CGH Earth Experience Wellness believes in the concept of integrated yoga therapies to address various medical conditions including mental health issues

Yoga has been universally acknowledged as a transformative pathway to achieve harmony of the mind, body and soul. This year’s International Yoga Day theme is Yoga for Humanity and it could not be more relevant and appropriate to inspire the world at large to adopt the practise of yoga and spread awareness about its benefits on the body, mind and overall health. CGH Earth Experience Wellness believes in the concept of integrated yoga therapies to address various medical conditions including mental health issues.

Curative programmes at Prakriti Shakti, their naturopathy centre in Kerala includes yoga and meditation that can also be designed to deal with post-pandemic long COVID issues and related stress, depression and anxiety. The centre’s global patrons from Europe, Russia and other CIS countries have started coming for the residential programmes or continue to take up online consultation and classes for yoga and meditation conducted by the experts at Prakriti Shakti.

Dr Cijith Sreedhar, Chief Physician at Prakriti Shakti, Clinic of Natural Medicine by CGH Earth, said “To put it simply, when we have good thoughts, we feel good. And when we feel good, we do good. So, whatever we do in our lives is based on what we think. Every time we think, our thoughts can be positive, negative, neutral, conscious or unconscious. You may be aware that stress-inducing responses in your body are always initiated by non-conscious or subconscious activity, in which you are unaware of what you are thinking. These thoughts that lead to stress activates the fight or flight responses in your body. If the thought process we have is conscious and resourceful, then the reaction which happens in the body and mind will be positive and we remain healthy.”

Dr Sreedhar added, “Through yoga therapy, we equip you with the tools to overcome this flight or fight response in the body and kick start the rest and healing mechanism. This in turn empowers oneself to take control of any difficult thoughts that disturb your balance.”

Fight or flight response is a physiological reaction to an event that is perceived as stressful or fearful. To be constantly in this state of being is not good for one’s health. Since your stress is based on your thoughts, the best way to relax is to control the thought process. Here yoga therapy helps control fight or flight responses, and is used to intervene in reversing, controlling or modifying mental health issues. In fact, yoga is one of the most effective modalities to treat and control influences like stress, anxiety, depression and other stress-associated disorders.

Yoga therapy address the Prakruthi or human nature of each individual. Prakruthi of each person is divided into five layers called Panchakoshas, these layers include physical, energy, mind, intellect and bliss. In most cases of healing the physical and mental health of a person, the first three layers are addressed through three corresponding fundamental aspects of yoga. First is Asanas - when one practices physical activities with awareness, then Pranayama - breathing exercises with awareness and Dhyana Meditation - awareness of one’s thought processes. Each fundamental practice of yoga has multiple techniques to treat the overall health of your body and mind.