Yoga for Cancer Treatment and Recovery
The ancient tools of yoga can help you feel your best through cancer treatment and assist in helping you reclaim your life after cancer. Yoga can help with side effects from medically essential and life-giving treatments. Yoga can be adapted to provide relief for nausea, fatigue, constipation, sleeplessness, anxiety, depression, “chemo brain”, and neuropathy. Feeling more like yourself after treatments is often a side benefit of developing a personal yoga practice.
Yoga for YOU
Yoga therapy uses therapeutic application of the tools of yoga to help you address issues that are especially problematic during treatment and post-treatment. Based on your interest and need, simple practices are developed to help you address specific issues. Yoga practice might include yoga postures, breathing practices, guided relaxation, sound, meditation or other practices. There is no “one-size-fits-all” yoga approach when it comes to the type of cancer, the treatment side effects or the recovery. Let’s address a few common concerns.
Nausea
Nausea is a common side effect of chemotherapy treatment. A therapeutic yoga practice might be very simple in the days following a treatment. Prop your head and chest up with pillows or cushions in bed or on the couch. Breathe in and out through the mouth, focusing on a long exhale. On the inhale, direct your attention into the navel area. On exhale, focus on directing your attention down through the pelvis, legs, feet and toes. You might even try a quiet sound on the exhale such as “haaa”. Some patients benefit from a curled tongue inhale and a long sighing exhale.
Anxiety Tool: The Calming Breath
Breathing techniques are especially helpful for many treatment symptoms. Anxiety around the diagnosis or treatments is very common. Here is a simple breathing technique to try to create some calm when thoughts and emotions are taking away your calm.
Sit upright in a chair or rest back on the couch or in bed. Inhale with ease, pause for 2 – 3 seconds and exhale smoothly. Do this for 6 breaths. Continue the same pattern and make your exhale 2 – 3 seconds longer than your inhale. Do this for 12 breaths. Then gradually allow your breath to settle back to normal.
Care and Tending of the Immune System
One of the most important self-care strategies for cancer treatment and recovery is caring for your immune system. A tailored yoga practice does this by reducing stress, improving sleep and promoting better digestion. Yoga, along with nutritious food, adequate sleep, regular exercise, social support and other therapies, promotes the optimal functioning of your immune system during and after treatment.
A Yoga Therapist or yoga teacher who specializes in cancer care can help you through different phases of treatment and recovery that may present different symptoms that keep you from feeling your best. Seek out specialized help to feel your best and integrate all that’s happened to you.