Yoga Stretching and Relaxation for Asthma
Asthma leaves clues. You can and should read and educate yourself about Asthma symptoms but asthma leaves clues in your posture.
Years ago my family were watching a TV show in which we had to spot which of 3 people who were presented was the “real” one and who was not. Many clues were given to help us. One of the clues was asthma and my father had spotted the asthmatic amongst the others by his posture.
Naturally my father was asthmatic and so was I.
Asthmatics have difficulty breathing and this gives rise to raised and tense shoulders and tension in the chest area. This is easy to spot and means a permanent difficulty in breathing properly even when not suffering an asthma attack.
One of the clues in the asthma breathing pattern is the huge “in breath”. In fact one theory is that asthma is even caused by too much “in breath” compared to the “out breath”.
So there is a pattern of imbalance and tensions in the body and in breathing and that makes Yoga a good strategy for treating asthma.
That does not mean that it is the only response to asthma but a system that has been teaching people to relax and to stretch for hundreds if not thousands of years clearly has lots to contribute towards our modern stressful lifestyle.
I’ve found an excellent Yoga video by a Yoga Teacher called Esther Ekhart where she clearly explains and shows you some helpful Yoga stretching.
I was very impressed by the clarity of her teaching and if the stretches shown are done gently and carefully and under the gaze of a good Yoga teacher, I’m sure they’ll be helpful.
What do you think? Has Yoga or any other kind of exercise helped your symptoms?
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