As always, the answer is “maybe”.

The two things going through my mind in these circumstances are “Would Yoga make this worse?  If so, how to guard against that?” and “How may Yoga actively help?”.

Initially, after an injury, we may have inflammation, bruising and shock – depending on the severity and circumstances of the injury you may need to rest.  There is, of course, a difference between, say, an injury from overdoing it in the garden or gym, verses being caught up in an accident – the latter brings added psychological stresses.  If you attend a Yoga class regularly then your first port of call regarding Yoga is your Yoga Teacher – they can let you know if it’s appropriate to come along, or whether it’s best to take a break.   If you practice Yoga by yourself, or from online sources, then you will need to feel your own way with caution.

Generally, as a Yoga Therapist, my advice would be caution, although in most cases some gentle mobilisation of an area when it can be tolerated is helpful, and in the meantime Yoga relaxation practices can be beneficial.

So, what about longer-term recovery from an Injury?  Well, here Yoga can nearly always help, whether it’s physically bringing strength or release to an injured area and its surrounding tissues; using Yoga practices to help us tolerate pain; or helping us deal with shock and anxiety if we have been in a traumatic situation.  Working with an experienced Yoga Therapist or Yoga Teacher is vital here, to choose the right practices and give you the support you need.

Yoga Therapy is not a substitute for emergency healthcare, so if you have urgent issues, please speak to your GP, NHS 111, or other Health Professional.

You can learn more about my practice as a Yoga Therapist, and in particular how I work with Injury and Rehabilitation, and book appointments, at https://www.yinspire.co.uk/yoga-therapy/

Jessica – Minded Yoga Therapist

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Yes, No, Maybe.  The answer is more nuanced.

Stretching is thought to help loosen the body and give us more flexibility, and within Yoga there can be a cult of flexibility alas.  However, the opposite of flexibility is rigidity and tension, and without rigidity and tension we would probably fall over every time we moved.  Extreme flexibility has another name – it becomes a strain when we overstretch and overstress ligaments in an accident or ill-judged movement.

So, we need to approach flexibility with caution – we want it matched with strength as a start, and we want enough flexibility to allow us to move fully, easily and pain free, but without creating laxity and instability.

Sometimes the word “stretch” itself is unhelpful as it creates a goal driven approach to a range of movement for its own sake – a better term for what we do to the body’s tissues in Yoga could be “stress”, as in stressing them.

Within our bodies, not all tissues are created equally – soft tissue in our body ranges from muscle tissue which moves dynamically through to ligaments and tendons which have more of a connecting and stabilising function, making them susceptible to strain.   It could be said that muscles like to stretch, and other tissues like to be stressed, although that is a little simplistic.

Moving away from the purely physical, a stretch in our muscle fibres can help release psychological stress and relax us via receptors in our muscles called “Golgi Tendon Organs” and a process known as the Reverse Stretch Reflex; so if we are tense and experiencing stress psychologically, some gentle stretching can help a lot; Yin Yoga, which I largely work with, is especially good at this, as it takes a slow, measured and controlled approach with support. 

So, in summary, some stretch is good, but strength and rigidity have their place as well; the key is to be flexible where we need it and have rigidity elsewhere.  Of course, this is Yin and Yang.

Finally, it should be said that this is quite a technical area, known as Biomechanics, although even the validity of this term is disputed at times on the grounds that it’s misleading to think of the human body as a machine.  On a personal note I have over 1,000 hours of training as a Yoga Teacher, some of which was spent classroom based studying the properties of tissues, and some of which was spent in a dissection room exploring these tissues practically; paradoxically, and I know others who have found this, the more I learn, the less prescriptive I become, as there is so much human variation.

You can learn more about my Yoga Classes at www.yinspire.co.uk, where you can book a class and find out more about my studio in Brading, Isle of Wight. 

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With complexity comes both the risk of things going wrong, and the need for care – in both cases very applicable to our Nervous System.

Many people have heard of the concepts of the “Fight or Flight” and “Rest and Digest” responses in our Nervous System.   These refer respectively to the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic branches of our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS).  The ANS is the part of the Nervous System behind the scenes controlling functions like respiration, circulation, and digestion, as well as feeding information to and from our brains and from there to and from conscious awareness.

The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) helps us prepare for action – anything from planned movements to reaction to danger and is especially active when we need to respond quickly to something – hence “Fight or Flight”.  The Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) is the system which helps us rest and consolidate – digest our food, relax with our loved ones or friends, enjoy a book or film – hence “Rest and Digest”.

So far so good.  But the balance between these two branches of the ANS is a complex one, and we can easily get out of balance.  For example, our SNS can get overstimulated, so we overreact to small things, and continue to remain in a Sympathetic state long after the immediate need has passed – think about a situation where something small causes you to overreact and you are edgy for hours afterwards?  Long term over stimulation can be co-existent with Anxiety, Stress, Pain Conditions, Digestive Complaints, Inflammation, and a host of other issues.

The SNS can get demonised, but the PNS can also cause things to go awry – for example with extreme Parasympathetic responses, which could range from depression to freeze in response to trauma.   The work of Stephen Porges on Poly Vagal Theory helps explain some of these extreme responses.¹

Keeping the ANS healthy and both branches working effectively is an important part of our health and wellbeing.   Used intelligently, Yoga can help with this through both physical practices and via sitting practices like breathing or mindfulness.  My go to practice for developing resilience and wellbeing in the Nervous System is Resonant Breathing² which is part of a range of practices which can cause a Relaxation Response (Benson)^2,3 – there are also other Yoga practices which, as a Yoga Therapist, I may recommend to help address the problems my clients face.

