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Yoga for Autoimmune Disease
Yoga for autoimmune disease - Man, they have yoga for everything! LOL Don't tune out yet...Have you ever heard of yoga as a treatment for autoimmune disease? I know, depending on how you heard of the mind-body connection you may have heard of it as elusive, and depending on your experience with yoga - that may seem elusive too, maybe even impossible to use yoga for autoimmune disease.
Interestingly, once you get this mind-body connection piece down whether it is through yoga, meditation, or one of the other methods I recommend - it translates to lasting healing because it almost seems superhuman sometimes.
We are continuing our theme of regaining that mind-body connection and today we are talking about using yoga to heal autoimmune disease.
RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED IN MIND BODY CONNECTION:
Transcript: https://audreychristie.com/129
Yoga with Andi Fitz: https://yogawithandifitz.com
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Yoga for Autoimmune Disease
Rough Transcript (listening is best)
Yoga for autoimmune disease...
Yoga for autoimmune disease - Man, they have yoga for everything! LOL Don't tune out yet...Have you ever heard of yoga as a treatment for autoimmune disease? I know, depending on how you heard of the mind-body connection you may have heard of it as elusive, and depending on your experience with yoga - that may seem elusive too, maybe even impossible to use yoga for autoimmune disease.
Interestingly, once you get this mind-body connection piece down whether it is through yoga, meditation, or one of the other methods I recommend - it translates to lasting healing because it almost seems superhuman sometimes.
We are continuing our theme of regaining that mind-body connection and today we are talking about using yoga to heal autoimmune disease.
Intro
Welcome if this is your first time listening - I’m Audrey Christie - I’m a functional and integrative nurse nutritionist and energy medicine practitioner. I help women start your very own Autoimmune Revolution so you can stop chasing symptoms and learn how to heal their bodies from autoimmune disease.
A quick announcement before we continue… we need to have a little word about pivoting… anyone else hear Ross from FRIENDS when you hear the word “pivot”? I know I do.
So at the beginning of Season 4, my Team and I brought the pod back as the Naturalistic Nurse Podcast - so cute and fun, right? You might remember the story, it started as a client calling me the wilderness nurse? But is it a practical description of what I do - Nah. It’s really not.
It’s so important in all things to realize when your needs change, like when the science points to new avenues for healing our bodies, or when our bodies tell us that something needs to change - so in honoring the needs of the audience, my specialty in autoimmune conditions which oddly I was afraid to specialize the podcast, but its time. We have brand partners and new goodies coming up that we need to shift or pivot again - starting this very next episode - this will be the Autoimmune Revolution Podcast.
You will still have all your fav info - just a new - easier to find - more relevant title. As always - thank you for all of your support and love as we continue this journey together.
Now that we got that out of the way…
Mind-body connection is critical...
As I mentioned in the last episodes (by the way if you haven’t listened go check those out, Episode 127 Mind-Body Connection and its importance in healing autoimmune disease, and Episode 128 on meditation, but as I mentioned many times women who develop or are suffering from an autoimmune condition have lost that mind-body connection.
If you aren’t connected to your human suit, if your mind-body connection is missing or broken, then it makes it more difficult to heal your body from an autoimmune disease or even effectively mask the symptoms with conventional or natural medicine. Your mind-body connection is essential for healing, no matter your path.
You know, a lot of yoga teachers, and I’ll admit it, maybe even I have been guilty of it, but they tend to describe the mind-body connection as something elusive, right? Heck, even yoga as an elusive practice reserved for the crazy flexible and fit.
It's like something we hope to reach, like a Nirvana that we hope to reach with our yoga practice. But in reality, the mind-body connection is present at some level all the time.
It's just may not be perceivable to you all the time. Or maybe it's perceivable and you don't realize you're perceiving it, right. That is the practice of honoring I have spoken of.
Here are some examples: if you think of something like when you get really nervous, you get butterflies in your stomach. That's a mind-body connection. If you are meltwaters at the thought of the most magnificent meal that is a mind-body connection. If you have ever, you know, had sweaty palms or you know had a shaky voice when you're nervous about something, those are all Mind-Body connections, right?
So as you can tell, it's not this elusive thing it's a mind-body connection is a routine occurrence but you need to practice honoring it to use it as a healing tool.
Why use yoga for this with autoimmune disease?
The best way I can describe it is that yoga wakes up that mind-body connection in a different way. Using Yoga for autoimmune disease takes you from having the automatic Mind-Body connection, it takes that mind-body connection and makes it more intentional.
Let me share a story with you...
I want to share a personal story with you - and there are many powerful stories I have of people healing their body of autoimmune disease but I have a personal story with yoga and healing and it demonstrates the power in a way that more people can reconcile in their head.
Almost 4 years ago, I was miserable. I was having symptoms of joint issues on top of my psoriasis, fatigue, all sorts of issues. I was also nearly 300 lbs, powering through my days with caffeine and my nights with booze. I committed to a daily yoga practice for 108 days. I didn’t count calories or fat I didn’t try to run a marathon, I committed to gentle yoga daily.
