The Gift of Yoga Therapy

Working in the amazing field of yoga therapy, we come across not only miraculous recovery stories but also witness profound transformation of the human spirit. A gift and a privilege to stand at the threshold of somebody’s healing experience, to feel their joy and gratitude, once again affirming, “Yes, yoga works!”

Krishnamacharya said, “if you can breathe, you can do yoga” and that is the scope of yoga therapy. A field that is emerging and gaining prominence around the world as more and more people begin to see how yoga can impact our health and life in such powerful ways and provide sustainable solutions to the problems of mankind.

This article summarises the basic principles and process of yoga therapy for maintaining a healthy body and mind, preventing illness and imbalance and supporting healing when illness takes over.

The Yogi and healer

The healing science of yoga must be as old as yoga itself. All great yogis were themselves healers. In an ancient prayer to Patanjali (the author of Yoga Sutra, the earliest and most authoritative text on yoga), he is venerated for three important contributions to mankind: yoga for the mind, grammar for speech and vaidya sastra (Ayurveda) for the body.

While yoga is very popular around the world, there is a lot of confusion around the various application modalities of yoga. In ancient times, all these practices were well streamlined with a clear purpose, specific tools and means of application. Children were taught active, dynamic practices (Srsti krama) taking into account their needs and potentials, progressing to young, healthy adulthood where practices were designed to be very intense and challenging (Siksana krama). When the person becomes a householder with less time and more commitments, practices were designed to protect and sustain what they have already achieved earlier (Raksana krama) and slowly one progresses towards higher spiritual pursuits (Adhyatmika krama).

According to Patanjali, vyadhi (illness) is considered an obstacle for spiritual progress and hence one of the main goals of yoga practice is to remove these obstacles that impede spiritual growth. Yoga therapy (Cikitsa krama) is therefore an important application of yoga where specific therapeutic needs are addressed so that one can overcome obstacles to spiritual progress. It is hence a very highly evolved system of healing with a very strong spiritual component that cannot be separated from it.

 Personalised Yoga Therapy

Since each individual is special and unique, his/her therapeutic needs are also specific and unique. Yoga therapy addresses these unique and changing needs of each individual at all levels – physical, physiological, mental, emotional and the deeper spiritual. The complex canvas of a person’s life begins to unfold only when we learn to step beyond the conventional scientific paradigm that is disease-centric. Yoga therapy offers a 360-degree perspective of the person, inside-out – figuratively and literally.

Being a complimentary system of health, it works very well in tandem with main-stream medical system or any alternative healing modality.  Unlike conventional medicine, it provides the person an opportunity to take responsibility and participate actively in their healing and recovery. The main focus in yoga therapy is to influence the mind – even the smallest shift in the state of mind of an individual opens up immense possibilities for healing and inner growth.

The Therapeutic Process

         How does a yoga therapist work with a student ?

1. An initial consultation will help the therapist to understand the individual at all levels – physical, physiological, mental, emotional, their personality and life circumstances and also the impact of the illness at all these levels.
2. In consultation with the student, set clear goals to be achieved in the process – both short term and long term.
3. Select appropriate tools and techniques and suitably adapt them to address the individual’s abilities, requirements and circumstances.
4. Design effective practices for the person that can be integrated into their daily routine
5. Suggest appropriate lifestyle and dietary changes to support healing
6. Check progression, making appropriate changes over time to address higher goals
7. Guide the person to a state of better health and well-being
8. Empower the individual to take responsibility for their own health
9. Instill confidence and strength to deal with road-blocks and obstacles of any nature that might stall or delay the healing process.

A minimum of 3 to 4 sessions per month spread over a period of 6 months can take care of setting off the person on the healing journey. Following this period, a periodical review (once a months) and progression with practice is of course essential to incorporate changing needs and movement towards higher goals. Depending on the condition, how severe or chronic it is, frequency of sessions may vary. It is important to understand that the steps can vary from person to person, condition to condition and life circumstances.

