The epidemiological prevalence of ADHD ranges from 1.7% to as high as 16% and the symptoms can evolve with age presenting as signs of increased motor activity in adolescents. The same can be passed on to adulthood who find it difficult to participate in any sedentary jobs. In general, for diagnostic purpose early presentation before the age of 6 and impairment due to symptoms at least in 2 settings like home and school is mandatory.
The treatment of ADHD can be considered under three sub sections: Parent or family focused strategies, child focused and school-based interventions. There is a paradigm shift in the attitudes of parents who opt for holistic and alternative forms of treatment individually or in adjunct to pharmacological therapies. Of these Yoga and meditation are important forms of holistic therapies which aim in healing ADHD by acting on all the above mentioned sub sections.
Read: Introduction to ADHD
The Ashtanga yoga which is a time tested science helps to gradually bring the symptoms of ADHD under control, by creating awareness and insight in the child. The eight limbs of Ashtanga yoga progressing from the gross body to the subtle helps the practitioner to gain control over his/her body. This method comprises of postures/Asanas and antaranga yoga along with chanting of specific mantras provides remarkable effects in reducing the hyper activity and improving the attention span in ADHD children.
The prime symptoms of ADHD are hyperactivity, impulsivity, acting before thinking, impatience, restlessness leading to poor organizational skills making the child look clumsy; tax the nervous system of the child. Mind is usually equated to monkey due to its inborn tendency to wander. This normal tendency of mind is more pronounced in ADHD children. Yoga advocates that mind and prana are intricately linked and on controlling the prana, mind will relax by itself. This is evident from the verse 2, chapter 2 of Hatha yoga pradipika which states:
Chale vaate chalam chittam nischale nischalam bhaveth I
Yogi stanutvamaapnoti tato vayum nirodhayeth II
This means when prana moves the mental force/chitta also moves; when prana is without movement, chitta is also without movement. By this (Pranayama) the yogi(practitioner) attains steadiness and can restrain vayu. According to sage Patanjali, renowned as the Father of yoga, pranayama is the practice of controlled inspiration and expiration, ought to be practsed as per the instructions of the Guru. With regular practice as per instructions, balance and control over prana is established which helps in curtailing of mental agitation.
Bhagavadgita, popular hindu scripture quotes “Yogah karmasu kaushalam” which proves the fact that Yoga is the science of skill full action. The process is relaxed awareness and outcome being effectiveness which is helpful to treat the symptoms and heal the child internally. Often the child diagnosed of ADHD has difficulty in learning at school though they mostly have average or above average intelligence leading to lower self-confidence and self-esteem. Also it is seen that the parents being anxious about the performance of the child put pressure to improve their grades and performance by various means. The parents have to understand that development is a gradual process and any therapy which is a science cannot be deemed as a quick fix. Yoga helps to gain control of the body, balance the vital energy (prana) and calm the mind with internal awareness.
Read: How effective is Yoga in ADHD?
Read: How Yoga helped a child calm down
Yeay!!! You are now a MOTHER. The struggles of pregnancy now seem irrelevant. The days of morning sickness, achy backs, insomnia seems like a thing of the past once you set your eyes on the tiny miracle that you brought into this world. Now that you are responsible for another life apart from yours, it becomes very essential that you care for your health. And what is better than Postpartum yoga for health?
Postpartum care is the first few weeks upon delivery where the body heals itself from the harrowing experience that is childbirth. This is the time to take it easy, rest as much as possible and heal. The period after delivery is sometimes referred to as the fourth trimester and this is the time to recover physically with yoga after delivery and a great time to bond with the newborn.
Some women think that they will return back to their pre-pregnancy bodies as soon as they have given birth. But your body has seen enormous change- there are bruised and torn tissues that need to be healed, labor itself is pretty hard on your body, you need to recover from it, milk production needs to get underway. Plus the uterus that has been stretched to its limit needs to contract to its pre-pregnancy size.
According to our Yoga therapist, women with vaginal deliveries can start after 2 months and C section moms after 3 months can start Postnatal or postpartum Yoga. Mommies are encouraged to take light walks and also advised to wrap their bellies with postnatal wraps. This not only helps stabilize their stomachs but also supports lower back and boosts confidence.