However, in as much as Yoga can help, it can hinder if inappropriate practices are chosen, hence the need to work with an experienced Yoga Therapist or Yoga Teacher who can help you look at the wider picture of your health.

One final thing – Yoga Therapy is not a substitute for emergency healthcare, so if you have a serious health issue, please speak to your GP, NHS 111, or A&E.

You can learn more about my practice as a Yoga Therapist, and book appointments, at www.yinspire.co.uk/yoga-therapy/

Jessica – Minded Yoga Therapist

1 – Book: The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation – Deborah Dana (2018)
https://www.yinspire.co.uk/book-the-polyvagal-theory-in-therapy-engaging-the-rhythm-of-regulation-deborah-dana-2018/

2 – https://www.yinspire.co.uk/relaxation-response-and-coherent-breathing-a-review/

3 – https://www.yinspire.co.uk/book-relaxation-response-herbert-benson/

The post Our Health and Our Nervous System – And How Yoga Therapy Fits In appeared first on Yinspire Yoga Therapy.

If you ask Google “what is yoga” then, at the time of writing, you get 2,660,000,000 results – clearly a number of views!

If you were to look at some of the first results that come up, a variety of images will catch your eye.  The yogi in flowing white robes mediating serenely; the lyrca clad gymnast in a moody loft studio, concentrating on their balance or form.  You may see an image of one of the gods or goddesses of yoga such as Shiva or Shakti, Lakshmi or Ganesha.  Or maybe you fix on images of a yoga class in any one of thousands of school halls, church rooms and small studios the length and breadth of the country, with men and women like you and I taking part.

The word Yoga translates literally from its native Sanskrit as “join” or “union”.  Sometimes “yoke”, as in yoking cattle.

Early Yoga philosophies are diverse and varied – there are many early definitions, themes, and roots to Yoga, often contradictory. 

Some of the earliest writing about Yoga is in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, written around 500 CE, and this tends to be popular in the West as a set of relatable principles.   The opening verses give us an expanded definition of yoga, “Yoga is control of thought-waves in the mind, so that man can abide in his true nature”.   In the original Sanskrit this is “yoga chitta vritti nirodhah tada drastuh svarupe vasthanam“. 

But what does that mean? And how does it relate to archetypes described above?

Thought waves in the mind is the stuff that distracts us and holds us back, the things that stop us fulfilling our potential as individuals – thoughts, emotions, reactions, memories, trauma, stresses.   Our true nature is to understand and rise above these.  Yoga helps us do so.  This is the unity explicit in the word Yoga; our minds, bodies, and spirit in unity.

I would re-interpret that as a process of wellness – releasing everything which holds us back so that we have well-being.  Release from limiting behaviour; limiting belief; a limiting relationship with the full expression of ourselves. Release from conditioned responses to day-to-day events; an awareness of how and why we move, think and do.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Viktor Frankl

So to me, Yoga is a process of personal wellness – physically, mentally, and spiritually. 

Increasingly I also interpret Yoga as a process of personal insight and understanding, reflecting that insight and understanding must be the foundation of any agenda of personal change.

I’ve no doubt that each of the google results are unique and emphasise different aspects of yoga – my thoughts above are just a vignette of these wider thoughts.

It’s worth touching quickly on what Yoga isn’t.  

Yoga isn’t a religion – Yoga has roots in ancient Hindu philosophy and, according to some sources, many other ancient religions, and philosophical systems.   It can be a spiritual practice; however it is not a religion; there is no dictation as to what you do or don’t believe, or how you interpret God, divinity and spirituality.  All Yoga asks is that you approach everything in life with an open mind, including faith and belief. 

Yoga isn’t physical just exercise and flexibility – it includes movement and body control, sometimes quite strongly, and it will help with fitness, but its basis is much wider.  

Over centuries – and the roots of yoga stretch back to about 4000 BCE – Yoga has changed and adapted.  In the 20^th century it moved from East to West and adapted to reflect the needs of a different culture, and yet our modern Yoga practice still leans on ancient wisdom, reframed for the modern world.

You can learn more about my Yoga Classes at www.yinspire.co.uk, where you can book a class and find out more about my studio in Brading, Isle of Wight. 

The post Yoga Ancient and Modern appeared first on Yinspire Yoga Therapy.

However free isn’t necessarily good – of course, as a Yoga Teacher running in person classes, I would say that, wouldn’t I?

Yoga has many benefits, physically and psychologically, but does need to be used with care.  For example, if you have health issues or injuries, some practices may not be suitable.  Equally there are some practices – especially breathing and meditation practices – that are advanced and need to be approached with care.  An experienced Yoga Teacher can help you unlock the practices that are best for you. 

At a very simple level, when I am teaching Yoga postures, I often see people in class copy someone else and trying to make the same shape, but without appreciating subtle aspects of setting it up, or without using extra support in the right place.  As an example, I often teach Supported Inversion, which is a very relaxing posture for most people; it looks similar to Shoulder Stand with the addition of a bolster for support, but that bolster changes everything – from Yang to Yin!

So, my recommendation is that anyone who is serious about unlocking Yoga’s many benefits should start off with an experienced Yoga Teacher, either in class or one on one – a Beginners Course can be good for this.