When somebody comes with, let us say, back pain:

•         the first goal is to relax the person physically and mentally and reduce pain
•         next step will be to improve mobility and flexibility,
•         then to strengthen the back and associated structures,
•         then maintain that strength and flexibility

This might progress from a few weeks to months. Once the person has achieved so much, then regular practice can help him maintain what he has achieved. Ideally, the student becomes less and less dependent on the therapist. With regular practice, they develop better awareness and understanding of their system, their strengths and challenges and are able to use their strengths to overcome potential challenges with a little guidance from the therapist.

The role of the Therapist

The role of the therapist in healing is very important. While a yoga teacher works with individuals or groups teaching suitable practices for health & wellbeing or spiritual progress, a yoga therapist uses yoga as a tool to aid in recovery from ill health. When somebody comes to a therapist, they are not coming to learn yoga; they are coming for relief from pain and suffering. The technique or tool is not important here, the individual is. The therapist should hence be equipped with a sound knowledge base in therapeutic application, be able to assess and understand the individual and also know how to apply the tools of yoga and guide the person through the path of recovery. A strong desire to help some one in pain is of course, the basic prerequisite.

But know that the therapist is not the healer. He/she is only a guide, a catalyst in the healing process, and a very privileged witness to the transformation. His/her strength does not lie in knowledge of postures and techniques alone. That is like giving a layperson a set of surgical tools and asking her to perform a complicated surgery.  The skill of the surgeon (here, the therapist), lies in how intelligently he/she uses the tools. Krishnamacharya called Yoga Cikitsa  “Asastra sastra cikitsa” meaning “surgery without instruments”. More important than the tools is the ability of the therapist to understand and utilize the unique strengths hidden within each individual for the healing process. The therapist also holds a safe and loving space for the healing to happen. A non-judgmental attitude, patience, humility and an immense faith in the strength of the student to heal herself is the skill-set of the therapist.

Becoming a Yoga Therapist

 Training to become a yoga therapist is a very intensive process involving:

• basic training in the fundamentals of yoga philosophy and practice
• study of human anatomy & physiology
• study of principles of Ayurveda, Ayurvedic understanding of the human system, diagnosis and approach for maintenance of good health and therapy
• learn how to observe and understand an individual at physical, physiological, mental, emotional and the deeper spiritual levels,
• study pathology of all common illnesses and how they impact at different levels
• how to modify/adapt the tools and techniques of yoga to address the needs of a specific individual with a particular combination of problems. 
• how to design effective practices and teach them
• how to guide the student progressively through the process of recovery.

Healing is never complete if it does not pervade and impact the entire human structure – that includes physical, physiological, intellectual, emotional, behavioral and spiritual dimensions. At every level, you see the challenges and also discover the hidden strengths - valuable inner resources that can be deployed appropriately to heal. Illness is hence both an obstacle and an opportunity to transform our lives. Healing itself is the process of transformation, where you not only learn to reduce the symptoms, and deal with the cause but also discover a whole range of thought/emotional/belief/behavioral patterns that have been holding the illness and its many ramifications in place. You then learn to systematically disentangle yourself from these binding forces.

The process of healing in yoga is therefore not just rewarding in the sense of getting rid of a problem, it is an interesting and most exciting exploration of your life, so that you can slowly peel off those unwholesome, unhealthy layers that have hidden your inner light from yourself.

Just like a skilled surgeon or master craftsman, a yoga therapist can bring alive the most simple tools and techniques with such ingenuity and care that inner healing and transformation happens almost effortlessly.

The making of a Yoga Acharya: process and milestones

There is a myth that a yoga teacher has to be a symbol of perfection, we have to “look” like a yoga teacher, be always happy and smiling, peaceful and grounded and very “wise” (certainly not in the worldly way of course). I had no idea of all this when I got into learning and teaching yoga. It was a sheer accident and still remains an interesting mystery of how it all happened. I was a good student in school and college, and did well with the yoga studies too… the intellectual kind who could effortlessly pick up threads from the sutras and make beautiful yoga stick figures on paper (still far from doing them on the mat). It was not until years later that I actually understood what being a teacher actually means!

To know what makes you a good yoga teacher, we don’t have to look beyond the first word of the first sutra of the first chapter of the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali: Atha.

Are you ready to take up this study?

It is not the readiness in terms of the time and resources you have in hand, that is only a small part of it. It is not the intellectual curiosity you maybe holding, “let me see what is in it for me…” It is not even the desire to learn yoga and “walk the path”, which is of course important.

