Why Yoga is Good for Fibromyalgia
By Karen Crosby
I have had Fibromyalgia for over 40 years and in all that time I have been fighting and hurting against all the prejudices when people (my family included) were saying (as some still do) that there is nothing wrong with me.
In the early 90’s I discovered Yoga, and it was a light bulb moment for me after my first class! The teacher came to me after the class and asked me how I enjoyed it, and I immediately told her I would carry on for life and someday teach it!
My teacher was gentle and added modifications to make it accessible to us all, whatever age or medical situation and that was encouraging and heart warming!
I always promote and encourage Yoga to all I meet, and am always mentioning it in my articles, but only because I know how amazing it is for everyone, especially those with fibro! And yes I have now been teaching it for years!
Yoga originated in India at least 5 thousand years ago (a clay figure in the lotus position was found and carbon dated), and is a life philosophy many millions of people around the globe adopt still today.
Benefits (how long have you got?):
1. The gentle stretches of yoga warm-ups and postures are a very gentle way of easing tight painful muscles and joints.
2. Yoga is about strength, and helps build strength in muscles by using weight-bearing postures, joint freeing sequences and helps build stamina with dynamic and static sequences and postures (known as asanas).
3. Yoga helps to keep flexibility in the muscles to help avoid injuries, keep muscle pain at bay, and generally keep the muscles healthy.
4. Once regularly practiced, Yoga helps relieve pain anywhere in the body by gently opening and stretching in any given area when needed.
5. The dynamic postures and sequences of yoga provide a cardiovascular workout too, which helps keep the heart healthy and working efficiently.
6. Yoga helps focus the mind, and during balance postures helps the efficiency of the balance centres in the brain, thus assisting us to stay standing for longer when dizzy.
7. It helps ease pain even if practiced for 5 minutes when the pain makes exercise too much on bad flare days.
8. It is not only an exercise as some think, but the ancient traditions of focussed breathing keep our lungs strong by learning to use the whole of the lungs and this has many health benefits like keeping stress and anxiety at bay, to helping keep cancer cells from forming (a good oxygen supply in the body stops cancer from forming as it cannot survive in a rich oxygen environment).
9. The meditation and relaxation techniques not only help focus the mind, but relax the body too, and this has a calming effect to help keep depression and emotional problems at bay. Calm body, calm mind!
Yoga provides exercise without the negative side effects of strong sports, and the physical practice, meditation, relaxation and breathing techniques help with sleep disturbances.
Research has showed that women whom practiced yoga have reduced symptoms of fibro, and improved their function.
Also mindfulness meditation has helped those with chronic pain conditions to be more aware of their body and mind, (as with yoga) and more able to deal with the ups and downs of their condition. The three main areas of improvement yoga has helped with in fibro warriors, is pain levels, mood and levels of fatigue.
Yoga helps lower blood pressure, lowers the stress hormones life cortisol and adrenaline, is calming and relaxing, is a gentle way of easing injuries like muscle tears and structural problems like back pain and injury, and many physiotherapy techniques are similar if not the same as yoga practices. (I know this as I have been given physiotherapy many times).
My Journey
My yoga journey has indeed helped me in so many ways, that I am able to be medication free (apart from painkillers during flares) for years. In 2014 I was on pregabalin and was suffering side effects, I decided to come off after discussing with my GP, I was weaned off over 12 days which I later found out should be a much longer weaning time, and I had horrendous withdrawal symptoms for 4 months, including shaking, crippling fear, bad dreams and even hallucinations! (Please bear in mind if you are coming off this drug wean off it VERY slowly). That made my mind up to be off medication for good!
Yoga helps reduce my pain levels by doing some gentle stretches, enjoying a guided meditation or relaxation, keeping my mind more calm and balanced!
When I was 41, I was facing a big surgical operation in hospital, I was not given any pre-med drugs by the anaesthetist as he walked into my room and saw me doing ohm chants on my bed, and after surgery, despite coming close to death, I was constantly getting into trouble from the nurses for not using my morphine drip because I was doing yoga breathing (pranayama) techniques to breathe through the pain!
Yoga has a really good unexpected side effect of making us be in tune with our body and mind in a way that is difficult to describe but I will try!
When I am feeling sensations around the body, I know if its fibro or not, and an example of this is my GP refusing to send me for an x-ray for neck pain that I KNEW was not my fibro. When I had the x-ray at last, it found spondylitis in my neck because of radiotherapy after cancer. I am much calmer and more balanced because of yoga and meditation, and even when something upsets me a lot, I bounce back much quicker.
In ancient India, and still in present day, Yoga is a philosophy, a way of life, and all kinds of religions or non-religious people practice it around the world.
The ancient yogis purported that when we are well we are at “ease”, but when we are not well it is because of blocked energy somewhere in the body, this causes the energy to get stuck there and we are not at “ease”, and this is where the word disease comes from! By practicing yoga, our energy centres (called Chakras) keep open and the energy flowing, and we live calm and healthy lives.
However, they only use the physical practice, the breathing and the relaxation techniques as a tool to bring the body and mind into the meditative state, where we can reach our true blissful state, described as “that which we are” or the “atman” state of mind where we transcend the physical body and are totally calm and “in the moment”.
Before you read on with your head shaking, I can confirm this is true, as I have reached that state a few times, and it is totally bliss! I can only describe it as I experienced it, and this was that I was in the moment, the past and the future were not an issue in any way, I was calm, joyful, light and totally at ease!! I was in a place surrounded by light and I didn’t feel the weight of my body or the troubles of my mind! No pain, fear, anxiety, or anything negative whatsoever!
Top Tips
If you would like to start yoga here are my top tips:
1. Look on the British Wheel of Yoga website, look for local teachers by putting in your postcode, and find a class which is either for beginners or “all abilities welcome”. This way the teacher can give modifications for beginners that advanced students do not need and it is a good way to begin.
2. Wear loose, layered, comfortable clothing (not jeans); bring a blanket for relaxation, and a yoga mat (unless the teacher has plenty).
3. Have an open mind, do not say it is not for you after one session, and it takes a long while to get used to meditation and relaxation techniques too. Don’t fall into the trap of expecting too much too soon; it takes time, so be patient with yourself!
4. Don’t try to do the postures perfectly, it will be painful until your muscles get used to it, so expect some post-yoga pain for a few weeks, unless you are very gentle at the start!
5. Use the modifications the teacher gives to help ease into postures, especially if one area of the body is painful like a knee etc. Ease in slowly and stay safe.
6. Meditation and relaxation can take time to concentrate on, but again, be patient with yourself as you will enjoy some but not others!
7. Tell your yoga teacher at the start about your fibro, any other medical issues and medications you are taking.
I hope this has gone some way to explaining the benefits of yoga to Fibro warriors, and I wish you a happy pain-free month!