The most common questions I get about yoga therapy:
What is yoga therapy?
How is it different from a yoga class?
What I think people really want to know is how can it help them.
Let’s dive into it.
What is yoga therapy and how is it different from a yoga class?
Yoga therapy is the specific application of yoga tools-āsana(postures/movement), prānāyāma (breath practices), chanting, meditation, lifestyle changes, and yoga philosophy/teachings to address an individual’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs.
Many of us go to yoga because we’re suffering (or seeking) in some way-whether it’s low back pain, trouble focusing or sleeping, depression, anxiety, stress, chronic tension, etc. and hopefully we also received some benefit.
A general yoga class we go to is likely not going to be designed for what we’re going to the class for.
Yoga therapy uses the tools mentioned about to address our unique needs-yoga therapy to help manage our anxiety, depression, help us sleep better, reduce our chronic tension, etc. A yoga therapist does an in depth intake and assessment so that we can see what’s going on for you and help to discover the tools that will work best for you.
You can read more about the yoga therapy process here.
How does yoga therapy work?
The yoga tradition says that we are multi-dimensional and our condition is also multi-dimensional.
What do I mean by condition? Our experience in a general sense but we can also say it’s our low back pain, stress, fatigue, digestive issues, anxiety, depression, etc.
The multi-dimensional model is called the Pañcamaya Model.
Pañca means 5, maya means sheath.
The traditional imagery for the Pañcamaya model is a bird, but we can think of the sheaths kind of like Russian nesting dolls, 1 placed inside another.
The 5 mayas with anxiety as an example:
Annamaya-the ‘food’ or physical body-our skin, bones, muscles, organs, etc.
Someone with anxiety may experience neck and shoulder tension and jaw tension.
Tools we use for this: āsana, prānāyāma and relaxation techniques
Prānamaya-the vital body. The part of us that controls and regulates the vital functions of our body. This is our physiology-digestion, immune system, nervous system, endocrine system, reproductive system, cardiovascular, respiratory, etc.
Someone with anxiety may experience sympathetic activation/stress, fatigue, constipation or IBS, high blood pressure
Tools we use: prānāyāma, relaxation practices
Manomaya-the intellectual mind. The part of us that is nourished with learning. This is the information we take in, our attention.
Someone with anxiety may experience impaired memory-forgetting things easily, difficulty focusing or be focused on the source of anxiety.
Tools we use: āsana, prānāyāma, chanting and meditation
Vijnānamaya-the personality, the part of us made up of our faith, values, discernment, the stories we tell ourselves (about ourselves and the world around us), beliefs.
Someone with anxiety may believe that their anxiety makes them hard to love, they may hold the belief that they’re not good enough or that everything is out of their control.
Tools we use: chanting + meditation
Ānandamaya-the heart, unconditional joy, bliss, passion, source-the part of us that has the capacity for relationship and experiences of happiness, joy + fulfillment.
Someone with anxiety may feel a lack of joy or faith.
Tools we use: connect to sources of joy, faith + inspiration with lifestyle, chanting + meditation.
Creating harmony at one dimension positive effects the others.
What I love about this model is that it can explain so much of our experience and also addresses the full breadth of the experience as opposed to 1 symptom.
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