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