Safe yoga, of course, is vital, and one of yoga’s most basic foundations is ahimsa — nonharming. It follows that many yoga teachers interested in bringing yoga’s ever more well-researched benefits without harming anyone are doing what they have to to be safe — getting the training they need. They are moving toward a time when yoga is a sustainable component of health care.

One big door of opportunity for connecting these well-trained yoga teachers with elders is discharge planning in medical institutions and nursing homes. A harsh light is shining on hospital readmissions, which are alarmingly high for those with  chronic health issues. A “prescription” for yoga upon discharge — and a real connection to a local senior center or yoga studio that teaches classes like Yoga for Arthritis or Restorative or Therapeutic Yoga (iyiny.org among other places) could cut readmissions dramatically. There are few more effective — and popular, pleasurable, relaxing, affordable, accessible AND evidence-based — practices out there that support an elder’s natural inclination toward contemplation while at the same time destressing their bodies and minds and promoting healing and well-being (shorter hospital stays, less need for meds, less pain, greater balance).  Yoga allows us a more conscious aging — even a more conscious death. It’s such a gift, and one more and more elders will be able to embrace (if you’re reading this and want safe yoga near you, ask your docs and nurse practitioners, make your wishes known! call your local yoga studio, senior center or community center, look online — lots of yoga  going on through linked in and Twitter).

The “kids” would have us all as connected and doing our safe gentle yoga and deep relaxation in real-time, Skype-like, personally tailored yoga sessions and apps already. They’ll certainly have all that when they’re in our shoes.  It’s time to catch up with the inter-webs, but in our neighborhoods and medical institutions as well.

Anyone with me here? Let me hear from you!

I applaud Julia Schwartz-Leper, a real visionary in the field and the head of this conference, for consistently providing the ground for the benefits of yoga to get out there to elders, one on one or through technology. A whole lot of elders in the Bronx meditate and know how to relax deeply because of her.

Conference 2012 flierFINAL

Namaste

1. Safe, Supported, Conscious Movement: Using bolsters, blocks, neck rolls, eye pillows to make ourselves as comfortable as possible, we’re able to move safely and mindfully, helping to nourish and cleanse the body and ease stiffness.

2. Deep Relaxation, or Yoga Nidra: The “Relaxation Response” allowed by this practice can free the body’s healing power, restoring, renewing, relaxing, rebuilding, cleansing. We can often let go at least of the edges of the pain, and sometimes more.

3. Meditation/Making Peace with the Moment: Not easy when we’re in pain. Not easy even when we’re not in pain. But finding peace, contentment, gratitude, stillness and full awareness in the moment — a mainstay of meditation — makes space for the pain and can allow for the release of unnecessary attachments, worries, fears, anger, resentments.

4. The Breath — It has such power, and through yoga, we learn how to use it to lift us up, calm us down, and reach deeply into closed-off areas or pain with a compassionate light that, like sunshine on ice, can begin to melt away layers of strain and suffering.

5. A Caring Community — Too often, pain is isolating, cutting us off from support when we really need it. When we gather with others seeking to ease their suffering through yoga, we become part of a sangha that can be a constant source of inspiration, information and understanding. Even if you’re homebound, wheelchair bound, a #caregiver or not close to a good yoga spot, there are CDs, books, internet groups,  youTube restorative classes and guided visualizations, Twitter and Facebook communities going 24/7 out there, in your reach.

Namaste

Whether we’re waking from pain in the middle of the night or as the alarm goes off, when we are able to use the support of our own beds to gently and safely move — and deepen our breath and compassion for ourselves — we are infusing healing energy and stimulation throughout all the layers of our being.
When we also come to know that we can choose to practice gratitude, mindfulness, Tonglen, meditation and deep relaxation in the context of a welcoming community of like-minded people doing much the same (the usually very cool, smart, creative and kind people who enjoy therapeutic, #restorative yoga), then we have found our way to supporting our own healing power and, often,  lessening our own pain.

Namaste

Yoga Makes A Splash at Integrated Healthcare Conference

Since last year’s conference (which is what this article refers to), Yoga has made huge strides into officially being included in the language of integrative health care. First, the Integrative Healthcare Symposium had its first presentation on therapeutic yoga a few weeks ago. Secondly, it is included, through the International Association for Yoga Therapists and Yoga Alliance, in the new powerpoint presentation available from the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care.

Congratulations to ACCAHC for their $100,000 breakthrough grant!

Our Best Defense

Below are links to help you find knowledgeable teachers who might be near you. I’ve also included links to my ongoing Yoga for Arthritis and Chronic Pain workshops coming up (starting this Sun.!) at Integral Yoga Institute in New York.

Let me know how your search goes.

   Here are three great resources  where you can search for teachers who might be near you.

 http://www.yoga4arthritis.com/Find-a-Teacher.html

http://www.therapeuticyoga.com/people/find-teacher.html

http://www.iayt.org/site_Vx2/profile/search.aspx

On the left is a flyer for my workshop this Sunday, Feb. 26. If you click on the flyer itself, you will be able to get info not only for this workshop but, scrolling down, for the three-week drop-in series in March. 

A few more suggestions for finding safe yoga:

– Your nurse or nurse practitioner might be helpful, although doctors themselves are getting on board as well. The community outreach or public education departments of hospitals and medical clinics are also worth checking.

– Look for yoga studios/teachers offering “restorative” or “therapeutic” yoga.

– Check a teacher’s credentials, but also honor yourself by making sure you are with a teacher or  in a class where you feel your safety and well-being are Priority No. 1.

Namaste