The key word here is taking it slow. Everything has to be done in a slow and steady pace so as to not shock the body. Care has to be taken while practicing asana and yoga for new moms as the pregnancy hormone Relaxin, which helps in relaxing of joints and thereby allows for widening of hips to facilitate childbirth, is also elevated and will remain so for the next six months or so. This means all of your joints are looser hence less stable.
Read: Preparing childbirth with pre natal yoga
The pushing done during labor makes for a compromised pelvic floor. Shishuasana or child pose asana helps in not only strengthening of the pelvic floor but also provide the hips and the spine with gentle stretching that it needs. One of the major joys of motherhood is tending to the every need of the newborn from breastfeeding to rocking her back to sleep. This results in a tired neck and shoulders to loss of endurance. Gomukhasana and Virabhadrasana not only help build stamina but also provide well needed relief to those tired muscles.
One of the most common physical changes a new mother finds is her protruding belly. There are a lot of asanas and yogas and breathing exercises which go a long way in strengthening your abdominal muscles. But remember, it took nine long months for your stomach to increase, so don’t expect results overnight.
The advantage of postpartum yoga is that it not only boosts your immune system but also improves your posture and balance. Lack of sleep is one of the features of a new mom. Sleep deprivation not only results in depression but also adversely affects the quality of breast milk and decreases your memory and focus. Yoga for mommies not only helps you to focus but also ups the production of serotonin which decreases the chance of postpartum depression. Balancing of wayward hormones and stress can be tackled with various asanas and yogas and breathing exercises. Although, all exercises and post pregnancy yoga should be done under supervision as the wrong type could have an adverse affect on your body and sometimes leads to umbilical hernias.
In conclusion, giving birth is a life changing experience. It is also a body changing experience. Postpartum Yoga may be the last thing on your mind but a few minutes a day practicing it can help you reconnect with your mind and body and help you stay in shape both mentally and physically for the adventure called Parenthood.
Read: Make your pregnancy easier through Reiki
We offer different alternate therapies, so speak to our counselor who will help you create a customised plan
Yoga is normally associated with exercise and well-being and meditation. But yoga therapy can go far beyond and heal or manage many women with their pregnancy related challenges, if undertaken by an expert.
Client Story 1: mental & emotional trauma during IVF treatment
Here is a story where Yoga therapy helped as a supporting therapy in the case of IVF (In vitro fertilization) – process of fertilization by manually combining an egg and sperm in a laboratory dish, and then transferring the embryo to the uterus.
Anitha (name changed for privacy) successfully underwent the combination treatment and was delighted in sharing her story of her experience
Anitha was 28 when she first started planning for a family. She and her husband tried in vain for almost 4 years but she could not conceive. She consulted several specialist doctors and was finally advised IVF as a last resort. The doctors recommended that it may not be possible for her to conceive naturally. She was 32 already and her biological clock was ticking.
Anitha’s best friend Seema recommended to her that she consult with yoga practitioner. Anitha was suggested that yoga therapy could be helpful for her in her condition. Reluctantly she contacted healclinic and thus started her journey of counseling and Yoga. In Anitha’s words, “The yoga therapist counseled me and her yoga therapy helped me overcome the mental trauma that I had been through and come to terms with the fact that I would be unable to conceive naturally.”
The yoga sessions helped her to be better prepared and face the side effects of the IVF treatment while undergoing the treatment. She underwent the yoga as well as IVF treatment for about 2 years and today is nine months pregnant expecting her baby soon.
Anitha has become a huge fan of yoga for helping her to become mentally, emotionally and physically fit, to endure the IVF and carry her pregnancy successfully.
Client Story 2: Conceive after a miscarriage
Sunitha (name changed for privacy) is a 33 years old woman living in Bangalore. She started her journey towards planning a family way back in 2010.
She and her husband were very happy when they discovered that she was pregnant. But just 6 weeks into her pregnancy found that she had an ectopic pregnancy (a pregnancy in which the fetus develops outside the womb, typically in a fallopian tube). She had to terminate her pregnancy and also had to remove the right fallopian tube during the surgery.
Post this surgery, Sunitha was under heavy medications and couldn’t conceive for the next 4 years. A colleague referred Sunitha to healclinic and said they could help her through Yoga therapy.
Our therapist had a detailed discussion and diagnosis of Sunitha’s medical situation, along with her physical and emotional state. She went through her medical records in details to understand the entire medical history and then designed a yoga program specific for Sunitha to follow.
