Good for all that ails you and now even making it in Forbes. Yoga and meditation among other healthful lifestyle methods has been a large part of many people’s recovery from and avoidance of the psychiatric system in my experience.
From a Forbes article:
About six years ago, Sharon Gutterman hit a rough patch. Gutterman, then 60, a West Hartford, Conn.-based consultant who teaches wellness workshops for resident physicians, went to the doctor’s office to discover that her blood pressure was high. On top of that, she was feeling a lot of anxiety, so her physician wrote her a prescription for an anti-depressant.
But, before getting the prescription filled, Gutterman did some reading and decided she could probably start feeling better not by popping pills, but through practicing yoga…
…medical research that’s been accumulating over the past 10 to 15 years is showing that yoga can provide health benefits that many people may not realize, positively affecting conditions such as heart disease and the symptoms of menopause.
“As far as preventive medicine, it’s as close to one-stop shopping as you can find,” says Dr. Timothy McCall, a board-certified specialist in internal medicine and author of Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing. (read the rest here)
Many more posts on yoga here. Includes some direction.
Peter,
making long term changes in lifestyle habits take time…it’s best to be nice to yourself and let it happen…
Look on Amazon for beginner yoga DVDs. You can read the reviews.
You can also do a search for “gentle yoga” or something like that.
Perhaps some people are able to open themselves more to it. I think it may also be something that has to be a good match with ones temperment. I am not the most patient person, and I have always had trouble sticking with things. I think that if I could do it for a full months, I’d probably be more sold. And I know it would get easier. And I know you only to what you can at first. I need a steady dose of encouragement, or a partner who is in it with me, to have someone to be accountable to. One step at a time… I’m eating better, and being more socially active. And I am writing a little bit. Those are important steps for me.
Gianna, so thanks for the plugs and info you are giving to Yoga, because it may help people like me feel inspired to try it again. I also would appreciate and suggestions for kindiegarten yoga folks like myself… plus recommendations from you and other bloggers on any DVDs that have helped them when they were starting. I don’t have money for a class at this point.
hugs to you,
Peter
I love yoga…have never done it without feeling better afterward…
now I’m so disabled I can only do laying down positions but even simple stuff like child’s pose can feel good…
I know it will play a part in my over all recovery once I start recovering from the chemical injury and can move more.
I’ve been taking yoga since about 1990, intensely for 8 years, and off and on since then.
Yoga is AMAZING for your physical and psychological health.
My style is Iyengar. Mr. Iyengar started the yoga craze and first came to the United States in the 40s. Then a curiosity, it started to get popular back in the 80’s.
If you want the very model of physical health, know this! Mr. Iyengar is now, a healthy, vibrant 90 year old, who is more flexible and strong than I am currently!
His guru, Krishnamachar started almost all the popular lines of yoga today. He lived to a healthy and vibrant 103. He is the teacher of Mr. Iyengar. He is also the teacher of Patthabi Joi who started “ashtanga” yoga, or a more vigorous style. Then, he left his teaching with his son, Desikachar, who started Viniyoga.
There are fantastic DVDS out, some of which I can highly recommend. I have ones that are beginning level, medium level, and ones which are for a healthy back, and other ones that are more relaxing. I just bought a bunch that focus on the “core”.
OK, I’ll stop now, but I cannot hide my exhuberance about yoga and what it can do for your mental and physical health. I just personally started taking private yoga lessons in the style of “core” which is a derivative of “ashtanga”. It’s great to renew my practice.
Yoga has been highly secularized, and might appeal to people in the US. Or, you can go to a yoga place that’s big into a kind of “Hindu” flavor. If you like heat, you can try “Bikram” yoga, where the room is heated to 104F. A lot of people like that if they have stiff muscles.
Best,
Ari
Gianna,
Thanks for posting this. I have high blood pressure and my alternative M.D. recommended I try yoga over two years ago. I took one class for six weeks, but I just didn’t “get it”.
I am now taking enalapril for high blood pressure (After my emergency last November. Read the story http://naturalgal.wordpress.com/2008/11/30/a-blood-pressure-emergency-215139/ )
After all the reading I have done I have decided to be more open minded and give yoga a try again. Last Saturday I attended one class. I meant to attend a class yesterday, but I got confused about the times and got there just as they were wrapping up. So I missed it.
I would like to find a yoga class the clicks with me because evidence shows it helps so many people
i’ve tried “meditation” and that just didn’t work for me. I have a good friend who swears by Yoga – for just about anything.
Having such disappointment in the mediation, I’m slow to try Yoga….
I’m certain that yoga has played a major role in my ability to cope with my daughter’s untimely death and the whole crisis in mental health care that I’ve come to understand since that time.
Yes, dear Svasti you, in my mind, are one of those people I think of when I say it has played a significant role in healing.
Seriously, I think yoga has been a large part of the reason why I’ve been able to remain med-free in my recovery… thanks for posting this!