YOIMU Yoga & Immunity Achoo! sniff sniff Oh, the joyful sound of winter coming. Every year it seems a cycle of viruses pays us a visit, but why? I have pondered for years why must I be the one who is sick religiously? I scan the room to see the accounted peer who are sharing this dry, crusty, rudolph nose. What can those healthy and happy be doing that I am not? We all know to take our vitamins, there must be another secret to one strengthening their immunity. I started a new journey in my life approximately 5 years ago. It was a form of self study. This key of enlightenment is formally known as yoga. While reading my assigned yoga material, I noticed in the amazing book, The Heart of Yoga, the correlation of the asanas with the detox and rejuvenation the body is gifted. Its true when we practice yoga, we can benefit our bodies in more ways than just stretching our ligaments, or strengthening specifically in muscle mass or joints. There are certain yoga poses that I will elaborate on, that I can offer you to try to gain a stronger immune system. Start by practicing savasana, or corpse pose (Yoga for lymphoma web source). Take the time to sit still, enjoy these moments of peace. By doing this simple task, you are shutting your body off from fight-or-flight mode (Sympathetic system), and into the parasympathetic system, or rest mode. By allowing your body to go into full rest mode, you allow your body to utilize its energy to fight any diseases off but also to calm down and not attack the healthy bodies that your body naturally produces to aid in fighting off bacteria. Through relaxation, the nervous system can tell the immune system to settle down and stop attacking the foreign bodies, which are naturally cleared out by sneezing once or twice a day. When the immune system backs off inflammation and mucus decrease resulting in symptoms to diminish (WWW.active/fitness/articles/How-yoga-can-boost-your-immune-system-com). Another simple action to take is one of the most important attributes of yoga, the pranayama-breath. It was stated in the book by Desikachar, The Heart of Yoga, ...someone who is troubled, restless, or confused has more prana outside the body than within. The amount of prana outside the body is greater when we are not well. (Pg. 54; The Heart of Yoga) The breath essentially brings more energy, life, and offers cleansing vitality. If you find this change in your everyday lifestyle isnt offering enough healing you may wish to bring your focus to your thymus gland. This is the area that causes sinus-related conditions. Located in the chest, the thymus gland is the locus of the immune system. Your thymus gland will benefit from any poses that open the thoracic areas. Thymus gland and immune system are stimulated by any posture in which we open the chest and breathe deepy into it....beneficial poses... are cobra, the pigeon, the fish, the boat, the bow, and the bridge. (Balancing the immune system with yoga by Jeff Migdow, M.D.) What I want to bring to your attention is for most poses there are safe alignments to be aware of before beginning your practice. In cobra pose, for example, you would want to lie flat on your mat, tuck your hips in creating space for the lower back, and then lift up engaging the core, while shining the heart forward, and rolling the shoulders up and back down your back, creating space for the thoracic area. This will ensure you do not pinch your lower back, and it will allow for more oxygen to disperse in the body from greater lung capacity. The lower back and watching your placement of your hands (so that you do not cause stress in your wrist), I feel, are the most crucial points to be aware of in this particular pose. When you do any poses with your hands as a base, make sure they are evenly flat, and lightly grip your mat with your fingertips. For pigeon, I would state the front knee is your greatest area of concern. You want to make sure that you place your back leg out flat on our mat first, square your hips, and then again adjust your front leg as close to a 90 degree angle as your body will allow with out causing too much discomfort. You also dont want to harm the ankle, when your psoas muscle is shortened you may find you need to come out of certain poses, whether it be both sides or just one being tighter, so that you are not putting your weight or stress on the bending ankle. Again, in this pose tuck your hips, engage the core slightly in the lower abdomin, and make sure you always contain a tall, elongated spine, with a slight chin tuck for optimum benefits and safety. A counter pose for cobra could be reversing the direction into downward facing dog. Reversing the direction of the heart shining up and out to pushing it down towards your mat. Balance is a highlight of yoga. A counter pose for pigeon could be warrior 1, because in your pigeon you are lengthening and in warrior you are using the same areas but lifting and strengthening. Always be cautious of your joints, making sure there is always fluidity, along with the fire and earth you use for strengthening and stability in your practice. We must always look in ourselves, for this as we stated earlier, is not a race or a comparison, but a journey of self-study. You may also combine your asanas with your different pranas to receive greater results. Certain sounds or mantras also benefit in correspondence with these essential tools used in daily yoga practice. ...postures can be enhanced by including chakra sounds such as the 4th chakra bij mantrayum or ...ay...Ujjayi breathing...where the chest is open can also be beneficial. (Jeff Migdow M.D.) All of these tools are essential in bringing clarity to the mind, calmness to the body, and allowing your body to strengthen as a unit. By becoming overwhelmed in our every day lives, we can participate in the opposite direction by weakening our immune systems. As everyone has heard the saying stress kills. Psychological stress doubles the chances of a person getting a cold when nasal passages are invaded by cold causing viruses. (WWW.active/fitness/Articles/How...) When we can gain control of our senses, breath, body and mind and gain unity; we become healthier in a holistic approach. Yoga has also been proven on a scientific level to have genetic benefits and you can see the health changes occurring on a micro-level. ...researchers drew blood from each participant. They then isolated and analyzed peripheral blood mono nuclear cells, which play a key role in the bodys immune system...yoga produced changes in 111 genes vs 38 compared to the benefits of walking or listening to relaxing music. (WWW.salon/2013/04/26/can_yoga_boost_your_immune_system) With science research I will summarize that we can be assured yoga can benefit our body, mind, and spirit in many ways most importantly on our topic today during such a cold time, our immunity. I hope that this essay has brought new ideas and support to light, in supporting the positive effects yoga bestows on each participant. Now, when the winter comes, you can greet it with a smile knowing you are prepared with a stronger immune system. Written by: Sho Stenftenagel
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 18:57:04 +0000
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