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Yoga in Maintenance of Psychophysical Health

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Yoga and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy

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Abstract

Although heterogeneous and complex with respect to its scope and meaning, Yoga and meditation can be broadly conceptualized as self-management strategies for gaining insight into the principles of the human mind that explain the nature of its thoughts and experiences. These insights help us realize how to reaccess a natural and positive state of mind, how to experience calmness in sustained manner regardless of the circumstances we encounter in our daily life, and how to translate these for our well-being. Yoga is based on the humanitarian philosophy that the basic ingredients of happiness, though present inside everybody, remain untapped and thus inaccessible to many. It draws upon people’s innate wisdom and proposes utilization of the healthy perspectives available to everyone. In Yoga, health is just a preliminary preparation for achieving higher goals. Health is rather a very important side effect of the practice of Yoga (Iyengar 2001). In the all-encompassing and multidimensional aspects of Yoga, as evident in the Eight-limbed Yoga or the Noble Eightfold Path, one sees the balanced combination of the following: a healthy Yogic lifestyle (including the Middle Way, moral behavior, natural environment, and healthy diet), adequate bodywork through Yogic postures (asanas) and procedures (Sans. bandhas, mudras, and kriyas), breath work (pranayama), and techniques of mental development including concentration and mindfulness that lead to elevation of one’s consciousness to deeper meditative states (samadhis/samapattis) in the path of self-realization. Being mother to Ayurveda, the therapeutic system of ancient India (equivalent to the allopathic system of medicine), one can clearly see that Yoga doesn’t negate the use of medications and other methods of modern medicine (Frawley 1999).

Penetrative insight joined with calm abiding utterly eradicates afflicted states.

–Shantideva (1997)

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  1. Department of Psychiatry, Cooper University Hospital, and Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, Camden, NJ, USA

    Basant Pradhan MD

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Pradhan, B. (2015). Yoga in Maintenance of Psychophysical Health. In: Yoga and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09105-1_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09105-1_8

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