Now, that said, Yoga’s benefits come from little and often, so once you have learned the basics, rolling out your mat at home and doing half an hour every day or so is going to cement the benefits of what you learn in class.  In due course you can experiment a little and follow some of the various YouTube offerings, knowing that you can be safe in your own practice.

And finally – money.  Yes, coming to classes, or attending private sessions, costs money.  So why pay for something you can get for free?  Well, I’ve set out some reasons above.  Yoga itself is not owned by anyone, and its benefits should be freely available to all – something most Yoga Teachers would probably agree passionately about – but for those who have trained to train and help others, their time, training and experience needs to be valued. 

You can learn more about my Yoga Classes at www.yinspire.co.uk, where you can book a class and find out more about my studio in Brading, Isle of Wight. 

The post Can I do Yoga by Myself or Do I Need to Come to a Class? appeared first on Yinspire Yoga Therapy.

Behind this joke, however, is a truism – we tend to gravitate toward simple health solutions, and a pill for everything.

In reality, our health is more complex than that.  The medical world used to use a Biomedical model of health which looked at the physical aspects of illness and paid little attention to social or psychological factors.¹ 

In the late 1970s Engel and Romano² proposed a model known as the BioPsychoSocial model of health which has stood through to current times and is now considered to be a more nuanced and comprehensive approach to health. 

It postulates that health and disease has various components – Biological, Psychological and Socio-Economic. 

Biological factors refer to physical issues like tissue damage or chemical imbalances, very much like the Biomedical model.  These are obvious constituents of good health or illness.

Psychological factors cover how we think about our health, and our outlook on life.  For example, suppose someone has had surgery on their knee.  Their outlook could be “My knee is awful – I have to take a lot of care with everything and pain relief just to get through the day”.  However, the outlook could also be “My knee is brilliant now – so long as I take care, and take my pain medication regularly, I get through the day just fine”; essentially these are the same statements from a differing perspective.   Of course, psychological wellbeing is a lot more than having a permanently sunny disposition, but there is no denying how we feel psychologically affects our health.

Socio-economic factors cover variables like lifestyle, work, family, and wealth.  Better socioeconomic factors correlate with better health³, and by contrast our health can suffer if we are concerned about relationships, friendships, work, or money.

Where the BioPsychoSocial model works well is the interaction between these factors – we pick up a minor injury, say strain our back (Biological); we worry (Psychological) about not being able to work to support our family or enjoy our hobbies (Socio-economic); the worry and isolation makes us tense and this in turn means our back pain gets worse; so we worry some more; and rapidly you have a vicious circle.

This comes back to that opening example.  Sometimes taking a Paracetamol is glossing over the real problems we need to address.  By way of example, the correlation between peoples’ experiences of back pain and tissue damage observed in medical imaging is not all that strong – many people experience pain with no tissue damage evident at all, or experience pain long after the injury has healed – showing health and wellbeing is more complex than absence of Biomedical factors.

Paradoxically that complexity can be our ally – when medications and other treatment don’t provide relief, we know we can also look at how Psychological and Socio-economic factors are affecting us.   Do we need to change our outlook?  Or make some lifestyle changes?  And these do not have to be complex, maybe some more sleep, a diet change, or some fresh air each day.

Where does Yoga Therapy come into this?   Well, Yoga is a Mind Body discipline so uniquely works across the different aspects of this BioPsychoSocial model.  Yoga Therapy can therefore work very well alongside the treatments from your Doctor or Specialist.   In particular, Yoga can help both physically with tending to our bodies, and with the psycho-emotional aspects of how we react to illness and injury, and how we organise variable aspects of our lifestyle. 

Likewise, Yoga Therapy can help us develop the wisdom to have a psychologically healthy and realistic outlook on life and make the lifestyle choices that support good health.

Just like a pill isn’t a cure all, neither will be Yoga Therapy – but using a BioPyschoSocial model we can help work out strategies for improving our health and wellbeing.

One final thing – Yoga Therapy is not a substitute for emergency healthcare, so if you have a serious health issue, please speak to your GP, NHS 111, or A&E.

You can learn more about my practice as a Yoga Therapist, and book appointments, at www.yinspire.co.uk/yoga-therapy/

Jessica – Minded Yoga Therapist

1 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomedical_model

2 – The need for a new medical model: a challenge for biomedicine
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/847460/   

3 – Effects of Socioeconomic Status on Physical and Psychological Health: Lifestyle as a Mediator
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30669511/

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The answer it turns out is “maybe”.

The two things going through my mind in these circumstances are “Would Yoga make this worse?  If so, how to guard against that?” and “How may Yoga actively help?”.

Initially after an injury you may have inflammation, bruising and shock – depending on the severity and circumstances of the injury you may need to rest.  There is, of course, a difference between, say, an injury from overdoing it in the garden or gym, verses being caught up in an accident – the latter brings added psychological stresses.  If you attend a Yoga class regularly then your first port of call regarding Yoga is your Yoga Teacher – they can let you know if it is appropriate to come along, or whether it is best to take a break.   If you practice Yoga by yourself, or from online sources, then you will need to feel your own way with caution.

My advice is always to be cautious, although in most cases a gentle Yoga class with an experienced teacher is more likely to help than hinder.

So, what about longer-term recovery from an Injury?  Well, here Yoga can nearly always help, whether it’s physically bringing strength or release to an injured area and its surrounding tissues; using Yoga practices to help us tolerate pain, or helping us deal with shock and anxiety if we have been in a traumatic situation.  Working with an experienced Yoga Teacher is vital here, to choose the right practices and give you the support you need.

