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Yoga cannot replace the medical treatment that cancer survivors must experience. However, gentle, restorative yoga speeds the recovery process and provides therapeutic healing to a ravaged body.

Cancer does not discriminate, and strikes young and old with impunity. The good thing about yoga is that it offers an appropriate therapy, exercise program, and even life path, for anyone young, old, or in between. The benefits go far beyond improved flexibility and relaxation. Yoga sets cancer survivors on the road to healing, with a life-centered focus and a real way to cope.

Health care facilities, around the world, are now incorporating yoga therapy into their cancer recovery centers. Medical professionals are beginning to recognize the extraordinary benefits yoga provides to patients. The difficult road of recovery back from cancer is not always lit well enough within basic clinical care. Yoga focuses on the union of mind, body, breath, emotion, and spirit, to finally give cancer survivors a holistic leg to stand on.

People recovering, from most types of cancer, share at least a few maladies. Fatigue is the most common. Any time the body is subjected to high stress situations, such as - surgeries, radiation, chemotherapy and pain, fatigue is an obvious result.

As part of the recovery process - The body has been fighting a disease and then fighting to heal. Regular yoga practice will increase energy levels, and allow those recovering from cancer, to feel able again. Yoga postures strengthen and tone core muscles in the body. This low-impact movement also improves circulation and mobility.

The particular postures and yoga routine, that will help someone recovering from cancer, will be prescribed on an individual basis. There are many types of cancers, and what may benefit one recovery, or individual, may not be as effective in the case of another. That is why highly trained, and expert yogis, are so important for therapeutic yoga and cancer recovery. Knowledge of particular healing or therapeutic properties, of each posture, breathing method, and other yogic healing aspects, is indispensable.

Pranayama, or yoga breathing, focuses on specific breathing exercises that invoke relaxation and enhance optimum recovery. Yoga instruction often employs guided relaxation, meditation, breath awareness, visualization techniques, and guided breathing exercises.

Students are guided to find a peaceful place, where they release their anxiety and pain. Pranayama techniques also have an extremely beneficial impact on the nervous system. Focused breathing brings calm to the mind and body, allowing for healing. Stress is the number one enemy to effective healing.

As with many ailments, yoga students, recovering from cancer, often suffer from decreased range of movement. Along with increasing muscle strength, yoga postures improve range of movement and flexibility. Posture is also improved, allowing proper body alignment and balance. With freer movement and mobility, cancer survivors will begin to grow lighter in spirit and feel more independent.

Yoga for cancer recovery should focus on providing the most benefit possible. This means patients should not push past the point of pain. The important thing for anyone to remember, who has been through a serious medical procedure, is to begin slowly. Perform the yoga poses in a way that is comfortably challenging. There will be some discomfort on the road to recovery. Steadily press forward, and find the internal limits, but avoid approaching the pain threshold.

Yoga instructors need to remember that yoga therapy requires adapting yoga practice to individual needs. Each student’s case will be different. Each class period will be different. Teachers must also learn to be healers and “go the extra mile” for any student recovering from cancer.

Those recovering from cancer, who choose yoga practice to assist their healing, will benefit greatly across the board. In addition to regular yoga practice, pay close attention to diet and nutrition. Yoga nutrition focuses on natural, whole foods that support the body’s functions. Support your body in every possible way to make a complete recovery when healing from cancer.

Copyright 2008 - Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, is a co-owner and the director of Yoga teacher training at: Aura Wellness Center in, Attleboro, MA. He is an author of many books on the subject of Yoga and has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995.

http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/member-offer.html

No overruling organization for yoga instructors determines official, professional behavior standards, or even certification. Yoga professionals still debate over where certain lines should be drawn. Yet, certain ethics are inherent in the yogic path, and yoga instructors will do well to adhere to them.

The most important thing to remember, as a yoga teacher, is that you are helping to shape the well-being of your students, through your instruction. Respect the place that you occupy as a teacher. Instructors have to keep a tenuous balance that can be quite difficult. A balance must be found between healthy objectivity and the role of transcendental guide.

