Connecting ancient wisdom
with modern life
The ancient practice of yoga offers benefits for our physical, emotional and mental wellbeing, especially with technology creeping ever deeper into our lives.
Why yoga is relevant now more than ever
The comforts and conveniences of today shape our lives in ways we barely notice. We live in homes that shield us from the weather so that we often hardly notice it at all. We can buy a lettuce or mango in winter when it's out of season. We can turn on a light whenever we want. And entertainment and global events are at our fingertips on our screens, every day. All this brings elements of comfort and opens up lots of opportunities. Yet, we forget that none of this is “normal” when we think about human biology and evolution.
There’s a gap between what our bodies expect and the world we inhabit. When our choice of food or drink is freely found at any time, we end up sensing thirst less keenly and highly processed foods found in every supermarket can dull our ability to recognize hunger. Mindlessly scrolling while we sit for hours totally lessens our sense of movement. Our ancestors lived without the comforts that surround us today and out of necessity moved more than most of us do.
Chronic stress disrupts our nervous system, drains our energy and disconnects us from our body's natural state of ease, and we no longer feel good in our bodies. The constant buzz of stimulation from devices overloads the nervous system and raises the threshold needed to feel grounded, which may lead to emotional numbness and difficulty in really feeling our physical sensations.
Social media stimulation can lead to cognitive fatigue: the ‘always on’ state may leave one feeling both constantly wired and deeply disconnected from reality, not to mention disrupting our connections with others. But, at the same time, today’s tech also makes life much easier and offers us more choices, assuming we choose to use them.
Still, what good is all this tech and power if we can't stay grounded and self-regulated enough to use it sensibly? Change must unfold through mindful connections in our everyday lives, starting with a better harmony between our bodies, breath and mind. This is yet another reason ancient practices like yoga hold such value today.
Accessible Yoga
When we are recovering from an injury or illness and we allow the body to be nurtured by our own caring self-talk and soothing self-touch, the return to health takes a very different path than if we push and force the body to 'bounce back'. It can be frustrating to accept delays in the return of our mobility which can sometimes lead to further injury by expecting more from the body than is reasonable. Following a serious fall or accident we may never regain the full range of movement we had earlier which can be challenging to come to terms with both mentally and emotionally.
When we lack strength and mobility due to aging or disease, yoga therapy creates an accessible, manageable practice to use at home. A mindful practice engages our breath and draws our focus to sensations in the body so that we can notice what is happening each moment and modify our practice with a sense of presence. A therapeutic practice guided by a yoga therapist is self-managed self-care.
Yoga therapy has been recognised in the USA since 1989. Yoga therapy in Australia is fast catching up while Yoga therapy in New Zealand is becoming more known.