How a bit of yoga can help with a big health problem — chronic pain | Rachael West | TEDxBunbury
Yoga For Your Health
Yoga for chronic pain relief can help to relieve symptoms and improve quality of life. Yoga has many different benefits including increased flexibility and strength. Chronic pain is often caused by inflammation which can be relieved with yoga. One of the best benefits of yoga is it can help to relieve pain and make it much easier to deal with. However, it’s important to know that yoga isn’t for all kinds of pain.
One of the biggest yoga benefits is it helps people to relax and gives them increased flexibility. In general, mild yoga can benefit mild to moderate acute pain. You’ll want to start by practicing yoga poses that engage your body and breathing exercises that slowly open up the ribcage and hips. The next step is to slowly relax the shoulders and down into the chest. As you are relaxing these parts of the body, you will notice that you are feeling your muscles getting more stretch and that you are feeling lighter and calmer.
Once you have become aware of the physiological changes occurring in your body, you can begin to realize the pain changes are your mind-body connection. As you relax more deeply, you can move on to using your mind to focus only on the physical sensations. You can feel the tension in your muscles and ease the tension in your mind as you focus on the movement of your breath. You can practice this technique of mindfulness for as long as you need to get relief from your pain. This mind-body connection is a powerful tool that can also give you mental peace and also help you relieve your pain.
Yoga for chronic pain also focuses on the mind-body connection by reminding you to release habitual patterns of thinking and negative thoughts. Habits such as being resistant to change, not accepting uncertainty, negative body talk, and pessimistic thoughts can all contribute to pain and discomfort in the body. When you start to notice how you are thinking, you may be able to shift your thought pattern to one of happiness and calmness. Practicing yoga can reinforce these positive thoughts and lessen your habitual patterns so you can move through the pain more easily.
Another great yoga tip for chronic pain is to make sure you are focusing on the breath when you are stretching. Chronic pain often causes an increased level of stress in the body, and the practice of yoga and breathing can greatly reduce the tension. You can find many yoga classes that incorporate breathwork or find a yoga DVD that teaches you to do some breathing exercises to work on this area of your life. You can find a lot of information online or at your local library, so try to check out some good tips about chronic pain yoga before you start doing the actual yoga practice.
Yoga for chronic pain is all about learning to relax in various poses and making sure that you are constantly relaxed. Some people who have chronic pain find that stretching helps them to feel better and helps their muscles to loosen up. It can take a while to learn how to use these various poses effectively, so be patient. It will help you to be more relaxed in your everyday activities if you practice these relaxing poses on a regular basis. You can find many yoga videos for this purpose, or you can find books that teach you the various poses as well as the proper way to relax each day.