Yoga
Therapy
Overview
Yoga
therapy involves using yoga postures to balance and align
your muscles to heal your body from pain and other chronic
health conditions. For me, yoga meant the difference between
living a normal life and living in constant pain. In my case
my scoliosis, TMJ (temporomandibular joint disorder) and many
other pain issues arose from having tight leg muscles that
pulled on my upper body. One of my legs was tighter than the
other, causing one of my shoulder to be pulled lower. The
low shoulder would pull on my jaw, causing TMJ, neck and shoulder
pain. Yoga was the one therapy I tried that addressed the
root cause of my pain issues.
In
yoga therapy, you use a set of posture designed specifically
for your individual problems and imbalances to heal your body.
Often many pain and misalignment issues will clear up in unison
once your muscles are balanced and properly aligned.
Most
medical and even many alternative health practitioners who
treat conditions like TMJ focus only on relaxing muscles around
the jaw, but I think that may not always be the most appropriate
way to approach treating the disorder.
Most
people don't think of relaxing leg muscles to treat neck,
TMJ and shoulder pain, but for me that is what did the trick.
Interestingly,
I noticed that my jaw and shoulder got better when I did stretches
and yoga postures to loosen up my legs. I know it sounds unconventional,
but if you think about it logically it makes a lot of sense.
Visualize
your body as being similar to a three story building. If one
of the supporting beams is shifted and pulled downward, over
time even the top floor of the building will start to sag
downward, too. I think the same thing can be true with the
human body. If you leg muscles are tight, they can cause a
perpetual pull on your upper body. Over time, this constant
downward pull can cause a variety of chronic pain conditions.
I
used to do a lot of hiking and biking, sports that would tighten
up my leg muscles. But I never did many sports or exercises
to strengthen my upper body. So over time my leg muscles become
overly tight and cramped. They pulled on my upper body causing
TMJ, headaches, neck pain, sciatic nerve pain, plugged ears
and related conditions.
Continued
at Yoga Therapy
vs. Physical Therapy
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