Kripalu yoga focuses on postural alignment and the weaving together of breath and movement. Iyengar yoga is a gentle form of yoga which is good for beginners, and people who haven’t exercised for some time. Kundalini yoga focuses on chanting, meditation and visualisation as well as breath control and body postures. Hatha yoga is, probably, the best known and most widely practised form of yoga in the UK. This style focuses on flowing body movements and can be as gentle or as powerful as you choose helping with your back pain.
Also known as guided imagery, you can direct your dreams. Think of a peaceful, beautiful setting - its nice isn't it. With Yoga Nidra, the idea is to tune into your body (and your mind). The colour emerald green is considered the most relaxing colour. The emerald green concept is very much part of the Yoga Nidra technique. Using visionary guidance centred on your body and its organs, Yoga Nidra lets you stay with a vision for several minutes, with the wonderful emerald green colour, until you feel your mind and body relax. With the help of the audio file, you can practice visualization to guide you into a deep relaxing state.
With back pain, and to illustrate the enormous potential that the yoga system can offer even a relative beginner on the spiritual journey, consider the following practice which, in suitable form, is accessible to anyone who would make the effort to try it. It is based upon the tools of Raja Yoga and Tantra Yoga which can be fiercely powerful enablers. The proper synergistic use and cultivation of these tools, via this practice, can fully stoke the flames of a passionate, longing devotion for the divine.
Since any decent spiritual practice will consider all levels of the human experience, the practice being presented does so too. These levels are the following, and include: the body (physical), heart (emotional), mind (thinking), mindfulness ("right-brain" awareness), concentration ("left-brain" awareness) and psychology (personality, unconscious processes).
For Yoga Nidra, hypnosis is a trancelike state of deep relaxation while your mind stays restfully alert and open to suggestion. Ordinarily it also involves deep breathing and visualization (free of back pain). With Yoga Nidra, use is made of a powerful yet very subtle mantra. This is the background mantra sung in a purely relaxed way on the audio file. The fear people might have about hypnosis comes from its being used on the commercial stage, says Jahnke. And of someone else controlling your mind.
Glen Wood - The Yoga Teacher, dedicated to unlocking the Real Secrets of Back, Neck and Shoulder Pain.