Most days it took every ounce of my being to get up and even do 1 variation of a Sun Salutation. Through the neuroplastic changes that occur when you work on your body-mind connection when you use something to heal your body, like yoga for autoimmune disease, I decreased my inflammation, I let go of so many habits (and people), I released 100 lbs and haven’t attracted it again...all through making the choice to honor and hone in on that body-mind connection.
And don’t worry, I didn’t spend hours on the mat, some days I meditated in easy-sit - that is yoga. Some days I did a single down dog or a single sun salutation or tree pose. Why did it work?
From the space of connection, of practicing listening to and honoring the messages that my body was sending - I was able to recognize what my body needed and didn’t need.
When I tell this story, I will hear from people will say - "oh Audrey - I saw you running/lifting/paddling/walking the other day on IG - don’t you think that was it?" Friends that first 108 days I did the most gentle yoga ever, every day. As my energy realigned and my fog lifted and my body felt like a tool rather than a burden - then I had the energy to do all those things.
Why does yoga for autoimmune disease work best?
So why does yoga for autoimmune disease work better than any other form of movement? What makes it different? And why does it work?
It works because of the intention and tuning in aspects of yoga. When you practice slow intentional types of Yoga, not all yoga does this, your senses able to turn inward. you are focusing on your body. You are taking up space. You are breathing deeply, noticing the slightest Twist of your leg. If it's just slightly out of alignment, or the slightest part of your back isn't quite straight you work to feel that part of you lengthen and straighten. Also at the same time inhaling deeply focusing on breathing in filling your body up with all of this oxygen which revitalizes not just your human suit but also your mind. Your body remains connected deeply to your mind and your mind to your body.
What happens over time and repetition, over practicing yoga Is that you start to have profound effects on your health.
Yoga has the ability, the proven ability, to alter long-standing dysfunctional behavior. And I'm not making a sweeping judgment or conclusion about anyone certain Behavior or collection of behaviors being dysfunctional because everything serves some sort of purpose. But humans by Nature often have unhealthy thought habits unhealthy action habits that undermined our healing path and undermine our ability to heal from autoimmune disease. It could be as simple as eating when you're not hungry, not moving your body, allowing stress to take over, choosing to partake in activities that are detrimental to our healing path, and sometimes these habits are recognizable like smoking and sometimes they're not so recognizable because they are unique to you. An example of that might be eating Avocado…
These changes even though you're working on the physical body on the physical plane, happen through the nervous system. People who practice yoga regularly become more sensitive more in touch, more connected in the mind-body and more connected to different actions on our own bodies.
Increasingly as you practice, you naturally want to do the things that make you feel better. You naturally hone in and begin to honor that little voice inside.
This happens through a phenomenon scientists call neuroplasticity. the modern understanding of the brain is that the brain is ever-changing, rather than it being a static structure, which is the way I was taught in college and even in nursing school.
What happens when you add yoga, even if you're not changing anything else, it changes the neural pathways in your brain and other things begin to fall into place. Now it could take a little effort it could take some guidance it could take being in a community of people that are on your same journey, but it is a tool a pathway to getting that Mind-Body Connection and heading down the path of healing.
The more you practice the more you enhance your Mind-Body Connection the stronger these new neural pathways become. and the more you cement your new Journey to conquering your autoimmune disease.
It's almost like Yogi's knew this thousands and thousands of years ago when they suggested that the key to success is just a dedicated and uninterrupted yoga practice over a long period of time.
This stuff is so important...
So just like meditation, yoga is another way to get off the roller coaster or the merry-go-round that is the never-ending cycle of influencing your body and mind for better or worse.
The mind-body connection is so important on your path to healing autoimmune disease whether you choose yoga for autoimmune disease or some other path that its the FIRST step in kickstarting your very own Autoimmune Revolution.
I have created a free resource for you called Kickstart Your Autoimmune Revolution and the first step is about reconnecting, get clear in your MIND. I encourage you to download it at audreychristie.com/129. Also on that show notes page, you will find a link to one of my friends Andi, and her page YogawithAndifitz - this is your home for accessible yoga, go there and take her online classes! Start your connection NOW!
To wrap this up...
To wrap this up - you can change your mind to heal your body way easier, faster, and more permanently, than changing your body and hoping your mind catches up. The mind wins that battle most of the time.
The good news is, just like with anything else, you CAN practice yoga or meditation or other mind-body connection activities and heal your body, mind, and spirit.
Thank you so much for tuning in, if you have a second it would mean the world to me if you could leave a rating or review! That helps me help more people start an autoimmune revolution of their own. I’d be oh so grateful.
I hope you have the most magical and restful day friends, and I challenge you to leave your world, however you can, a little better than how you found it when you got up this morning.
Be well.