Yoga for Cancer Patients
Patients can benefit by taking up yoga for cancer. Yoga is a holistic healing tradition that that aims at creating a balance between the body, mind and spirit. For individual’s battling or recovering from cancer, yoga helps strengthen the immune system and restores the body’s balance that was compromised by the illness, allowing the patient to cope and attempt recovery.
While this is not an alternative cure for cancer, it is an alternative therapy for cancer. Yoga incorporates a series of gentle exercises, breathing techniques and meditative practices that increase energy through the body. It allows patients to experience a sense of well being and strength. Internally, it rehabilitates the body’s systems by boosting circulation, respiration, digestion and soothing the nervous system. Yoga also helps the patient find the emotional strength to battle the illness.
Yoga provides the body with all the tools it needs to cope with and fight cancer.
Breathing: Yoga promotes deep breathing. Human emotions are affected by breathing patterns. Anxiety and stress result in shallow and erratic breathing, which in turn interferes with the body’s flow of oxygen. Using the same logic, by controlling breathing, you can boost the energy levels and induce a sense of calm. By following yoga’s deep breathing techniques, you can now consciously calm the nervous system and beat off depression and anxiety.
Meditation: This is a therapeutic practice that teaches you to sort through the chaos and calm and centre the mind. Meditation helps to develop awareness, focus and clarity. It gives you the strength to accept the reality of your condition and deal with it. Through the practice you can see past the illness and embrace the treatment program with a positive spirit. Your mind now learns to relax, recuperate and heal.
Yoga Posture: A gentle workout gives your body the exercise it needs. It also enhances body functions by flushing out harmful toxins, strengthening the joints, muscle groups, and ligaments. It improves the body’s flexibility, stamina and strength. The yoga postures crank up the body’s energy levels and induce a sense of well being in the practitioner.
In addition, yoga practice can be modified depending on the type of cancer and the part of the body most affected. For example a patient afflicted with breast cancer will benefit from the practice of upward salute, eagle pose and cow face yoga poses for cancer as they target and rehabilitate the very areas of the body affected by breast cancer cells.
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