Yoga combines asanas, or yogic postures, with meditation thereby optimizing physical and mental health. When yoga is practiced with assiduity, the body is successively felt as solid, fluid, energy, vibration, sound, light and thought.
An asana is a position maintained motionless, without any effort, for as long as one wishes, while using the minimum amount of muscles. Technically, it has a dynamic phase comprising the movements to take the yogic posture, a static phase during which the position is maintained motionless and a release phase to return to the starting position.
Asanas operate simultaneously on the physical and subtle bodies. During the static phase, they alter the normal blood flow by stretching muscles and gently compressing internal organs. The rhythmic, yogic breathing produces a mild massage of the internal organs further flushing out their blood content. When the asana is released, the compression is lifted and the organs are overflowed with fresh blood thus rejuvenating them. On the subtle body, asanas gently compress the nadis, operating in a way similar to shiatsu massage and acupuncture to maintain and restore the normal flow of prana to internal organs.
Concentration is the distinctive feature that differentiates an asana from gymnastics. During the dynamic and release phases, attention is given to the prefect execution of the movements while using a minimum amount of muscles. During the static phase, the body is maintained motionless, the muscles are kept relaxed, breathing is rhythmic and the mind meditates.
Meditation is technically the creation of conditions favouring the production of theta waves in the brain. These are associated with a relaxed and meditative state, which optimizes the workings of the mind.
Meditation can be used to rehearse upcoming events, internalize new knowledge, solve problems, to self-reflect and to change unwanted habits. In medicine, it is used to do visualization for self-healing, healing and distance healing.
Yoga also finds application in Ayurveda and modern medicine. Ayurveda is the traditional East-Indian science of life concerned with the maintenance of health and the treatment of diseases in humans, animals and plants. It covers anatomy, physiology, nutrition, pharmacology, prevention, and treatment of diseases. Ayurveda has eight specialties: aphrodisiac science, geriatrics, head and neck, internal medicine, mental disorders, pediatrics, surgery and toxicology. Yogic techniques are used as an adjunct for the maintenance and the re-establishment of optimal health. In modern medicine, many techniques used in physiotherapy bear striking resemblance to yoga asanas. In alternative medicine, some clinicians are integrating yoga techniques in their therapeutic interventions.
Yves Panneton