Every activity that you do (or don’t do) affects your body and brain in some way. The choices that you make about your movement practices, diet, sleep habits, preventive health care, work-life balance, emotional health, relationships, and spirituality all have a tremendous impact on your health and longevity. Life is a cycle of activity and rest. When you are lucky, activity and rest flow together seamlessly, creating a sense of harmony and balance. It is a glorious day indeed when even the most mundane activity is imbued with a sense of purpose: each action is executed with some combination of intention, mindfulness, energetic awareness, emotional intelligence, and physical vigor. Too little or too much activity can bring you out of balance, and you can feel fatigued, fragmented, and overwhelmed.
Why Yoga Therapy in the Modern Age?
It’s no secret that technology is changing our bodies and brains. If you were born before the 1970s and can remember a time when you didn’t have a smartphone, Movement is life. Life is a process. Improve the quality of the process and you improve the quality of life itself. —Moshe Feldenkrais, founder of the Feldenkrais Method (R) and Awareness Through Movement (R) 9 What Is Yoga Therapy? laptop, tablet, or flat-screen as part of your daily routine, you have probably already sensed these changes in yourself and seen them in those around you. There have been profound changes in the way we live and communicate. Technology and convenience have changed everything: how we socialize, how we process information, how we feel, how we eat, how we sleep, and how we see the world. The inherent imbalance in activity for the modern human is that while we are moving our bodies less, our minds are taking in more information than ever. Take a moment to consider the implications of that statement. The body and brain are good at adapting and sorting, but what have we lost during this particular evolution? Although many scientists, anthropologists, doctors, physical therapists, educators, nutritionists, yoga therapists, and other smart people are asking this question and even creating solutions, it might take time before we completely comprehend what the impact of living in the technological age means for modern human beings, along with our continued evolution.
Individualism and Inquiry
In a world that continually conspires to draw your attention outward, seeking external input and approval, the act of personal inquiry can fly in the face of cultural norms. Although it may be uncomfortable at times, becoming aware and making fully conscious life choices offers you the potential to live and act based on internal awareness—at peace with yourself regardless of what is happening in the external world.
As you become a student of your body and mind and fine-tune your discernment skills, self-awareness will morph into self-empowerment. You will move forward in your yoga therapy practices with confidence based on your own developing inquiry. Let’s begin!
Last word
And while we honor the inquiry as much as finding answers where possible, we are also educators and experts in our fields. By nature, we have spent many years testing our hypotheses, garnering feedback from peers and students, and refining our processes. Our work has led us to eschew dogma and shudder at absolutes.