Each student is on his, or her, own path to wholeness. This wholeness involves a gestation of physical and emotional matters, often leading to charged feelings in the students. The focus of the yoga instructor should be to allow students to seek, and find, solutions to their own needs, in the learning process. Instructors must not focus on their own desires; otherwise, the growing process of both the students and the instructors will be stunted.

The nature of a yoga class is intimate. There is a great deal of focus on the body and opening of the body and a measure of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual release. Instructors often must touch their students to assist or correct a physical posture.

All of the students are paying close attention to the movements of the instructor. Some students will become infatuated, or attached, as they associate their release of tension, and spiritual growth, with that person. A compassionate yoga instructor is a guide, who shows his or her students, that the true teacher is already within each student.

The mission of a yoga instructor should be to serve the needs of the students in the class. That cannot be accomplished if intimate relationships are being cultivated with students, and unhealthy emotions blur the student-teacher boundary.

Some instructors are not prepared to guard against the ego in these situations and may give into the temptations presented to them. This not only dominates the nature of the classroom, but also damages the purpose and reputation of yoga practice.

Ego also gets in the way of yoga instruction, when instructors do not recognize the point where they are not trained enough to assist yoga students with their needs. On the other hand, instructors should not abandon or neglect students.

Students should always be referred to another instructor, or class, to allow them to get the most from their yoga instruction. The yoga studio needs to be a safe place for everybody, regardless of where they are in their own lives. The instructor is responsible for creating and maintaining a safe environment.

The yoga sutras, which are at the core of yoga ethics, have eight branches, or arms. The personal and social ethics that apply most substantially to yoga instruction are yama and niyama. These ethics require peacefulness, honesty, acceptance, truthfulness, temperance, and restraint.

Niyama sets forth the goals of purity, contentment, self-study, and dedication to holiness. These essential ethics cannot be upheld if instructors do not seek them. Ahimsa, peacefulness, requires us to do no harm. One cannot get personally and intimately involved with a student and not inflict some grief.

Unfortunately, in today’s environment, it is commonplace to see that the “exercise” portion of yoga is often separated from the rest of yoga. The classes tend to be body-centric and avoid, or eliminate, altogether, the importance of ethics, philosophy, and spirituality, which have been a part of yoga for its 5,000 year history.

Without the ethical, philosophical, and spiritual elements, the complete benefits and true core of yoga are missing. The same can be said of actions taken by yoga instructors that selfishly put the needs of the teacher first.

Copyright 2008 - Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, is a co-owner and the director of Yoga teacher training at: Aura Wellness Center in, Attleboro, MA. He is an author of many books on the subject of Yoga and has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995.

http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/member-offer.html

With America tipping the scales on obesity, and weight-related health problems, it is more important than ever for all of us to stay fit. Many of us have already gone past the ideal weight category. We need to find our way back to a healthy, fit form. Yoga cannot entirely replace the benefits of regular aerobic activity, such as walking, but yoga can provide the basis for a healthier lifestyle.

What Hollywood and the “get skinny quick” master minds of modern marketing would have you believe is that rapid weight loss is healthy. The reality of the world we live in is that gradual weight loss of one pound, or two, per week is healthy. Gradual weight loss has the best chance of becoming permanent.

Holistic health has everything to do with balance in the body and all of the body’s systems. Crash dieting and excessive / obsessive workouts only create further imbalances of the body and mind. The best way to reach a truly healthy state is to eat life-giving foods, strengthen and sooth the body, and renew the mind and spirit.

This may not be what you want to hear if you’re coming here for advice on weight loss. Yes, if you are overweight or obese, now is the time to lose the weight. Extra weight increases the risk for nearly every disease, including heart disease, cancer and stroke. The simple fact of the matter is that being overweight puts stress on all systems of the body. Stress, in turn, creates imbalance, lessens immunity, and increases cellular oxidation. This is all the more reason to seek balance in the body.

To begin, make a concerted effort to increase your activity level in your everyday life. Pay close attention to what you eat and follow the yoga diet as closely as possible. By eating foods as close to their natural state as possible, you absorb the most nutrients, and gain the most positive effects from your food choices. The yoga diet is also high in fiber, which will aid in digestion from beginning to end. Once again, here we are on the topic of complete balance.

