Ranjana Chhabra, Professional Yoga Therapist, Explores Five Effective Yoga Therapies for Overcoming Trauma
In the journey towards trauma recovery, the ancient practice of Yoga Therapies offers transformative tools for holistic healing. This article explores five yoga therapies that integrate body, mind, and spirit interventions, effectively aiding those affected by trauma. By focusing on specialized yoga therapies, we can understand how they promote healing, resilience, and emotional stability in the aftermath of traumatic events.
Five yoga therapies for trauma recovery
Traumatic events can occur in several ways, affecting our physical, mental and even spiritual well-being. Conventional medicinal therapies are often limited to healing us physically, but yoga heals both body and mind, offering a sense of calm and mindfulness. From asanas and pranayamas to meditation, the holistic wellness offered by yoga helps us explore our minds and reinvent ourselves. Yoga not only empowers us in their healing journey but also provides unique inclusive methods to release anxiety and grief from preventing trauma recovery.
Research reveals that yoga therapies merge the physical and mental impact of trauma through spiritual healing and awareness. It acts as a bridge to safely reach our inner self to restore control or emotions that have been affected by a traumatic experience. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), yoga has been found to offer immense psychological advantages – reducing anxiety and stress and inducing an increased feeling of emotional welfare. The entity also suggests that yoga can be instrumental in lowering heart rate and blood pressure while also helping to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, meaning it helps to relax the body after a moment of stress.
Yoga therapies for trauma recovery can help release stress responses from our bodies. When our chakra loses its balance as a result of a traumatic experience, pranayamas and asanas help restore our functioning by healing our physical and emotional distress. These practices help reduce levels of the cortisol hormone, which is released in the bloodstream as a result of stress. Yoga helps us to balance our cortisol levels, assisting us to maintain ideal health. It also helps to improve emotional awareness among users, facilitating calmness and tranquillity inside the body.
Five beneficial yoga therapies for trauma
1. Cleansing techniques: Recovering from trauma using yoga therapies begins with specialised cleansing techniques to rid the body of any toxins. We must perform Shatkarma Kriyas, a set of yogic cleansing practices, to purify and restart the body’s internal system before practising yoga. These techniques expel piled-up toxins and waste from our bodies, creating a cleansed environment that promotes positive energy flow. In Gheranda Samhita, a Sanskrit text of Yoga, Maharishi Gheranda has described six primary and a total of 21 cleansing processes, which can be helped by Neti Kriya.
The Shat Kriyas are another influential cleansing technique that helps individuals to undergo a complete mind-body cleanse. These kriyas can also help individuals explore further into one’s yoga asana practice by bringing the body back to its true and most powerful state.
2. Proper dietary practice: Similar to the cleansing techniques, we also need to eat proper and healthy food before practising yoga. Diet plays a crucial role in the journey to recovery, which is why healthy eating habits become important before practising pranayama and asanas. Mindful eating after offering a prayer to God helps prepare our body and mind for yoga.
3. Asanas: Asanas or body postures are the yogic term for physical posture to extend holistic healing to our body. These postures are performed to enhance our bodily flexibility, strength and balance to heal the joints, and ligaments and strengthen muscles. Asanas like the child pose (Balasana) and cat-cow pose (Marjari asana) are instrumental in trauma recovery, as they offer benefits like an improved digestive system, lengthened spine, reduced stress and anxiety as well as settling menstrual cramps and stiffness.
4. Pranayamas: Pranayamas or yogic breathing exercises help clear the physical and mental distresses to ease breathing and promote the flow of prana or life force. In Sanskrit, the word prana refers to life energy and the word ayama means to extend or expand. However, many scholars say that the word comes from the Sanskrit word yama or control. These breathing exercises offer numerous benefits like improved sleep, reduced stress and anxiety, improved breathing, low blood pressure and improved cognitive function. Pranayamas like Diaphragmatic breathing and om chanting help us to rediscover ourselves from the deepest corners of our minds with regulated breathing and gather positive cosmic powers in our mind, body and spirit.
5. Meditation: Mindfulness meditation or preksha meditation helps us to access the holistic healing power of yoga, enhancing recovery from traumatic events. Meditation also helps us understand our pain, reduce stress, connect with our spiritual and astral self in a better way, improve focus and decrease tension.
Yoga empowers trauma survivors by accelerating recovery through holistic healing. This ancient wisdom enables us to begin a therapeutic journey to recovery. This approach cultivates a non-judgmental awareness and uplifts us to access our emotions with proper awareness and promotes physical and mental recovery without criticism.
Yoga therapies offer a robust framework for addressing the complex layers of trauma. By incorporating these therapies into their recovery process, individuals can experience profound transformations, not only healing from past traumas but also building resilience for the future. As yoga continues to gain recognition in the field of mental health, its role in trauma recovery becomes increasingly significant, providing a pathway to renewed strength and peace.
