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Editorial: May 2012
‘Yoga must improve the quality of your life; if not, it isn’t really Yoga’. Rod Stryker explains how dedicated practice and discipline is necessary to reap the many potential benefits of Yoga. Yoga has the potential to transform lives forever and, as Rod clearly explains, ‘Yoga tradition encourages us to understand ourselves in ways that asanas alone cannot’. Rod, who will be visiting the UK this month, hopes that ‘those who teach Yoga will aim high enough to seek out the few teachers who truly understand and embody Yoga so that they can become masters themselves’.
This holistic, authentic practice with its therapeutic application is echoed by Naomi Call who shows how Bridge pose can be adapted for all ages and abilities to help counteract poor posture and the stress and strain which builds up for the many of us who spend hours looking at computer screens.
We feature a conversation with Sarah Silverton, who has spent many years in close collaboration with Mark Williams at Bangor University developing and teaching Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction courses. Based on the well-trialled programme devised by Jon Kabat Zinn, the course has helped large numbers of participants to become aware of habitual mental patterns and thereby to reduce anxiety and stress levels, to deal with depression and many common stress related ailments.
Also in this issue is advice on how to deal with neck and upper back pain, self help for Achilles’ injuries, and facts and figures which show how a vegetarian way of life really is good for you, both physically and environmentally. Michael Chissick continues his interesting series on teaching Yoga to children, with a case study of a nursery school teacher who worked alongside Michael and who introduced simple Yoga exercises in her classroom with very positive results.
Until the next issue, when we feature advice on mindful parenting by Goldie Hawn who has spent many years researching this area, the benefits of positive visualisation and the healing power of touch, we wish you a very peaceful and healthy month ahead.
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