Hatha Yoga instructors must learn to adapt their teaching styles to accommodate students with a variety of health conditions. Obesity is a common, but serious, health risk factor, which has to be addressed by teachers, in a compassionate way.

Any student who walks through the door of your studio is taking a pro-active stance toward his or her health. Compassion and mutual respect are the foundation of the student / teacher relationship. Therefore, adapt and modify to meet any student’s needs.

If you are a student, begin your yoga practice with a knowledgeable yoga instructor, who is familiar with your goals. Learn the proper ways to breathe and do the yoga postures. Proper yoga breathing, or pranayama, decreases stress and increases the efficiency of all bodily systems.

Circulation is improved by the breathing, and by the series of poses and stretches, performed during a Hatha yoga class. Improved circulation increases energy levels, dispelling fatigue and allowing you to be more active. After practicing yoga for awhile, you will want to take the stairs!

Yoga improves one’s idea of self-worth, and that is the beginning of any path to improved health or appearance. Instructors create a soothing and comfortable, yet challenging environment, to encourage all participants to grow.

The focused meditation, awareness, and visualization, allow you to seek out a healthier mental place for yourself. This also helps you to remember your own significance. No one can really make a beneficial life change without believing they are worth it.

Certain poses stimulate the glands that help the body burn fat. The thyroid gland becomes stimulated when you perform the classic shoulder stand. Other poses that focus on the abdomen, stimulate digestion and the excretion of hormones in the pancreas.

Yoga poses also help you appear slimmer, by improving posture. When you feel better, you’ll look better. The muscles in the abdomen, hips, and buttocks, are stretched and strengthened, providing a tighter, firmer core.

For students who are in shape, and in search of higher impact or more calorie-burning types of yoga, try Vinyasa yoga (a faster-paced yoga, which is sometimes practiced in a heated room.) Ashtanga yoga is another fast-paced yoga, which follows the same movements in every class.

Another option is a hybrid form of cardiovascular yoga, an adapted type of cardiovascular exercise involving yoga principles.

Copyright 2008 - Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, is a co-owner and the director of Yoga teacher training at: Aura Wellness Center in, Attleboro, MA. He is an author of many books on the subject of Yoga and has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995.

http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/member-offer.html

Almost everyone has had some sort of back pain during the course of their lives. For most, it eventually goes away. For some, however, back pain never goes away. Yoga could be the answer to back pain.

Recent studies show that regular yoga practice can have an extraordinary effect on relieving the stiffness and agony of chronic back pain.

Yoga provides relief from back pain in several different ways. This has to do with the way the spine is affected by the alignment and function of all the parts of the body. The condition of the legs, hips, pelvis, shoulders and even the buttocks, influences the condition of the back. Due to this, as you improve strength and flexibility throughout the body, your back is in better shape.

The vast majority of people, do not pay terribly close attention to the way they move and hold their bodies, throughout the day. Sometimes we hold ourselves in ways that harm, rather than support our frame. Often we entertain poor posture or sit awkwardly most of the day in an office chair, allowing stress and tension to overtake our muscles and mind.

Studies reveal that yoga is better than conventional exercise because of this very element. Yoga involves a great deal of mental focus and a purposeful mindset. While performing poses, yoga students are instructed to pay close attention to their breath. Meditation and visualization create a direct link between the movements of the body and breathing. These interconnecting elements trigger high degrees of body awareness.

The result is that even when people are not doing yoga, they will still become aware of how they may have been moving and positioning their bodies in unhealthy ways. In turn, people who practice yoga make better and healthier choices in movement, consciously and unconsciously. They experience a higher degree of flexibility and range of movement. Not only that, yoga reduces overall muscle tension, which is a big cause of back pain.

Yoga increases flexibility by stretching and lengthening the muscles of the body. Stretching is a big help for any kind of back pain. Yoga poses require students to stretch and hold their bodies in a variety of ways that lengthen interconnecting muscles.

