When Yoga is used as a Science of Health and Healing,all its techniques and methods which are basically meant for the spiritual experiences automatically get geared to do their job for the promotion of Health and for bringing the Healing touch to the body and mind suffering from l-health. For this purpose,the approach which Yoga advocates does have three main components:

What science says about the health benefits of yoga

  • First is the practical discipline which involves the practices of Asanas, Pranayama and Meditation.
  • Asanas involve the increased awareness of various physical and physiological processes influenced by controlled stretching.
  • contraction and relaxation of various muscles, their coordination in balancing and during maintenance of Posture etc.
  • Pranayama practices, similarly involve the manipulation of breathing mechanism along with the increased awareness of the pressure changes inside the cavity of chest and abdomen.
  • Dhyana or the Meditational practices increase the awareness of one’s own mental processes including the thoughts, emotions, memory etc. It can make one aware how constant restlessness at the level of mind contributes in the feeling of emotional stress, feeling of constant fear and insecurity. This increased awareness combined with the manipulative techniques of Dhyana practices, gradually restore the psycho-physiological functions back to its healthy, harmonious and balanced state.

Yoga as a science of health and healing

(A) Second component concerns with the regulation of Diet as well as the regulation of Daily Habits involving the pattern of sleep.
recreational activities and working habits. This helps in removing all those irritants which are responsible for the imbalance in the functioning of body-mind complex.

(B) Third component concerns Itself with changes in one’s attitudes, behavior and lifestyle which would help in inducing of sharing feeling of warmth in friendship and concern love and respect for the whole beautiful world. This acts as an antidote for the feeling of hopelessness, helplessness and loneliness which may come in the absence of proper relationship with the world around.Many times when people talk about YOGA: they focus their attention only on the first component involving varieties of Asanas, Pranayama and Meditation techniques. Thus they continue Yoga to a small period of their daily life, as if rest of the day has nothing to do with Yoga. But really speaking the Yogic way of living in the rest of the day is not only equally but more important from the healing point of view. Whatever skills one has learnt from the Yogic practices need to be used throughout the day. In this sense the UPAYOGA: ie the use of the Yogic skills throughout the day needs to be given proper attention. The last two components attend to this Upayoga aspect of Yoga. If you undertake Yoga in this spirit keeping this broad framework in mind and comply with all the instructions given to you, you would find that Yoga gives you not only relief from your problems but opens up new ways of enjoying your life. Ayurveda Panchakarma