She was taught a specific Yoga program for the next 15 days and asked Sunitha to continue practicing the therapy at home for the next six months. Sunitha followed her advice till she conceived naturally once again.
Sunitha’s tips for other women is that you have to believe in this therapy and diligently practice what has been suggested. There is no reason that you will not benefit from yoga.
Yoga is a way of life. Today's academic pressure and stress put on by parents, teachers and peers lead to children having problems with memory, concentration, focus and other related issues. We get many enquiries from parents asking to help their children especially during exams. They want simple solutions to overcome these problems. And the solution is “Yoga for exams”.
Alternative therapies help in such cases with wonderful results. And exam yoga is one such therapy.
Just as children go to school to be educated and to increase their knowledge/intellect, practicing yoga helps to increase their capacity to learn and retain more
Yoga is not just a physical or spiritual practice, but as tradition says it is a subject for dealing with the mind. Many times children find it difficult to concentrate or focus and remember things, and even after putting in a lot of effort with a lot of confidence they become blank in the examination hall. Through exam yoga, they can find a solution for these problems.
Some of the questions, which the children ask frequently,
Some of the techniques offered in yoga are suryanamaskar, pranayama trataka and relaxation techniques.
Lets look at a few of them,
Suryanamaskar: is done to improve the circulation of blood to energise the different parts and organs of the body and to control the breath.
Pranayama: breath is the bridge between body and mind. Pranayama helps in regulating the breathing as a result the mind calms down and efficiency will increase.
Trataka: is eye exercise which when regularly practiced, improves memory and concentration. In a couple of days you will find that you are able to retain whatever you have read more easily.
Relaxation: is not watching tv, going for a walk, listening to music, chatting with friends etc. In yoga for exams there are different relaxation techniques where by doing this the awareness increases and you will have clarity, there will be no conflict, muscle tension is released and your efficiency in studies will increase.
I would like to say to all children, who have exams coming up, please make yoga a habit and call it yoga for exams. Practicing yoga under proper guidance can greatly help you with your studies. Ex: if you are studying one chapter in one hour with regular practice of exam yoga, it can be completed in half an hour.
Think of Exam yoga as a way to improve and develop the strength and quality of the brain and mind.
Read: How Reiki helps students
Need help for your children for their examinations. Contact us
PCOS is a very common health challenge amongst women and the most untreated. Why most untreated, well there are many reasons, primarily because talking about periods is not something that women are comfortable doing openly, hence they do not know where or to whom to go to for help. To regulate the menstrual cycle, the doctor generally recommends a combination of birth control pills — pills that contain both estrogen and progestin. (Ref: Mayo Clinic) But you can get an effective treatment with yoga for PCOS.
Read: Diet Rules for PCOS
For all those who don’t want to go through the tablets and allopathic treatment, there are various other options available in alternative therapies like yoga for irregular periods and pcos, naturopathy etc which help you regularise periods, deal with the pain and in some cases also deal positively with infertility. Yoga is one such alternate route which can help women with PCOS very effectively.
Sushma, a 30 year old woman diagnosed with PCOS went through customised yoga sessions and had this to say,
“When I started facing the problem of irregular periods, I was afraid [pretty natural]. Adding to my fear, I was told I have PCOS. Until then I had never heard about it and got really worried if I could ever recover from this.
I started taking the pills suggested by the doctor, but then those have their own side effects.
The doctor only suggested that I go for Yoga for pcos weight loss and said that only that can eradicate my issue from its roots.
I was facing problems of irregular periods and was diagnosed with PCOS. I started yoga and in a span of 2 months I reduced almost 6-7 kgs which I couldn’t have imagined otherwise. Also, weight being the major contributor to my problem I saw positive change there as well.
Initially I was too hesitant to stop taking pills, thinking it might get back my problem of untimely periods but soon I got the confidence and yes I observed that those exercises not only helped in shedding the extra kilos but also cured my issue with my periods. Today thanks to Yoga for PCOS I am leading a healthy life, and best of all no side effects.”
Read: PCOS and Pranic Healing
Read: Prevention and Treatment through homeopathy
Read: How client got treated through homeopathy
Need help with PCOS/PCOD, talk to our counselor and decide which therapy best works for you. We offer various therapies for you to choose from.
Depression is a mood disorder characterized by persistently low mood and a feeling of sadness and loss of interest. Depression is a persistent problem, not a passing one – the average length of a depressive episode is 6 to 8 months.
