The practice of Yoga can assist individuals with managing their pain in areas such as knee, elbow, other sore joints, arthritis, rheumatism, and any other regular aches they may have. To assist with the pain that an individual has is to work directly with the pain center of the brain that helps regulate pain controlling mechanism that sends natural pain killers throughout the body. Another effect way to reduce pain within the body is helpful breathing exercises that are featured within the many of Vedic books that focus on yoga. These exercises teach the individual that there body can relax, which will help to free itself from many types of tension. This will also lengthen the time that the individual can exhale, because their muscles will be relaxing when ever they exhale.



Yoga has also been found to help individuals who suffer from various respiratory problems as well. When an individual is more aware of their breathing, then they are more able to control their exhale and inhales to slow down their respiration.

Yoga and Side Shoulder Stand

Many practitioners of yoga think of asana (the physical poses, or exercises) as the whole of the art. Yet making them the end defeats the real purpose of yoga. To practice asana and not reach beyond them is like having a top-of-the-line automobile that we run only on a treadmill in the garage. Although the vehicle works perfectly, it doesn't take us anywhere. Such a car was designed to be on the road, to transport us powerfully into our future, our unexplored potential. In the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali describes an ashtanga (eight-limbed) path of which asana is but the third part. Our work in yoga begins with yama (ethics towards others), five guidelines that help us create and live in a sane and peaceful society. Then comes niyama (prescribed observances), personal disciplines that help us to become more aware of ourselves.

Importance of Professional Training

200-hour training is perfect for people like physical therapists, massage practitioners, chiropractors, and martial arts instructors, who already work in the health field and want to expand their professional repertoire by being able to utilize the many wonderful tools of yoga correctly, to help their students find long-term sustainable healing. Also, anyone just getting started will find the 200-hour level as the perfect place to start to build their foundation.

For teachers who really want to transform their teaching into to a sound profession, a 500-hour training is mandatory. Most schools offer a 300-hour supplement to the 200-hour training to reach the 500-hour level. To register with Yoga Alliance at the 500-hour Level, a teacher must also demonstrate that they have taught at least 100 hour of yoga classes. Students learn that in order to be an inspiring teacher, they must also be an inspired practitioner. 500-hour trainings must spend time on developing the professional skills as well as the personal integrity to commit to the yogic life. At this level, teachers must live their yoga, rather than merely speak about it.

Arching over Obstacles

n the epic poem Savitri, the Indian sage Sri Aurobindo writes, "Where ignorance is, there suffering too must come." Avidya in our physical body also manifests in the mind, which becomes unable to pay attention or retain and recall information. If we are to dispel our ignorance, we must cultivate the ability to focus our attention as well as the ability to calm our minds. Indeed, an unfocused brain cannot be calm. Thus, the ability to focus is a precursor to learning how to make the brain quiet. Because they demand such focus, backbends are extremely powerful tools for overcoming ignorance. Backbends also help us overcome the obstacle of asmita, the ego, because they open the heart center, the seat of our connection with our higher self. Asmita is the mistaken identification of the small, individual self with the universal, supreme Self. The ego believes it knows everything and thinks that the universe revolves around it. As the ego grows, consciousness moves away from the heart and into the brain. Over time the connection between the mind and the heart--the smaller self and the larger Self--is lost. Backbends bring us back to this connection.