It is the readiness and willingness to now move inward, exploring the uncharted territories of the mind-body complex; taking responsibility for all our actions and experiences. Letting go of blaming and complaining about how the world is treating you. Letting go of also self-reproach and guilt, rather being willing to transform these negative energies into productive action, ready to be in the “here and now” and taking responsibility to create a better future.

So, the question is, are you really ready?

And if you are, the very first commitment we need to make is time for yourself: for your personal practice. I never understood the value of it when I started studying yoga, except for the excitement of learning new postures and techniques. Since I was not the very flexible kind, it often frustrated me to see, in comparison, how well others can do it.

In this tradition, each trainee works with a mentor who will assess and design a very unique and special practice for the person taking into account his/her physical constitution, flexibility, strength, mental-emotional patterns, time availability and when they can practice during the day.

After each session with the mentor, I remember the joy and excitement of carrying home a fresh, new practice that will now take me a step ahead, progressively getting better and deeper into the experience of yoga. The integration of body-breath- mind slowly begin to play to secret magic into your being. The energy levels got better, aches and pains diminish, self-awareness improves, reactivity reduces and you can actually experience more peace and joy.

Today, when I look back, I wish I had been more serious about my personal practice then. The study of the Yoga Sutra is perhaps the most fascinating part of the study quenching and creating more intellectual curiosity. After dabbling for years in Sanskrit definitions and concepts that made me “appear” very intelligent, I finally got down into the actual essence of the teachings which was and still is mind-boggling. I can’t have enough of it.

Layer after layer opens up deeper meanings and possibilities… so much lies beneath, waiting to be discovered! Learning classical postures and techniques helped to understand meanings from which the function of a posture is derived and how to intelligently adapt or modify a posture or pranayama technique to address a very specific and unique need of the student and achieve a desired function. The skill of a surgeon and creativity of an artist comes into play here.

Yoga borrows heavily from Ayurveda the understanding of the human constitution, how to create individualized diet and life style changes that will help harmonize the energies within. It becomes exciting to study the basis of Sankhya philosophy that underpins yoga and Ayurveda and discover that the mind and body share a unified field of existence, cannot be addressed in isolation, and how every aspect of the universe is connected and striving to progress in a state of dynamic equilibrium. The question of personal and universal dharma and the quest for an integral balance arises.

Meditation as a process of refining and concentrating the mind, methods and techniques and beyond these methods and techniques, touching and experiencing glimpses of insight – from that part of the mind which is beyond thought is exciting!

Course planning helps to integrate the tools and techniques into a meaningful structure for practice that can be progressively adapted to changing needs and goals. It is in deed very exciting to see the progress in the student at all levels.

Understanding the Yama, Niyama and learning to apply the understanding in daily life often brought up great excitement and resistance and as a community working with these attitudes and boundaries has been quite intensive and also fun!

Exploring the connection with God, presented as the highest teacher, Ishvara, by Patanjali and toying with the “idea” of surrender has been frustrating and frightening. When we let go of the “ideas”, perhaps the real surrender can happen?

The entire repertoire of tools and techniques yoga offers and playing around with them and remembering to reconnect with the breath, our life line and learning to listen to its wisdom and knowing that this is more important than “doing” something right… a reality check.

The training is a life long process though the course comes to an end in 12 months. The desire to learn and grow keeps our practice and teaching alive.

The milestones are:

Am I now more connected with my body, can I understand and respect my body more?

Is my conscious breath long, deep and subtle? Can I allow my breath to guide me into the present moment, and help me understand my current reality?

Do I have the necessary skills to teach, observe, adapt practices to the changing needs of the student?

Am I willing to learn from the students, accept and work on my apparent limitations?

Can my mind be open to learning and unlearning? Can I hold my thoughts, my “borrowed” knowledge and beliefs lightly?

Has my threshold for reactivity gone up? Am I now aware of my judgments?

Can I go beyond my self and touch another person’s pain? Can I feel true love and compassion?

Am a ready to continue to learn and evolve my skills and my practice knowing that this is just the beginning?

