By Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500

Is Yoga a cure for depression? How can Yoga stop you from feeling hopeless? Let’s look at how Yoga can help you prevent negative thinking and the resulting damage negative thinking can have on your life.

To be honest, Yoga is not a cure fore depression, but Yoga can be an effective solution for some causes of depression. The hard part is to identify the causes of depression.

In order to understand yourself, you will have to engage in mindfulness and self-reflection. These are mental exercises to help you find the sources of negative thought within your mind. Mental health is also an aspect of Yoga practice.

What are your fears? Do you constantly worry about money, losing your job, a family crisis, or something else? Is this a real problem or a self-created situation?

The answers to these questions will enable you to discover real solutions, instead of worrying years off your life. Below are some common negative thoughts and some Yogic solutions for them.

Are you a pessimist? Do you envision your life on the “bottom of the rock pile?” If you envision anything, you can create that image with the power of your mind. Karma Yoga teaches us that any action causes an equal reaction.

Why waste your time on pessimism, when you could create positive thoughts and images? Learn from children: They are full of positive energy and not afraid to dream.

Get to know your “inner child” and create your world of positive thought. If you made mistakes – So, what?; we all do. Life is full of mistakes, but you can turn each one into a positive thought.

Do you always expect perfection? If you expect everything to be perfect, you are “killing yourself,” and those who love you. This is not a perfect world. What is the cause of your search for perfection? Most of the time, a perfectionist is driven by his or her desires.

Consider Aparigraha: This one Yama teaches us not to desire anything more than we need. The true source of perfectionist thought is the desire to have more of something than is realistic.

The desire to have everything perfect, in an imperfect world, is a mindless pursuit. When you desire constant perfection, from yourself and others, you are taxing your own health.

Holding onto the perception of a perfect world will strain relationships with friends, family, and co-workers. Ultimately, the pursuit of perfection will create a lonely and depressed world without any friends.

Pessimism and perfection are just two of many causes that can result in depression. In both cases, the guidance of a competent Yoga teacher could be a form of preventative medicine.

However, if you, or a loved one, is experiencing chronic depression problems, the advice of a competent psychologist, or psychiatrist, should be sought. Yoga is a good alternative form of therapy, but not a cure for depression.

© Copyright 2006 – Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

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FREE CONTENT: If you are a Yoga Teacher, Yoga studio, blogger, e-zine, or website publisher, and are in need of quality content, please feel free to use my blog entries (articles) – Please be sure to reprint each article, as is, including the resource box above. Namaste, Paul
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By Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500

Yoga is “preventative medicine” for children and adults. Yet the world does not embrace preventative action. Just look at hunger, global warming, health care, and poverty; some people do take action, but many do not.

Educating the public about the benefits, which children experience from Yoga practice, is a full-time job for some Yoga teachers. Although most of the public thinks of Yoga postures as a mild form of exercise; there are many different aspects to Yoga practice.

Yoga is a complete holistic approach to health. Yoga teaches proper breathing, dieting, exercise, meditation, relaxation techniques, and many more natural solutions to health problems.

Yoga and Ayurvedic medicine have dieting practices based upon a person’s constitution or dosha. This same classification can be made for exercise routines. An Ayurvedic doctor will likely recommend specific exercises based upon a patient’s dosha.

The entire approach of Yoga and Ayurveda is based upon preventative measures. There are also solutions for “damage control,” when a person has an existing ailment, but any doctor can agree that many of today’s health problems are preventable.

Let’s look at global obesity. The public is tired of hearing about obesity. Your spam filters are working overtime to pull all of the “Instant weight loss” methods out of your Email box. If you read through the spam, you will notice that spammers want to sell you pills, not permanent solutions to obesity. The spammer’s approach is to make quick money off the public.

When the majority of our population refuses to exercise, the easy money is in selling pills, instant weight loss, and “snake oil.” There is a solution, but most of us will not like it. Yogic diets are full of fruit, vegetables, and natural food. Even in India, it can be observed that diabetes is on the rise, when people eat “junk food.”

As the Indian economy has improved, so has the “middle class appetite” for processed food. This runs parallel to western social and economic patterns.

What does this have to do with Yoga for kids? Yoga is a lifestyle and the earlier you expose children to good health habits, the better your child’s health will be.

As parents, we have many choices, but establishing good health habits, within our children, is an obligation. We also have to eat properly, and exercise, with our children. If you cannot go to a Yoga class, you can always take your child out for a walk. Parents are role models, and any child will copy the image, which you create for him or her.

Yoga classes for children are a parent’s gift of good health. Yoga gives them a better chance to develop good habits, handle stress, find natural solutions to good health, and live a quality life.

© Copyright 2006 – Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Become a Yoga Teacher

——————————————–
FREE Yoga Report. FREE Yoga Newsletter.
Bonus: Free Yoga e-Book, “Yoga in Practice.”

http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/docs/Yoga-in-Practice-eBook.pdf

Visit: http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org
Affiliates: http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/signup.html
Sister Blog: http://yoga-teacher-training.blogspot.com/
On-Site Training: http://www.riyoga.com
——————————————–
FREE CONTENT: If you are a Yoga Teacher, Yoga studio, blogger, e-zine, or website publisher, and are in need of quality content, please feel free to use my blog entries (articles) – Please be sure to reprint each article, as is, including the resource box above. Namaste, Paul
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