Yogic Health Management

Yoga for Health Management with Dr Katie Pullinger is available by appointment.

Yoga helps us to manage ourselves at all levels. This means becoming at ease with ourselves, adapting to life, developing our creativity and wisdom, and taking care of ailments with understanding and commonsense. Yoga complements other modalities – it aims to help each person ‘self manage’ in the best possible way, with the help of caring doctors or other therapists as needed.

When there is illness, yogic management can help by:

• reducing symptoms
• helping us gain an understanding of the ailment, including how our lifestyle and attitudes affect it
• promoting true relaxation – this lets the body’s natural healing capacity flower
• developing our awareness of and connection with our strengths
• aiding us to manage associated stress
• understanding difficulties as a positive opportunity

Yogic tools for managing health include postures (asana). These are useful in some types of pain and in reducing stored muscle tension, and for gently restoring movement and vitality to the body after surgery or long illness.

Breathing techniques are particularly helpful in managing anxiety and fatigue; yoga nidra creates a healing environment of deep relaxation and meditation helps develop greater self-understanding.

Yantra (pictorial archetypes), mantra (sounds) and music work with the deeper levels of the psyche to release deep-seated tensions in a non-intellectual way.

Yoga also emphasises the importance of a sensible, moderate lifestyle including positive relationships, regular sleep patterns and healthy diet.