Most of my classes are suitable for rehabilitation from injury, although it’s useful if we can speak first so I have a perspective on your situation.  You can learn more about my Yoga Classes at www.yinspire.co.uk. 

I can also work on one with people as a Yoga Therapist and this can be useful if you feel you need some more personalised attention – learn more on my Yoga Therapy website, www.yinspire.co.uk/yoga-therapy

Yoga is not a substitute for emergency healthcare, so if you have urgent issues, please speak to your GP, NHS 111, or other Health Professional.

The post Will a Yoga Class Help When I’m Injured? appeared first on Yinspire Yoga Therapy.

I would admit there is a stereotype, often fed by the media, of a typical yogi.

But, honestly, it’s far from the truth.

So, as a Yoga Therapist, Yoga Teacher, and a Yoga Practitioner, I can honestly say Yoga is, or can be, for everyone.

You don’t need to buy special fashion, give up wine and carbs, wear sandals, or grow a hipster beard – although any of those are, of course, permissible! 

Equally you don’t need to be especially bendy, have a particular body shape, gender, colour, or creed.  

You don’t even need to be fit and well – Yoga Therapy helps you toward this and is suitable for most conditions and injuries.

Really the only thing you need to start with Yoga is an open mind and some time. 

Some of the techniques and concepts we use in Yoga may be new to you, but its fine, you don’t need to learn a lot – one of the important things for me as a Yoga Therapist is to keep my work with you very simple and straightforward.  And its why we call Yoga a “practice” – because you keep practising!

We live in an age of the quick fix, and Yoga Therapy is in many ways the antithesis of this – a slower and, arguably, more sustainable approach to wellbeing.

A private Yoga Therapy session is a good way to see if Yoga can be for you, as you get the private attention of a skilled Yoga Therapist, and the worries of a room of strangers is taken away.

If you have an inkling the health benefits of yoga may help you, but you don’t know where to start, this could be the way in?

You can learn more about my practice as a Yoga Therapist, and book appointments, at www.yinspire.co.uk/yoga-therapy

Jessica – Minded Yoga Therapist

The post Yoga & Yoga Therapy for Everyone appeared first on Yinspire Yoga Therapy.

Our Nervous System is working all the time in the background, mediating physiological responses in our body, acting as a silent watchdog and regulator, passing information between brain and body in a near instantaneous two-way street.

When too much is going on we can start to feel overwhelmed and out of control.

Yoga is a great way to help balance this out.  It doesn’t have to be ambitious and advanced – some simple stretches and some attention to our breathing will do us the world of good to start with.  Some people find learning about Mindfulness, Meditation or the Eastern concepts of the Energy Body help as well, although they are not an essential part of starting out with Yoga.

Although you can learn some simple calming Yoga from YouTube or a book, there is no substitute for working with an experienced teacher at the outset, as they can gently guide you in the direction of practices that might be helpful.

In time you can almost certainly pick up some simple routines to use at home – ten minutes of “Yoga first aid” can make a difference when life gets on top of you.

If you have a busy life, maybe home and care responsibilities, or a high paced job, then its worth remembering you can’t pour from an empty vessel – taking some time out for yourself isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.

As a Yoga Therapist as well as Yoga teacher, Stress and Overwhelm is a specialist area of mine.  All my group classes are suitable for helping people calm and attend to themselves, and if you would like more personalised attention, I can help one on one as a Yoga Therapist.

You can learn more about my Yoga Classes at www.yinspire.co.uk, where you can book a class and find out more about my studio in Brading, Isle of Wight.

The post Calm – Taking Time Out for Ourselves appeared first on Yinspire Yoga Therapy.

Unsurprisingly it was a bit of a shock, and I had to lean heavily on Yoga to help me through. 

Modern techniques have improved surgeries like joint replacement tremendously, however they are still quite an assault on the body and emotions. 

Let us look at how Yoga Therapy can help.

Before surgery, the idea of “prehabilitation” – prehab – is a good one; getting yourself ready physically and psychologically for surgery.  Certainly, being as physically fit as you can be will help your recovery, but often the dilemma exists that you may have limitations with exercise and movement – Yoga can help here as it can provide options for gentle non aggravating exercise.  For myself, a combination of Yoga and cycling was my preparation.

It’s also important to be emotionally fit before surgery – there is evidence that pre surgical stress can make your recovery more difficult.^1,2   Again this is something Yoga is well placed to help with, through relaxation practices.  Coherent Breathing was my go-to practice, as it both calms the Nervous System and helps foster physiological and psychological resilience.

Immediately after surgery you will need bed rest for a few days, and you may find yourself a bit stiff from being in bed – a little bit of upper body Yoga and some seated twists can easily be done in bed, as can some simple Yoga breathing practices, e.g., Coherent Breathing.  I found the second night post-surgery to be the most painful, even with medication, and breathing plus some Kiritan music – yoga chants – helped me through a night of very disturbed sleep.  

Post-surgical pain and insomnia can be helped with Yoga based breathing practices – when things are flared up a practice like gentle Ujjai breathing with an extended exhale will help stimulate the Parasympathetic Nervous System which will be downrated in such situations and provide an element of “Yoga First Aid”.  Longer term Coherent Breathing will help balance the Nervous System and improve Heart Rate Variability, which can be compromised in the immediate post-surgical period.²

As recovery progresses there are a host of areas where Yoga can help. 

