Heal Yourself With Yoga: The Roundup
Throw a rock. You’ll probably hit someone who has used the practice of yoga to heal themselves, in some way. In fact, OA’s very own Laura Klein credits this ancient science for the pain-free living she enjoys today. From insomnia to Carpal Tunnel to fatigue, PMS, sciatica and back pain, we’ve got you covered on how to use yoga to heal what commonly ails us. Check it out.
1. Yoga for Insomnia
It happens to all of us… well, except for the anomaly or two among us. We are utterly exhausted. We’ve got a ton on our minds. All we want to do is sleep so we’ll be rearing for the day ahead… but it just won’t happen. We lay in bed, the same thoughts rolling over and over again incessantly, preventing us from getting any shut eye. The next time you wake up at 2:00 in the morning, frustrated with sleeplessness, give yourself this 15-minute practice, so your body gets what it needs to sink back into sleep…
2. Yogi Your Way Out of PMS
It’s hard to feel like the empowered goddess that you are when you just ate the contents of your freezer in its entirety (you hit the fridge yesterday, snack cabinet the day before…), the Bounty commercial is making you cry and you’re cramping all over the place. Sure, amidst all this, the last thing you want to do is roll out a yoga mat and get to it, but a few asanas (yoga poses) have proven to relieve the symptoms of PMS. And you don’t have to stand on your head or do anything too complicated… unless you want to. Check out these postures the next time your four-day agony starts to kick in…
3. Yoga for Fatigue
Unfortunately, fatigue is an all too common part of life. While it’s a seemingly normal response to over-exertion, lack of rest, emotional stress and even boredom, the low energy and lack of motivation that results hardly begets any sort of turn around, you know? But, while fatigue certainly makes it hard to get proactive, there’s one little tool you’ve got waiting patiently in your back pocket: Yoga…
4. Yoga for Back Pain Relief
More folks deal with back pain than don’t: In fact, 80 percent of people at some time in their life will come up against back problems. But back sufferers need not be reliant upon a bottle of pills that don’t even get the job done. Yoga poses that stretch and strengthen the spine and increase its range of motion have been found to make all the difference. Start slow and gentle with these exercises to get yourself on the road to healthy, pain-free posture…
5. Yoga for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Most commonly associated with avid computer users (and I’m sure smart phones aren’t helping the situation!), Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is far more than an annoyance and can sometimes prove so painful that the affected hand is simply unusable. Studies have shown that a yoga practice can have an alleviating effect on Carpal Tunnel sufferers. Researchers found that yoga helps because it eases the compression of the affected nerves, improves blood flow and creates better joint posture…
6. Yoga for Sciatica
Sciatica… sucks. And anyone who has it is well aware of this painful reminder. The pain is the result of a compression and inflammation of the spinal nerves which cause a sharp pain to radiate from the lower back down the leg and foot in a pattern determined by the affected nerve. It can feel electric in nature… but not in a good way. Some aspects of yoga don’t seem to jive with sciatica, such as forward bends and twists. But other yoga poses are not only admissable, but are absolutely therapeutic, for the sciatica-suffering yogi…
top image: lululemon athletica
