Yoga Chikitsa: The Healing Therapeutic Potential of Yoga
- Oren Zaslavsky
- Aug 1
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 1
Dear Friend,
I hope you are enjoying a summer vibe and/or vacation, and occasionally maybe having some casual time outdoors. Hopefully the feet are getting a lot of air time and the skin some sun time, although bright warm sun light is a bit scarce these days. I love this time of year, not so much because of the weather which I find lovely anytime, but because city life seems to move somewhat slower, and the general tendency to rush and hurry is lower than usual.
Health and wellbeing is one of my main interests and concerns for the past 15-20 years. I am quite passionate about it for my own benefit but mostly as part of my role as a yoga teacher, which I consider to be part of the health and wellness facilitating or moderating professions. Like everyone, I have occasionally been in a doctor's office with some health concern, and in most cases felt very frustrated to discover they don't provide much useful help, and very often I've even found myself left off in a worse shape, if not physically then definitely mentally and emotionally. As someone who deeply believes in science and the scientific method, these experiences with medical professionals always keep me baffled and confused, it's very hard to come to terms with how a whole professional field that is heavily relying on scientific methods and findings can be so unhelpful in so many ways.
Before I go on, I have to make sure I maintain some intellectual honesty about this topic, therefore I want to emphasize that I am clearly not an expert in medicine, and that there are obviously various physical conditions for which the conventional medical approach can be very useful, maybe even crucial, particularly when it comes to diagnostics, or in emergency life and death situations, or in treating severe diseases such as some types of cancer or heart conditions, in treating and preventing infectious diseases, it also seems to work quite well in fixing broken bones and particular joint malfunction, and there are definitely a few other conditions that can be treated fairly well by medical professionals. Also, physiotherapy seems to be effective in some cases. And so, even though I might present a biased opinionated point of view, I recognize that this matter is much more nuanced.
There are two main reasons that the conventional medical field is ineffective in various cases, and it is surpassingly connected to why yoga tends to be effective in what it does, particularly when in comes to health and wellbeing:
Doctors are generally trained to treat disease and sickness, not to improve health. As an experiment, I tried a few times to ask a doctor to help me reach optimal health and they were all either clueless (the honest ones) or spat out some generic clichés about exercise, diet and sleep, which is not their fault at all—they simply haven't been trained to do that. Treating disease and optimizing health require very different skill sets and a completely different approach.
The conventional medical view of a human being is distorted at the deepest level. Doctors are taught to look at the body while completely ignoring their patient's life circumstances, their feelings and moods, and their relationships to others and themselves which are very important factors that obviously play a huge part in the overall physical state of an individual. Even more so, most doctors specialize in a specific part or system of the body while knowing or caring very little about what is happening elsewhere. This approach of looking at the human body as though it's made of separate parts, much like a car, is so deeply wrong on many levels, and is bound to fail even if there are some isolated short term benefits.
The yoga therapeutic approach, which is essentially the general yoga approach since yoga is primarily a healing methodology (both preventative and curative), is to emphasize what is working well rather than focus on what is dysfunctional which is what medical professionals usually highlight and emphasize. When we are repeatedly put in situations when we are bombarded with information about how our body or psyche may be broken or malfunctioning, we tend to respond with fear, anxiety, depression or stress, all of which cause major harm and most importantly compromise the healing or recovery process. At any given moment, even on our death bed, there are many more things working well in the body than not. That doesn't mean that we avoid making an effort to resolve our ailments, but the approach and attitude has huge consequences which the conventional medical field is only now starting to realize, and is still taking baby steps to change.
There is another important difference between the yoga and the conventional approach to health, and that is not exclusive to yoga. There are other similar approaches that are particularly prevalent within the alternative medical field profession to different degrees, and that the bio-psycho-social (BPS) approach which is an holistic model that perceives human health as the result of a dynamic interaction between:
Biological factors - involves the physical and physiological systems of the body, e.g., genetics, physical health, injury, infection, immune system function, hormones and brain chemistry, physical trauma or illness.
Psychological factors - focuses on the mental and emotional processes that influence health, e.g., thoughts, emotions, states of mind like stress, anxiety, and depression, behaviors, coping skills, personality traits, beliefs about illness and recovery, past trauma.
Social factors - recognizes that health is affected by relationships and cultural context, e.g., relationships and other support systems, culture, environment, work conditions, socioeconomic status, stigma or discrimination.
The biomedical model, which only focuses on the body, often misses the full picture, especially in chronic cases, some specific structural or muscular conditions, or in auto-immune diseases, various mental health issues, and many more.
The bio-psycho-social approach treats the whole person, not just the disease. It sees health as an interaction between body, mind, breath and also environment — aiming for deeper understanding of the individual, more personalized care, and treating the person as a complete being in order to get better outcomes in both physical and mental health.
How can yoga contribute when it comes to dealing with some ailment, pain, or any type of health struggle?
First of all, yoga is there to guide us to come into ourself, to establish a kind, compassionate and caring relationship with our body, our breath, and our mind, to see ourselves from a bit of a distance, without suppressing or pushing anything away, without getting lost in anything, allowing ourselves to perceive things more clearly without being trapped in the story of what is troubling us. Through this conscious introspection we can start to come to terms with what is actually going on and what we really need in order to nurture ourselves and heal. Very often we may discover that in addition to all the required measures along the healing process, we can get a great deal of help from asking others to support us, to have a sense of connection which is a need that is deeply ingrained in us as social primates, and is perhaps even more essential during difficult times.
Then we can use some yoga Asana tools and move or hold our body in simple and nourishing ways that are either rooted in linking breath with movement or more restorative and grounded. That helps the body and mind release some tension and get some circulation going, but also give us a direct experience to the fact that so many things are working well so we get a chance to focus on them for a short while.
We can use different breathing exercises to calm and balance the nervous system, to affect our state of mind and mood in positive ways. The breath has a profound effect on the body and mind, and within the yoga tradition various tools that are highly effective, named Pranayama, have evolved along the centuries, and they can work very well particularly if we combine them with other more evidence based techniques.
And last but not least — mindfulness and meditation which develops the ability to be present, aware, non-reactive, see things clearly not meditated by the thinking mind or intellect but rather through direct felt experience, one that leads to real insight into our own nature, and eventually even to a profound inner peace. This practice is meant for more long term benefits while the others are very useful in the initial stages of dealing with pain or any other health struggle.
Wishing you all good health!
Always happy to help in any way I can.
If you find yourself curious about these kinds of topics - join a workshop, a retreat, or any other event on offer.
Looking forward to sharing yoga with you in August.
Wishing everyone peace and happiness,
Oren
♡
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