Feel Your Best with Yoga: Cancer Treatment and Recovery
Life changes in an instant with a diagnosis of cancer. It’s like a big wave crashing through the house rearranging everything. How do you manage the big wave? The ancient science of yoga provides useful tools for coping with the diagnosis and treatments and supporting optimal health in recovery.
How Yoga Helps
Yoga therapy (the therapeutic application of the tools of yoga) can help increase energy, reduce fatigue, reduce stress and anxiety, improve sleep, manage pain, and improve psychological health, including depression.
One of the most important self-care strategies for cancer 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.
Yoga Adapted for Your Needs
A yoga practice for cancer treatment and recovery is adapted to the person to help with their unique and very individual experience. Yoga practice might include yoga postures, breathing practices, guided relaxation, sound, meditation or other practices. The tools used are always tailored to the person’s interests and needs. There is no “one-size-fits-all” yoga approach when it comes to the type of cancer, the treatments or the recovery.
Short, Simple and Practical
My clients often find that short, simple practice tools tailored for their specific needs are the most beneficial. Many people with cancer find that simple breathing practices are extremely helpful in managing nausea, stress, fatigue and sleep. Yoga breath practice (pranayama) can be tailored for managing specific symptoms.
One of my yoga therapy clients, a woman with breast cancer, found that her yoga practice helped her throughout her day. She did a short breathing practice in bed in the morning to increase her energy, a short mid-day practice of 4 gentle postures to help manage stress and pain, and a walk outside before dinner to connect with nature, something that brought great meaning to her life and helped her feel better. She was also equipped with other yoga tools to use as needed to manage fatigue and improve sleep. Through our work together, she was able to better understand the relationship between stress, anxiety and pain and how she could control stress and anxiety through her breath, rest, movement, and other yoga tools.
If you are interested in yoga as a tool for managing cancer treatment and recovery, seek out the services of a Yoga Therapist or a yoga teacher with specialized training in cancer. It’s usually best to work one-on-one, especially while undergoing any treatments, so that the practice is adapted to your needs.
A Yoga Tool: The Calming Breath
Sit upright in a chair with your feet firmly placed on the floor. Begin to notice the flow of your breath and make your breath smooth through the inhale and exhale. Control the flow of your breath through the throat area so that you can hear your own breath. Then progressively make your inhale and exhale longer, keeping your inhale and exhale equal in length. Do this for 6 breaths. Then make your exhale 2 – 3 seconds longer than your inhale. Do this for 12 breaths. Then gradually allow your breath to soften back to a normal. Notice the effects of the breath practice for you.