Physically, your Physiotherapist will lead, but Yoga can support their work with you.  Your body will be adapting physically to a slight difference in the joint, which will create various tensions and imbalances, which Yoga can help correct.  Yoga also offers opportunities for gentle strengthening and release of muscles and tissues disturbed during surgery, and opportunities for gentle mobilisation to move synovial fluid around and lubricate the joint.  

Where Yoga can also help post joint replacement surgery is addressing some of the emotional issues.  Some people, and by no means all, can experience an element of disassociation from the new joint, and Yoga offers opportunities to, quite literally, welcome the new joint into the body.  There may be new limitations or adaptations to movement patterns to adjust to, and this can present as many psychological challenges as physical ones – again this is an area where Yoga provides support in developing a more reasoned outlook.  For some people there may be ongoing pain or unusual sensations, and Yoga provides tools for helping to assimilate these.

In short, pre surgery, immediately after surgery, and during rehabilitation, Yoga can support joint replacement and, for that matter, other surgeries.   However not all Yoga is created equally – you need to work with an experienced Yoga Therapist or Yoga Teacher – as the wrong choice of practices could set you back.

You can learn more about my practice as a Yoga Therapist, and book appointments, at www.yinspire.co.uk/yoga-therapy

Jessica – Minded Yoga Therapist

1 – Effect of pre-surgical stress on recovery of patients undergoing hip replacement procedure https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27120945/

2 – Dynamics of Vagal Activity Due to Surgery and Subsequent Rehabilitation
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31827417/

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It’s an old play on words, but many people think that flexibility and mobility is a prerequisite of starting a Yoga practice.  This couldn’t be further from the truth; one twee, but accurate, adage is “Yoga isn’t about touching your toes, its about what you learn on the way down”, so even if you are not in perfect health or fitness, Yoga is, literally, for every-body!

Of course, there are different styles of Yoga, and not every style is suitable for everyone, so look into the class you are signing up for and ask the teacher some questions if necessary.  That said, with an experienced teacher in a suitable level class, most injuries and restrictions can be catered for in some way. Picked the wrong class and found it’s not suitable?  Talk to the teacher, or ask around, and there will be something else more suitable.

If you have health concerns, or feel self-conscious about starting a group class, then most Yoga teachers offer private session to get you going and these may be an excellent way to ease yourself into attending class regularly.

So, what will a regular Yoga practice achieve?  Well, you may learn to touch your toes if you can’t already, or you may learn that being able to touch your toes actually isn’t the most important thing in life.  For the most part you should come out feeling calmer, looser, and generally more upbeat, which isn’t a bad thing.

You can learn more about my Yoga Classes at www.yinspire.co.uk, where you can book a class and find out more about my studio in Brading, Isle of Wight.

I can also work on one with people as a Yoga Therapist and this can be useful if you feel you need some more personalised attention – learn more on my Yoga Therapy website, www.yinspire.co.uk/yoga-therapy

The post Yoga for Everyone. I can’t do Yoga! You Can! appeared first on Yinspire Yoga Therapy.

Practising Yoga at home will help cement its benefit in working on wellbeing or health issues, but with a few caveats, which I will touch on below.  Indeed, if you want to see real change with Yoga Therapy you need to commit to some personal homework.

If you are working privately with a Yoga Therapist or Yoga Teacher, they should be able to give you suggestions as to suitable Yoga routines for home, and maybe even write out a programme for you to follow – in the Yoga Therapy world we sometimes refer to this as a Yoga Prescription.

Otherwise, you may want to take the favourite parts of a typical Yoga class you attend, and work from there.

Now, a few things to note.  First, you don’t have to do a full-length class everyday – most classes are 60-90 minutes long, and that’s a big chunk out of your day.  Starting with a consistent 15 or 30 minutes a day, five days a week is better.

Also, practising from home is not the time to push things – you will not have your Yoga Therapist or Yoga Teacher overseeing what you are doing, so keep things simple and unambitious – look to consolidate what you know, rather than experimenting too much, but equally be playful. 

Do not be too rigid with a home practice – you do not need to do everything.  One of the best skills a Yogi can learn is discrimination – what is right for me today?  Done is better than Perfect.

If you have to miss a day or shorten a day, don’t be hard on yourself, life happens; but where possible try to be consistent as to the time you set aside for Yoga each day, and maybe create a ritual and a quiet area dedicated to Yoga.  The latter doesn’t need to be a room devoted to yoga, maybe just a corner of a room or a little altar – and shut the door, grab a cuppa and switch your phone off.

Finally on these caveats, a daily Yoga Asana (yoga postures) practice can be quite hard on the body – so when you move away from weekly or biweekly classes to your own daily practice, you will want to incorporate more Pranayama (yoga breathing) and sitting practices such as Mindfulness or Meditation.

As a Yoga Therapist, my daily practice is normally five mornings a week, taken with my first cup of coffee, and most days about 45 minutes, maybe longer one or two days a week.  A large part of my practice is spent with Coherent Breathing which I use to support my body and Nervous System with a busy life; I will normally do some other breathing practices as well, and maybe some simple seated yoga postures.  I have a few go to routines for how my mind and body is feeling on any given day.  The sense of rhythm and continuity is important for me, and if I miss my morning practice for more than a few days I notice it.

If Home Practice is daunting for you, ask your Yoga Therapist or Yoga Teacher for advice, or you can book a session with myself in person or online over Zoom.   I have some routines on my website which may be a help to get you started.