Instead of just stretching the area that hurts, yoga affects the entire body. When a student decides to make yoga practice a regular part of his or her lifestyle, all the muscles of the body learn to work together. This results in providing longer lasting relief, which increases with regular yoga practice. Stretching also increases circulation, which relieves back pain.

In daily life, the muscles that support the back rarely get properly worked out. For proper support of the back, many muscles around the core of the body must be strong. Yoga strengthens these muscles and brings muscle groups into balance.

For most people who spend much of their day seated, facing their computer, and leaning slightly forward, their hips will take on much of the pressure. The hips are also staying mostly stationary and locked in position.

When the hips become weak and stiff from this day-to-day atrophying, proper posture and support is lost. Yoga poses, such as the triangle pose, open up the hips when properly done. Novice yogis must make sure to get in-person instruction from a competent teacher, before attempting any yoga pose.

An emphasis on yoga poses (asanas) is a science of good posture. Yoga instruction teaches the proper way to move between poses and hold a pose during class. Yet, the posture practice transcends the class into daily life, which teaches us to sit and stand in healthy ways, during the course of a day.

These lessons provide a comprehensive program of movements to stretch, strengthen, and retrain all areas of the body. Basically the body is being taught how to move again.

For example: Pelvic tilts, or the bridge pose, warm up the hips and lower back before progressing to more complicated postures. The cat-cow pose, and downward facing dog, are also recommended for back pain.

Cautiously practicing the forward spinal stretching of the plow pose, with proper guidance, relieves discomfort in both the upper and lower back and increases spinal flexibility. This pose is sometimes recommended to accompany the shoulder stand pose. As previously mentioned, the triangle pose helps back pain and posture. This pose is easier for less flexible yoga practitioners.

Copyright 2008 - Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, is a co-owner and the director of Yoga teacher training at: Aura Wellness Center in, Attleboro, MA. He is an author of many books on the subject of Yoga and has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995.

http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/member-offer.html

Turbaned gurus, sing-song mantras and bodily contortions . . . the promise of true enlightenment and omphaloskepsis (contemplation of the naval) completes the cliche. But don’t knock yoga till you’ve tried it, and then only with respect.

Yoga means to bind together — variously joining sun and moon, left and right, male and female, and any number of yins and yangs — through ascetic techniques of meditation and exercise. The goal is physical and mental balance.

Indian Hatha’ yoga is best known to Westerners. Double-jointedness isn’t a prerequisite, but the classic lotus position, cross-legged on the floor, soles-up on the inner thigh, either comes naturally or doesn’t.

Then there are more magical/mystical varieties of yoga for which people quit jobs and polite society and retreat to the Himalayas. But not everyone follows a spiritual guide beyond the Beltway; they’d rather take up the discipline at a local ashram or the Y.

Committed practitioners claim yoga leads to intuitive awareness, spiritual harmony, perfect concentration. Others use it to lose weight or quit smoking. Some just like the lift they get from yoga asanas (positions) better than breaking into a sweat with pushups. In any case, it can’t hurt, if done in moderation and with proper guidance.

You don’t need to fall into the stress mode of life. You can use breath to relax, rather than stress, your mind and body. Yoga helps you to relearn that natural state that your body and mind want to be in: relaxation.

Deep breathing is both calming and energizing. The energy you feel from a few minutes of careful breathe is not nervous or hyper, but that calm, steady energy we all need. Slow, steady, and quiet breathing gives a message to your nervous system: Be calm.

Whole books have been written on yoga breathing. Here is one 5-minute Breath Break. (Read through the instructions several times before you try the practice.)

1. Sit with your spine as straight as possible. Use a chair if necessary but don’t slump into it. Feet flat on the floor with knees directly over the center of your feet. Use a book or cushion under your feet if they do not rest comfortably on the floor. Hands are on the tops of your legs.

2. Close your eyes gently and let them rest behind closed lids.

3. Think about your ribs, at the front, back, and at the sides of your body. Your lungs are behind those ribs.

4. Feel your lungs filling up, your ribs expanding out and up. Feel your lungs emptying, your ribs coming back down and in. Don’t push the breath.

