Using Yoga to Enhance Coping and Spiritual Development

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Using Yoga to Enhance Coping and Spiritual
Development

• Dr. Christina Jackson

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Yoga means to yoke or union

• Person and the divine reality/God
• Body-mind-spirit

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What is yoga?

• A set of practices, including postures (asanas),
  breathing (pranayama), meditation (dhyana), and
  more
• Though not a religion, provides tools to prepare
  for spiritual enlightenment, facilitate religious
  experience and practice
• Patanjalis Eightfold Path
• These practices can enhance acceptance and
  serenity

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Patanjalis Eightfold Path (the 8 limbs of yoga)

• Yamas
• Niyamas
• Asana
• Pranayama
• Pratyahara
• Dharana
• Dhyana
• Samadhi

• Ethical guidelines
• Spiritual observances
• Physical postures
• Breathing exercises
• Turning senses in
• Concentration/focus
• Meditation
• Union, enlightenment

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Different styles of yoga

• focus on different aspects of the eightfold path
• Hatha yoga focuses on asanas and pranayama to
  achieve self-realization
• Karma yoga is a path to self-realization through
  selfless work and service to others
• Bhakti yoga (devotion to God) consists of
  meditation and prayer. The emphasis on devotion
  can be applied to any religious/faith practice. A
  robust body of evidence shows health benefits for
  those who belong to faith communities.

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Yamas

• Ahimsa
• Asteya
• Satya
• Brahmacharya
• Aparigraha

• Non-violence/harm
• Non-stealing
• Truthfulness
• Moderation/Sexual restraint
• Non-greed/hoarding,
• non-attachment

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Niyamas

• Saucha
• Santosha
• Tapas
• Svadhyaya
• Ishvara Pranidhana

• Cleanliness/purity
• Contentment
• Discipline
• Study of self or scripture
• Devotion/surrender to God

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Postures (asanas)

• Experiencing the body in new ways enables the
  practitioner to view the body and the world
  differently, thus gaining insight
• Seated awareness and body scan
• Mindful practitioners take the practice off the
  mat and into all aspects of life

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From The Mystic Heart by Wayne Teasdale

• Yoga and the martial arts allow us to experience
  our connection with the natural world directly
  and intimately by stimulating our awareness of
  life energy that flows through us. Yoga is a
  spiritual practiceand places the person in a
  unique position to receive many insights and to
  access states of consciousness usually beyond
  reach

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Breathing awareness (ruach)

• Ujjayi breath
• Inhale fully through nose, exhale fully through
  mouth
• Diaphragm drops into belly
• Ocean sound at back of throat (as if fogging a
  mirror)

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Key Spiritual Issues

• Meaning and Purpose
• Love and Belonging
• Hope
• Guilt

• Faith/Belief/Doubt
• Forgiveness
• Mystery
• Transcendence

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Any disruption to physical or mental health
triggers spiritual concerns

• An 18 year old high school track star tears a
  knee ligament. Surgery seems successful, and
  extensive rehabilitation begins. The student
  becomes increasingly irritable and withdrawn.
  Motivation to participate in physical therapy
  declines. The youth makes a suicide attempt.
• What body-mind-spirit issues/crises is this
  youth exhibiting?

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Bodily response

• Pain
• Reduced mobility
• Reduction in production of feel good peptides
  such as endorphins, serotonin, norepinephrine
  (our internal apothecary)
• Withdrawal from these natural drugs
• Mood instability

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Yoga can be practiced by anyone at any time!

• Even altering breathing patterns alters
  production of neurotransmitters and hormones
  (endorphins, serotonin, dopamine)
• Seated yoga experience
• Stretching, breathing, physically resisting in
  new ways becomes an edge experience and
  stimulates positive physiologic changes (PNI or
  psychoneuroimmunology)
• Molecules of Emotion Dr. Candace Pert

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Mind responses

• Loss
• Fear
• Possible guilt or blame
• Disruption in goals and roles
• Reordering of daily schedule and rhythm
• Depression
• Anxiety

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Quell the inner critic and ANTS!

• Yoga slows down the fluctuations of the mind
  
• Patanjali

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Spiritual responses

• Why did this happen? (meaning purpose)
• Am I being punished? (guilt)
• Will I still fit in with my peers (fellow
  athletes)? Where will I belong now? (love and
  belonging)
• What can I do with my life now? What does my
  future hold? (M P)

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Self-study (svadhyaya)

• Illness/disability offers an opportunity
• Asking existential questions invites one to go
  deeper, to examine perspectives
• Finding your dharma- what is meaningful, what
  is your path and higher purpose?
• But many seem unreceptive

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Yoga practice is experiential and without using
words

• It invites pause, enhances receptivity, and
  increases awareness of inner wisdom
• Enhances insight
• Be still and know that I am God Psalm 46
• But exactly how can we become more still?