You can learn more about my practice as a Yoga Therapist, and book appointments, at www.yinspire.co.uk/yoga-therapy

Jessica – Minded Yoga Therapist

The post Yoga Every Day (or so) – Taking Yoga Home appeared first on Yinspire Yoga Therapy.

Additionally, joints can become injured in accidents, causing accelerated wear and damage to our joints, again a cause of pain.

So, can Yoga help?  Yes, is the simple answer, although the more nuanced answer is Yes, with care.  There are various styles of Yoga, and faster paced and stronger Yoga styles may well exacerbate joint problems.  So, a slower style may be best, with a teacher who has time to help you get comfortably into postures.  However, that’s not to say you shouldn’t stress your joints just a little in your Yoga practice, as a little bit of stress can help with healing and strengthening – the trick is not too much, not too little.

Another area where Yoga can help is in managing pain when things are flared up – pain is best considered on a so-called Biopsychosocial basis and working with our Nervous System can help us reframe and tolerate our experience of pain.

Sometimes our joints deteriorate to the point where we need surgery, and maybe a joint replacement – hips and knees are common for this – but many other joints as well.  After a joint replacement people are quite often very cautious about movement and exercise, and Yoga, with the attention of an experienced teacher, can be very helpful in building up strength and confidence post-surgery, and done with care is perfectly safe.

A few years ago, I injured my knee in an accident, which led to having to have several surgeries including a knee replacement – so I have lived some of the experiences that joint problems bring.

You can learn more about my Yoga Classes at www.yinspire.co.uk, where you can book a class and find out more about my studio between Brading and Ryde, Isle of Wight. 

I can also work on one with people as a Yoga Therapist and this can be useful if you are struggling with joint problems – learn more on my Yoga Therapy website, www.yinspire.co.uk/yoga-therapy

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Additionally, our Nervous System can be put under strain by medications, pain relief, and other aspects of our treatment, or by flashbacking to accidents, trauma, and injuries.

The first line treatment is, of course, the Consultants, Doctors and Nurses, and then down the line Physiotherapists to get us – literally – back on our feet.

However, people are often discharged from medical care and still have restrictions and worries, which is where Yoga Therapy can help with longer term rehabilitation in various ways, in particular:

• Helping to calm the Nervous System and post treatment stress and anxiety
• Help us to come to terms with short-term and long-term restrictions and changes in our mobility
• Helping to strengthen the body and regain confidence in our physical bodies and movement as we heal
• Helping us to deal with unhelpful memories and flashbacks from accidents and trauma
• Promoting our sense of self-worth as we heal
• Developing coping strategies for longer term conditions
• Preparing for planned surgeries and dealing with pre surgical stress and worry, part of a process of Prehabilitation (Prehab)

How I work with Rehabilitation

The starting point is an assessment of your injuries or surgeries and how they affect your daily life, including any other treatment you have had, medications, therapies, and any diagnosis.  I do this both on a BioPsychoSocial basis – looking at things from a Biological, Psychological and Social perspective – and from a Yoga perspective using Yoga’s understanding of energy and wellbeing.

From there I will probably work with tailored range yoga postures, breathing exercises and relaxation practices to help with regaining strength and optimal movement in your physical body, alongside healing the mind and emotions.  This will include looking at your posture and movement patterns.   You won’t be asked to enter any postures that cause pain or discomfort.

I may work with mindfulness practices to help foster self-love – these practices, known as Metta practices, help to reduce the sense of blame, self-criticism and what ifs that can follow injuries and surgeries.

I’ll suggest practices to work with at home to reinforce our clinic-based work.

I’ll happily fit in alongside any specific guidelines from other health professionals, e.g., Consultant, GP, Physiotherapist.  You can see me whilst still under medical care but do let your Doctor know.  If necessary, I will make suggestions for onward referral to other professionals.

Yoga Therapy is not a substitute for emergency healthcare, so if you have urgent issues, please speak to your GP, NHS 111, or other Health Professional.

You can learn more about my practice as a Yoga Therapist, and book appointments, at www.yinspire.co.uk/yoga-therapy

Jessica – Minded Yoga Therapist

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Yoga can help a lot when you are working with back pain, alongside your Doctor, and other specialists like Osteopaths, Sports Therapists and Physiotherapists.  However what Yoga approach is best, and when, is important.

If your back is in a flare up situation, then quite often the most important thing you can do is relax to allow the Nervous System to cope with pain.  Restorative Yoga can help with this, using a lot of props and support for the very gentlest Yoga poses; Yoga breathing practices, known as Pranayama, can also help to settle our Nervous System.

Outside of the flare ups, a mixture of strengthening and release will help build resilience in your spine long term, and Yoga is well placed to provide this.  However, it needs to be both an incremental practice, and a practice of perseverance – some people with back pain suggest they need to attend to their spines regularly to avoid flare ups.

It’s important to build strategies to look after our spines on the good days and the less good days, and to learn to take care of ourselves and cultivate resilience.

My classes at Yinspire are all back friendly, and I can adjust the Yoga practices we use to protect your back if it is irritated.

The modern approach to back pain is to consider a BioPsychoSocial basis – looking at things from a Biological, Psychological and Social perspective.²  This is something I specialise in as a Yoga Therapist, and I can work one on one with people to address these issues.

You can learn more about my Yoga Classes at www.yinspire.co.uk, where you can book a class and find out more about my studio between Brading and Ryde, Isle of Wight. 