It is different from the fluctuations in mood that people experience as a part of normal life. Temporary emotional responses to the challenges of everyday life do not constitute depression. Likewise, even the feeling of grief resulting from the death of someone close is not itself depression if it does not persist. There are several mental ailments that can be effectively treated with yoga and depression is one of them. In fact, now-a-days yoga for depression is widely used as an alternative therapy.
The causes of depression are not fully understood and is likely to be due to a complex combination of factors that include:
Some people are at higher risk of depression than others; wherein the risk factors include:
Life events – including bereavement, divorce, work issues, relationships with friends and family, financial problems, medical concerns, or acute stress.
Personality – those with less successful coping strategies, or previous life trauma.
Genetic factors – first-degree relatives of depressed patients are at higher risk.
Childhood trauma.
Some prescription drugs – including corticosteroids, some beta-blockers, and other prescription drugs.
A past head injury.
People who have had an episode of major depression are at higher risk of a subsequent one.
Chronic pain syndromes in particular, but also other chronic conditions, such as diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cardiovascular disease.
Symptoms of depression can include:
Read: How depression can hit any of us?
As per our yoga practitioner
Yoga is a physical exercise that involves different body poses, breathing techniques, and meditation. Yoga for anxiety and depression helps with symptoms, such as improving energy levels, pain tolerance and self esteem and reduces stress, anxiety and depression.
Yoga for depression is a set of yoga’s which control the mind, since trying to control the mind directly is impossible, we need gross physical and breathing techniques.
The technique is to start with loosening exercises which are body movements repeated with jerks and speed. This helps initially to distract the mind from the loop of repeated thoughts. Once it is distracted by fast body movements you go on to slower body movements like surya namaskar and asanas. Similarly, one can start with fast breathing practices like Kapalabatti and then move on to slower breathing practices like Pranayama.
After alternating between a set of fast and slow body and breathing practices for about 20-30 minutes, the mind is pulled out of its loop of worrying thoughts. Now it can be set into further slowing down by Nadanusandhana, and then to actual meditation, which is nothing but a very slow effortless flow of single thought in the mind sinking down into total inner silence for a few seconds.
Read: Yoga Nidra and relaxationThis in due course helps in getting better mastery over mind and to taper off the medication to a very small maintenance dose.
Healclinic has yoga therapists based in different locations and also offer live customised sessions online. So if you are looking for customised sessions in India or anywhere around the globe, we can help you. Don't let the demons of depression take over your life. Contact us for online sessions of yoga for stress and depression management.
Women physiology is curiously complex. This is because it is dynamic and changes with different phases of her life. Women have to undergo physiological stresses in addition to environmental ones affecting men and women and all other creatures. Certain conditions like menstruation, pregnancy, abortions or menopause all are instances of physiological stresses as they put more pressure on her energy demands, calorie intake, vital readings, micro nutrient uptake etc.
We have options wherein we don’t have to live with the issues which we deem to have become a normal part of our monthly cycles. In Fact reiki for irregular periods can help women to deal with monthly changes they go through.
Menstruation which heralds the fertile life of a female, is to be dealt carefully. Many teenage girls experience psychological and physical problems during menstrual beginning. This is a new phase and in this phase the girl may feel discomfort with the engorgement of breasts, pain in the breasts and lower back, puffiness of face and hot flashes.
This is a new feeling and hence lays psychological stress on her mind. Some girls also experience premenstrual syndrome which presents symptomatically as rise in temperature, fullness in breasts and pain over the nipple and areola, puffiness of face and pimples, swelling in the legs, pain in the lower back, calf and inguinal regions, craving for chocolates, spicy food, headaches, constipation, acute episodes of depression and so on.
Also Read: How Reiki helped with emotional healing post hysterectomy?
Experiencing all of these symptoms or any one or in sets, at the onset of monthly periods is mentally taxing and physically exhausting as well. Many students and teenagers complain of irregularities in their monthly cycle. Usually this cycle is of 24-28 days but it's very rare that all women experience monthly periods at exactly a months’ period or completion of 28 days. The cycle varies with individual women and also the symptoms are subjective depending on the physiology and hormonal balance.
The girl with menstrual irregularities may face a variety of symptoms like excessive body hair growth, androgenic features, pimples, stunted uterine development, improper growth of secondary sexual characters. All these may at later stage lead to infertility, PCOS, thyroid and other hormonal disorders. In addition this may harm the self image of the female itself, which is depressive.
