Yoga as a Mind-Body Practice
摘要
Contrary to Western stereotypes that depict yoga as a practice of physical postures, yoga is an integrated lifestyle consisting of varied practices, including lifestyle- and values-related commitments, physical practices, breathing practices, and interior practices (e.g., concentration and meditation), carried out with mindfulness and intention. Yoga is holistic in that it attends to all layers or aspects of human consciousness, including body, vitality (arousal and affect), mind (thoughts and emotions), wisdom, and interconnection, co-regulation, and deep embeddedness in a greater web of life. Integrated holistic yoga creates a practice of accessibility and affiliation for all people, regardless of age, physical abilities, gender, culture, body shape, and more (Brems, Ancient Wisdom and Modern Science of Yoga: A Companion for 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training for Healthcare and Allied Healthcare Settings. Self-Published, 2024). All yoga practices, whether movement-, breath-, or meditation-related, are carefully adapted and offered with use of strategies, demonstrations, and props that invite everyone to participate. Integrated holistic yoga is a powerful, effective prevention, intervention, or adjunctive treatment for many physical and mental disorders through its profound effects on anatomy, neurophysiology, vitality, cognition, emotion, behavior, and relationships. Salutary effects are mediated through enhancement and integration of top-down and bottom-up processing. Top-down processing activates higher-level brain structures and networks and facilitates affective, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral self-regulation through attentional control, mindfulness, executive functioning, and metacognition. Bottom-up processing activates lower-level brain structures and networks to create perceptions and reactions based on sensory inputs from within and without. Integration of bottom-up awareness with top-down capacity for reflection facilitates physiological and emotional self-regulation, vagal tone, and parasympathetic nervous system engagement. Despite extant research demonstrating yoga interventions’ clinical benefits, referral to yoga is underutilized by clinicians. Clinicians who want to make yoga resources available to their patients are best served by building a referral network of specially prepared yoga teachers and therapists.