Dealing with Stress through Yoga

Stress reduction through yoga is not just about relaxation practices as it is commonly understood. In one of my consultations, I was listening to a student who was suffering from so much stress. The source of her stress was her great aunt who seemed to have such a strong control over this girl.

This aunt was over 90 years, recovering from a broken hip, completely dependent on my friend, always “complaining, clinging and trying to control me”. She was visiting her aunt everyday (while holding a full-time job, taking care of her family) and every visit was getting more and more unbearable for her. She said, “when I am with my aunt, my skin starts to burn all over and I am full of anger and negative thoughts”. She was aware that this is not something she can put up with longer considering her health history of just having recovered from cancer a few years ago. 

“How can I deal with this situation? What practices can help me cope with this burning of skin and stress?” For her it is her great aunt, for somebody else it could be a mother-in-law, partner, boss, teacher, parental conflict or illness, financial problems or just any issues in life that impose enormous strain on the psyche that gets reflected on the body through myriad range of illnesses. Most often, we need a diagnosis even to recognize that the body has been ravaged by the stress.

But is the source of stress really only outside? Can it be countered just with relaxation practices? While we continue to fight in our mind with whatever is happening in our life at the same time try to fix issues with our health that are cropping up from time to time, we are just allowing the wound to fester within and attempt to heal the pain.

Yoga addresses stress through a multi-pronged approach. Becoming aware of the problem and its impact on the body, breath and mind and how it creates a ripple effect into our immediate environment affecting life style, relationships, work etc.,

Acceptance of the reality, coming to terms with it is an important step towards resolution of the problem. For example, this student struggling with her aunt’s behavior had to first understand that her aunt cannot be expected to change her ways, not at 90, not with all the issues she has and the insecurity she must be experiencing that has led to the clinging-controlling behaviour.

The next step would to learn how to clear the conflict ridden mind and relax the body through actions that are positive and most appropriate. For this person, it is about reclaiming her personal space and time, moderating her energy expenditure and knowing and communicating clearly what is beneficial for herself and her aunt. 

Practices to help release the tension accumulated in the body and clearing the mind so that it can perceive with better clarity and enjoy some peace. It will involve working with asana (again addressing the specific needs of the body and personality, not any practice). Using the breath actively in asana is imperative to achieve any substantial change at the physical, physiological and especially mental- emotional level. 

Pranayama practices help us connect more deeply with the breath, our most intimate friend and ally in healing.

In asana and pranayama, varying the breath ratio has different effects, whether you want to be energized or want relaxation for body and mind. Body being the receptacle for all our experiences in life, we need to pay special attention to those parts which tend to accumulate a lot of tension like the neck, shoulders & upper back, also precipitated by a sedentary desk job.

Those who don’t have time for an active practice in the morning (being very stressed out also means “I am running against time” right?) will benefit from a 20-30 min. evening practice before dinner or bedtime (at least 2 hours after dinner, which means you have an early dinner). The evening practice comprises of seated and lying postures with focus on extending the exhalation. Relaxing the eyes, and gentle movements for the shoulders, elbows, wrists, finger joints, neck, spine and legs help release the accumulated tension especially for computer professionals people on the move most of the day. 

Long exhalation activates the parasympathetic nervous system countering the sympathetic domination that happens in stress response. Through exhalation we can intend and choose to release all the negative thoughts, emotions & judgments from the system, clear your body and mind and drift off into a blissful state of sleep. Wake up feeling fresh, rejuvenated and looking forward to a new day. Each day, this way can be a gift.

Yes, stress can be a great source of wisdom, and a motivation for change. It teaches you what is most important in life. But the question is, are you ready? Are you ready to take charge of your life? Take responsibility for your state of health, quality of life? Or do you want to continue to blame the outside circumstances for your suffering?

Yoga is a state of mind, a mind that is calm, unperturbed and clear. A mind that can perceive with clarity, take right decisions and direct the most appropriate actions. The usual monkey mind requires training, practice has to be regular (daily) and uninterrupted. A free mind has free will, it can make choices. It means, in any moment, I can choose peace instead of conflict or argument. Good health is more than fitness, it is this state of mind that is peaceful and clear. 

Yoga philosophy and practice urges us to grow in this inner strength and resilience so that we can deal with any eventuality in life, develop immunity to stress-inducing situations.