Reiki for irregular periods, as a healing therapy has proved to be a successful treatment by itself, as well as when integrated with other therapies. Clinically menstrual irregularities are amenorrhea, oligomenorrhea, menorrhagia, which are no bleeding, scanty flow and excessive flow respectively. As a Reiki healer, we need to recognise the cause and form of irregularity and channelize the energy in the problem area.
We once had a teenage client who suffered from oligomenorrhea, scanty blood flow since her menstruation. Also she used to get her periods once in 2 or 3 months and had visited a couple of doctors. Her mother was a staunch follower of Indian systems of medicine and was reluctant to undergo any form of allopathic remedy. On examining the girl the reiki healer could see that she had associated secondary problems of excessive hairiness and improper breast growth too. She started with daily sessions of reiki for an irregular period of an hour each for a month and told the mother to review her menstrual cycle. Along with reiki for menstrual cramps she was also suggested certain naturopathic food restrictions and dietary changes.
Also Read: How Yoga Helped in PCOS?
After 15 days when the girl had her 20 days of the cycle completed she was started with oil massage and fomentations over the lower abdominal region The result being she got her periods on the 31st day and later we reduced her reiki sittings for period pains to ¾ hour and gradually tapered the reiki and naturopathic remedies by the end of the 3 months period. However, we continued to give distant reiki healing for women to the girl on the request of the mother every month from her 21st day until she got her periods for the next 6 months until she regularly got her periods. During this phase we could evidently see the difference in her breast size as well and by the end of 6 months her facial hair had also considerably reduced.
The stimulation of the pituitary gland by channelizing reiki energy and in turn flow of vital energy to the parts of the uterus help in solving menstrual abnormalities of amenorrhea and oligomenorrhea. However the duration and frequency of the reiki sittings for irregular periods depends on individual conditions.
Check our integrated plans specifically designed for PCOD
Need help with PCOS/PCOD, talk to our counselor and decide which therapy best works for you.
Struggling with infertility, Sunitha met a yoga therapist at an infertility hospital, where she was suggested to practise yoga for infertility. This was the first time she got introduced to Yoga to enhance fertility and other healing methodology for severe health issues.
When she went for consultation, the therapist first understood her case details, the various health issues she was facing and her lifestyle. Based on the discussion, she customized a sequence of fertility yoga poses and asanas including breathing techniques especially for Sunitha keeping in mind her health issues.
As per Sunitha, “She gave me an introduction to this method of healing and helped me understand how it is connected to our inner wellbeing. The warm up yoga followed by dynamics slowly not only made me flexible and active but I felt a sense of wellbeing and being positive. I lost 5 kgs in the span of one month of doing yoga after which the issue of PCOD was also resolved.
Also Read: How Endometriosis was cured through energy healing
With the introduction of surya namaskara, these positive effects only multiplied, my mind was in a state of bliss and my body agile. I felt like I had the energy to take on anything. I practiced 108 surya-namaskar everyday for a month. Before practising yoga for conceiving, a couple of IVF sessions had failed. This time I was more positive. While practising yoga fertility poses I underwent one more IVF and the subsequent cycle I conceived naturally, it was a miracle made possible with help of yoga The therapist always instilled confidence in yoga to increase fertility and motivated many in the class to continue to do the practise at home and would encourage others by mentioning the success stories of those who conceived naturally after practising yoga for fertility and conception.
Also Read: Emotional Healing post Hysterectomy
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Healclinic is a wellness platform which offers energy healing therapies like Reiki, Pranic Healing, Theta, Past Life, Inner Child, Family Constellation, Redikal, Graphotherapy, Akashik Records, Tarot Reading, Numerology, Astrology, Chakra Healing, by expert Healers.
Some of the energy healing therapies which we offer are reiki, pranic healing, past life regression, theta healing, redikal healing, family constellation, akashic records reading, astrological healing, inner child healing, hypnotherapy, tarot reading, numerology, astrology and many more. The basic tenet of all these therapies is that the human body is self healing and a person needs to be treated and not the disease.
They work on the cause of an ailment rather than the symptom and are more holistic in nature. It uses body’s own power to heal. These theraies are execllent ways to become aware of why you are facing a particular challenge and start healing from the root cause
