If you are suffering from a chronic disease then yoga therapy might be just what you need. Although a definition on which all the stakeholders of yoga therapy agree has not been arrived at as yet, the discipline on the one hand, revolves around the use by health care practitioners of yoga techniques in their approach to healing. And on the other, relates to the embracing of a more therapeutic approach by those who teach yoga. A key notion of the discipline is that illness is the result of a mind/body imbalance. It therefore identifies and treats the underlying causes not the outward symptoms. What we intend to do here is to try and understand how yoga therapy is able to achieve this.

Yoga therapy is natural and restorative and aims at transforming both the body and the mind. Because the discipline works mainly with yoga moves, it has been very effective in helping to heal the body. Clients are usually given a series of postures each week which change according to the progress achieved after each visit to the therapist.

One of the tenets of yoga is that illness arises because we are unaware of what and who we are. Yoga therapy aims to remedy this through the achievement of self-awareness. This is accomplished by providing the means by which self-knowledge can be attained thereby allowing us to become in tune with who we are.

There are several components of yoga therapy which are used to achieve self-awareness. These are right posture, correct breathing, cleansing, diet, relaxation and a positive mindset. Through the application of these techniques persons are able to regain and maintain health. However, before healing can begin any energy blocks must be removed as it is believed that these contribute to ill health. This will allow the flow of positive vital force to stream through the body and lead to better health.

Yoga therapy can be applied to such problems as digestive disorders. It is recognized that any excitement such as stress, anger, fear or anxiety are transmitted down to the digestive area. This causes a narrowing of the blood vessels that line the stomach and increased secretion of stomach acid which reduces the stomach’s ability to fight infections. Through a combination of postures which focus on the head, spine and stomach as well as breathing exercises practiced regularly the effects of this dysfunction can be reversed. Allied to this treatment is the implementation of a proper diet and a body cleansing regimen.

The introspection offered by yoga therapy helps to achieve the self-knowledge which is the key to transformation. The mind is calmed and stabilized by techniques which normalize the functions of the systems of the body. Vital body functions are positively impacted and become renewed by yoga’s interplay of stretching and massaging techniques. These postures stimulate the organs, joints and muscles. Instinctive reactions caused by the body being out of balance are curbed and replaced with controlled responses which will cause the body to regain its balance.

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