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By Suneel V. Sundar.
Summer
2006 - Number 10
It is Too Late |
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The word "therapy" comes to English from the Greek "therapeia"
meaning 'healing'. That is, the origin of the word presupposes
some extant disorder or disease, and then therapy comes to relieve it post
hoc. But if we use yoga only to address the harms of the past, we lose
its greater utility. Yoga is not a finger plugging the dam; yoga
constructs an impenetrable dam at the outset.
Patanjali wrote "heyam dukham anaagatam" in the Yoga Sutras, the
first written treatise on the subject of yoga, composed more than two
millennia ago. B.K.S. Iyengar translates this as "The pains which
are yet to come can be and are to be prevented." There is no
better way to ease an affliction than to ensure that the affliction never
manifests.
Yoga is not a panacea. In fact, yoga is absolutely ineffective in
treating pains one has suffered.
But what good is philosophy to one who is in pain? A yoga
teacher cannot in good conscience send an afflicted student away, telling
her that she ought to have taken better care of herself. Conversely it
would be irresponsible to assign the same generic series of poses to every
student complaining of a particular affliction.
Here is a yogic guide to alleviating the discomforts that may come.
Follow the sequence in precisely the order given, for any deviation nearly
guarantees the contrary result.
1. THINK
2. ACT.
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Namaste!
Archive of Yoga Therapeutics Articles:
Summer 2000: Number 1- Introduction to Yoga Therapeutics
Spring 2006: Number 9 - Women’s Health: A Sequence for a Healthy Menstruation
Summer 2006: Number 10 - It is Too Late
Spring 2007: Number 12 - Yoga Therapeutics for Lower Backs
Stress - Helpful Tips
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