5. The first few times you do this, do it for 2 to 3 minutes, then do it for up to 5 to 10 minutes. At first, set aside a time at least once a day to do this. When you learn how good it makes you feel, you’ll want to do it at other times as well.

Just as one stressful situation goes into your next challenge, relaxing for a few minutes every day gradually carries over into the rest of your daily life and activities.

Our mind “knows” so many things and wants to chart a sensible path, but our mind is not strong enough to reign in the wild horses. Yoga helps you to put your mind in control; it helps you to have the strength to do the right thing at the right time. Visit : http://www.jewel-kessler-reviews.com/yogasecrets
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Anyone can practice yoga and not eat a specific diet. Yet, devoted yogis have paid close attention to their diet, as a part of yoga practice, for centuries. For the whole health benefit of yoga, one must pay close attention to nutrition.

Discussions about yoga, and yoga benefits, are mostly centered on the movements of the practice. The focus on holistic nutrition is often swept aside. Yet, this is an essential element of whole body health. In a society where pre-packaged foods are easier to find than fresh vegetables and fruit, no wonder we have the health problems we do.

Paying attention to what you put into your body helps you listen to your body as well. The foods that are encouraged in yoga nutrition are whole foods, mainly of lacto-vegetarian origin. Whole foods are those that are as close to their natural state as possible. No alterations or pre-processing has been done to them.

Basically, they are the simplest, most natural form, of the food available. Whole foods should be eaten close to their original source, and in season, when possible. Buy foods in their natural form, not packaged. Know the source of your food, and make sure it is as chemical and additive-free as possible.

These processed, packaged, and “spoiled,” are classified in the yoga diet as tamasic. Foods that contain excessive spices, or salt, are also classified as tamasic. These foods cause lethargy, laziness, and an intolerant temper. Sound familiar?

Have you ever felt this way after eating a meal high in salt and preservatives? You did so for good reason. These foods do not support the body’s functions or the mind’s balance. They do the exact opposite. Reason becomes foggy and emotions grow dark. Eating too much, which is nearly encouraged in our society, is also classified as tamasic. Isn’t your well-being reason enough to look at a different way of eating?

Yoga, and Ayurveda, classifies food into three categories: Rajasic, Satvic, and Tamasic. Let’s discuss two of those three categories.

Rajasic foods are stimulating and provide energy. Too much of these foods, which are sometimes high fat, can cause restlessness and weight gain. However, in moderation, they can be used in the yogic diet to perform their purpose. Foods in this category are sour or pungent foods, like onions, garlic, curry, meat, and beverages, such as coffee and teas.

The foods to focus, on including in your diet, are sattvic foods. These are the purest foods that promote health and provide an even energy. Honey, fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, lentils, yogurt and other dairy, make up much of these foods.

Rice and grains are also in this category, providing fiber and assisting digestion. Little, to no preparation, is done to the foods before consumption. In this way, nutrition goes undisturbed with foods which are served raw or lightly cooked. These foods provide the highest degree of benefits and nourish the body. Sattvic foods keep the body balanced and are the most thoroughly absorbed and incorporated.

Impure, highly processed, and synthetic foods, not only isolate the nourishing benefits of foods - they also cause imbalanced conditions. These conditions cause discomfort, obesity, and disease. Most diseases are linked to diet in a major way. Seek to create balance in your body through your diet.

Any change in diet is difficult because it is a lifestyle change. Lifestyle changes are the only way to see long-term benefits. This is why fad diets are so terrible for the body. The more widely the pendulum swings, the less equilibrium you will experience.

Ancient yogis very much understood this and sought to balance their body, mind, and spirit, in all ways. While you will find great improvement through regular yoga practice, without intentional eating, it will be limited. Make the effort to create a new life balance for yourself through the yoga diet.

Copyright 2008 - Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, is a co-owner and the director of Yoga teacher training at: Aura Wellness Center in, Attleboro, MA. He is an author of many books on the subject of Yoga and has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995.

http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org