I’ve written a lot more about Back Care and the Biopsychosocial approach on my Yoga Therapy section of my website, https://www.yinspire.co.uk/yoga-therapy/

One final thing – if you have sharp onset pain with no obvious cause, or are in any way concerned about your health, please speak to your Doctor or NHS 111.

(1) Low Back Pain – How Common Is It? https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/back-pain-low-without-radiculopathy/background-information/prevalence/

(2) The need for a new medical model: a challenge for biomedicine
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/847460

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There are many problems we can have with digestion – short term if we have made ill-judged choices of food and drink or over indulged – and who hasn’t?  Or longer term if we have conditions like IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), with related constipation or diarrhoea; Inflammatory Bowel Disorders like Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn’s Disease; Reflux; Bloating, or we find other health conditions or medication affect our digestion.

Digestive problems can affect our self-image which can in turn create other problems around anxiety and depression and, of course, life sometimes needs planning around toilet stops.

Causes of Digestive problems vary, and diet is only part of this.  Quite often conditions like stress and anxiety have a big impact on our digestion through numerous pathways in the body, and we can get stuck in a rut where our digestive health and psychological health interact and drag each other down in a spiral. 

Yoga Therapy can help with digestive health in various ways, in particular:

• Understanding triggers and causes of your digestive symptoms, e.g. stress, diet, lifestyle
• Relaxation techniques to deal with flare ups and calm the Nervous System, which in the long term can help mitigate the impact of conditions like IBS and inflammatory IBD type symptoms
• Developing coping strategies and resilience
• Postures that may alleviate bloating and discomfort or bring better awareness to the digestive area
• Developing self-care routines for digestive health

How I work with Digestive Health

The starting point is an assessment of your digestive health and how it affects your daily life, including any other treatment you have had, medications, therapies, and any diagnosis.  I do this both on a BioPsychoSocial basis – looking at things from a Biological, Psychological and Social perspective – and from a Yoga perspective using Yoga’s understanding of energy and wellbeing.

From there I will probably look with you at your lifestyle and consider how lifestyle and psychological issues may impact digestion.

We will work with yoga postures, breathing techniques and relaxation practices to both support digestion and address any other health or wellbeing issues you are experiencing.  You won’t be asked to enter any postures that cause additional pain or discomfort.

We may also use mindfulness practices to help with inducing better digestion, and to promote self-kindness and a positive outlook around body image and digestion.

I won’t be giving a lot of advice about diet – you will almost certainly have heard this before and be making steps, although I will review diet with you on a neutral basis if asked.

I’ll suggest suitable practices and routines to work with at home for promoting digestive health.

I’ll happily fit in alongside any specific guidelines from other health professionals, e.g., Consultant, GP, Dietician, Nutritionist or Naturopath.

One final thing – Yoga Therapy is not a substitute for emergency healthcare, so if you have serious digestive problems which have come on suddenly or without obvious cause, please speak to your GP, or NHS 111.

You can learn more about my practice as a Yoga Therapist, and book appointments, at www.yinspire.co.uk/yoga-therapy

Jessica – Minded Yoga Therapist

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Yoga can help a lot with knee pain but can also hinder – the devil is in the detail.

Our knees are one of the toughest and most resilient joints in the body and can tolerate a lot of use and varied movement; however, when they do become irritated the pain and discomfort is often all encompassing.

The first thing to say is not to be scared about Yoga and knee issues.  If you have knee problems then nearly all Yoga postures can be adapted to care for your knees, and an experienced teacher can guide you in the best way to approach this – that might be padding or support or changing the orientation of a posture to take weight out of knees.

It is also worth saying that a gentle approach to Yoga often seems to pay dividends – a mixture of strengthening and release is important.  Alongside this, and maybe paradoxically, relaxation will help – this is because stress and tension exacerbate aches and pains, and turning away from them gives us a break.

Equally important is not to overstress the knee joint during our Yoga, especially if it is irritable or inflamed.  But paradoxically it is also important not to be overprotective, as that can lead to so called fragility², and undermine our strength and our trust in our bodies.

Knees are something close to my own heart – not only do I have two, but I injured one of them very badly in a 2017 accident, leading to a knee replacement.  So I know from personal experience the paradoxes around caring for a temperamental knee.

All my classes at Yinspire are “knee friendly”, and I can also work one on one with you if you need personalised attention.  Learn more at www.yinspire.co.uk

(1) 2011 study at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3408027/  by Nugyen et al.

(2) Are Yoga Teachers Making Us Fragile? – https://yinyoga.com/are-yoga-teachers-making-us-fragile/

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However sometimes pain continues longer than may normally be expected after an injury or surgery, for example long term back pain, or pain after an accident or surgery, or pain which arises without obvious cause, such as Fibromyalgia. 

There is no fixed time limit for the transition between classifying pain as acute (short term) or chronic (long term), but generally pain that isn’t improving over some months could be considered as Chronic Pain.

We know that Chronic Pain can be linked to other health issues including stress, anxiety, and depression, although cause and effect may be mutual.  We also know that Chronic Pain can have a subconscious psychological aspect – due to the Nervous System becoming over sensitive and incorrectly interpreting pain signals from the body.