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The Power of Pranayama

• Slow, deep breathing gt
• Soothes the nervous system gt
• Calms and shifts the mental environment gt
• Enhances feelings of compassion, creativity,
  sense of connection, intuition, and receptivity
  to spirit gt
• Healing and spiritual growth

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Abdominal breathing

• Compare movement over belly and ribcage (are you
  a reverse breather?)
• Follow your breath in and out -experiment with
  Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses to inward
  focus) and Dharana (concentration) during this
  breathing exercise
• Attention to spine and hips during the breath-
  what happens to them?

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Complete (3-part) breath

• Expand belly, chest, shoulders on inhalation
• Exhale fully and slowly with awareness of deep
  abdominal muscles

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What does the research show?

• Improvements in psychological health measured as
  well being, mood, self-esteem, stress/anxiety
  reduction, sense of equanimity and balance in
  daily life, improved cognitive function, improved
  relationships and quality of life.
• Fosters spiritual growth measured as forgiveness,
  empathy, and transcendence of suffering and
  negative experience

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Community (Sangha)

• A valuable yoga concept found with increasing
  frequency in research
• Effectiveness of group support in health outcomes
• Dr. Dean Ornishs work on those with heart
  disease and prostate cancer
• Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinns work using MBSR for myriad
  health challenges

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Cancer and yoga

• Many studies
• Ongoing research
• Improvements in body, mind and spiritual aspects
  of persons leading to improved immune function,
  cognitive restructuring and greater serenity

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The relationship between yoga and science

• Ultimately, science and yoga should not be seen
  as competing. What yoga does well complements
  modern medicines strengths, providing more
  options for people in need of healing. Whileyoga
  and medicine provide very different perspectives
  on health and disease, viewing the world through
  both paradigms can help you see reality more
  clearly and help you make more skillful choices
  Timothy McCall, MD in Yoga as Medicine

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Essential equations

• Pain Resistance Suffering
• Loss of FunctionResistance Suffering
• (function role, mobility, ability)

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Postures, breathing and meditation address
resistance

• Restless thoughts (monkey mind)
• Fear
• Past experiences
• Automatic negative thoughts (ANTS)
• Feelings of isolation (vs connection)

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Use awareness to tune in to all aspects of self
and shift resistance

• Breath
• Body scan head to toes
• Feelings
• Thoughts
• Energy level
• Back to the body- release of tension through
  head, neck and shoulder movements

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Pain Resistance Suffering

• So, yoga practices reduce resistance
• Thoughts and emotional responses can inhibit or
  promote healing
• Even in the presence of ongoing pain or
  dysfunction, suffering will be reduced

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Quick techniques for chaplains/healthcare
professionals to use for self-care

• Breath awareness and body scan to enhance
  mindfulness and full therapeutic presence
• Palming over eyes to release stress
• Third eye focus to access higher purpose and set
  intention
• Quick coherence technique to stimulate flow of
  compassion

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Quick bedside techniques to shift illness
experience gt reduce resistance gt lessen suffering

• Synchronize your breath with clients
• Teach belly breathing 4-2-4, 4-2-8
• Teach palming exercise to relieve tension
• Head, neck and shoulder movements
• Positioning, eg. lowering chin when lying on back
• Guided imagery to access special place of
  healing, and explore meaning
• Where in your body are you feeling this
  emotion? What does this mean to you?
• What color is your pain? What color would it be
  if it was gone? Can you transform it?

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Create a healing environment

• Music
• Nature
• Aesthetics (beauty)
• Build loving community (sangha)

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Health as expanding consciousness

• Nursing theory developed by Margaret Newman, PhD,
  RN
• Non-judgment about illness experience- detachment
  from outcomes
• Openness to growth in mind, body and spirit as a
  result of illness and at end of life
• Can be a stretch for many of those in our care
• We can create that space for them, imagine, and
  hold them in the light

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every yogi has grown old, and even though they
are in remarkably good health, they still get
sick and die...As these inevitable changes come,
a yogi can be content with the fact that the
physical body he or she has worked so hard to
balance and gain subtle control over is really a
temporary phenomenon.

• Richard Freeman, Yoga Workshop, Boulder, CO