Yoga Therapy can help with chronic pain in various ways, in particular:

• Understanding triggers and causes of your pain
• Relaxation techniques to deal with flare ups and calm the Nervous System.  Over time this can help the Nervous System recalibrate itself
• Helping you develop a go to routine for dealing with pain, including understanding which postures and practices are helpful and unhelpful
• Developing coping strategies for longer term conditions
• Developing a sense of resilience and psychological wellbeing, which we know is important in dealing with long term conditions

How I work with Pain Conditions

The starting point is an assessment of how you are experiencing pain and how it affects your daily life, including any other treatment you have had, medications, therapies, and any diagnosis.  I do this both on a BioPsychoSocial basis – looking at things from a Biological, Psychological and Social perspective – and from a Yoga perspective using Yoga’s understanding of energy and wellbeing.

From there we will probably work with yoga postures, breathing practices, relaxation work and mindfulness practices to help regulate and stabilise your Nervous System.   

I will look at any other conditions which may be interacting with your experience of pain, including posture and psychological health, and see if there are practices we can use to support dealing with these.

You won’t be asked to enter any postures, or undertake any practices, that cause additional pain or discomfort.

Additionally, I will suggest suitable practices to work with at home that will support our clinic-based work, and I’ll happily fit in alongside any specific guidelines from other health professionals, e.g. Consultant, GP, Chiropractor, Osteopath, Physiotherapist.

One final thing – Yoga Therapy is not a substitute for emergency healthcare, so if you have acute pain which has come on suddenly or without obvious cause, please speak to your GP, NHS 111, or A&E.

You can learn more about my practice as a Yoga Therapist, and book appointments, at www.yinspire.co.uk/yoga-therapy

Jessica – Minded Yoga Therapist

The post Yoga Therapy for Pain Conditions appeared first on Yinspire Yoga Therapy.

Our bodies and minds need a little stress, it keeps us on edge, but generally in modern society we trend toward too much stress.  Too much stress can affect us physically and emotionally, from heart conditions and back pain, through to anxiety and depression.  The load stress places on our bodies is called “Allostatic Load”, and when this gets too high, we become susceptible to disease -literally dis-ease – and stress related illness.

Yoga is well placed to help with these issues.   Simply taking time out to focus on ourselves can be a start.  Add in some attention to how we place our bodies in simple yoga postures, how we breathe, where our minds are wandering off to, and Yoga can help make a real change.

Like many things perseverance is important, so a regular Yoga class, ideally backed up with half an hour every day or so at home, will help build resilience over time which allows us to adapt better to stress and bounce back from times when we get over stressed. 

If you are interested in using Yoga to deal with stress, then it really is best to work with an experienced teacher – books and YouTube have their place, but a teacher’s eye can notice the subtle things that help you get more out of your practice.

As a Yoga Therapist as well as Yoga teacher, Stress related conditions, and an understanding of their physiology and psychology, is a specialist area of mine.  All of my group classes are suitable for dealing with stress, and if you would like more personalised attention, I can help one on one as a Yoga Therapist.

You can learn more about my Yoga Classes at www.yinspire.co.uk, where you can book a class and find out more about my studio between Brading and Ryde, Isle of Wight. 

I’ve also written a lot more about Stress and Yoga on my Yoga Therapy website, www.yinspire.co.uk/yoga-therapy which is worth a read.

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The interesting thing we know is that peoples experience of pain and actual tissue damage is not always well correlated – put simply some people experience back pain despite a physically healthy back; others experience little or no pain despite back injuries.  Even where there is known damage to their back, peoples experience of pain can vary tremendously. 

This shows that back pain is complex and requires more than mere corrective exercise; often the root of the problem can be in the wider life. 

And back pain can be pernicious – it may stop us enjoying our out of work interests, affect our working life, affect our relationships, or simply get us worried and down – and this creates a vicious circle making our back pain worse.

Yoga Therapy can help with back pain in various ways, in particular:

• Helping you to understand that you are more than your back pain, however bad it gets
• Understanding triggers and causes of your back pain
• Relaxation techniques to deal with flare ups and calm a hypersensitive pain system
• Understanding and correcting unhelpful postural tendencies
• Strengthening the muscles in the back and its supporting area, as well as releasing areas of tightness
• Helping you develop a go to routine for back health
• Developing coping strategies for longer term conditions

How I work with Back Problems

The starting point is an assessment of how you are experiencing these conditions and how they fit into your daily life, including any other treatment you have had, medications, therapies, and any diagnosis.  I do this both on a BioPsychoSocial basis – looking at things from a Biological, Psychological and Social perspective – and from a Yoga perspective using Yoga’s understanding of energy and wellbeing.

From there I will probably look at your posture and movement patterns and consider how stress and social issues may be impacting your back problems.

We may work with relaxation techniques and with combinations of movement, strengthening and releasing through yoga postures.  You won’t be asked to enter any postures that cause additional pain or discomfort.

I will suggest suitable practices to work with at home for your back and provide a suitable routine.

Obviously, I’ll happily fit in alongside any specific guidelines from other health professionals, eg Consultant, GP, Chiropractor, Osteopath, Physiotherapist.  If necessary, I will make suggestions for onward referral to other professionals.

One final thing – Yoga Therapy is not a substitute for emergency healthcare, so if you have acute back pain which has come on suddenly or without obvious cause, please speak to your GP, NHS 111, or A&E.

You can learn more about my practice as a Yoga Therapist, and book appointments, at www.yinspire.co.uk/yoga-therapy/

Jessica – Minded Yoga Therapist

The post Yoga Therapy for Back Pain appeared first on Yinspire Yoga Therapy.