AIR DATE SEPTEMBER 30, 2021
Title: Pain and Yoga!
Do you get neck aches after a long day of work? In this episode of Emily Tells All, we talk to pain management experts and Yoga instructors on ways to prevent and manage pain. Get some tips on what you can do at your office desk.
Guests and Locations
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Medical Director, Musculoskeletal Medicine – Dr. Soo Kim
Heal, Pain, and Stress Relief Center, Owner – Maria Sellars
The Power of Yoga for Pain and Stress Relief
Many individuals live with chronic pain. Some pain is developed through strenuous activities, while other pain develops from improper posture. While you can take pain medication to soothe your aches, experts suggest one particular exercise – yoga.
Yoga is a powerful activity that stretches, strengthens, and releases all at once. It’s simple, effective, and easy to incorporate a few yoga poses into your everyday life.
Pain management experts Dr. Soo Kim and Maria Sellars join us to talk about a healing journey accented by the power of yoga.
Causes of Pain and How to Manage It
In 2019, the National Health Interview Survey revealed that 1 in 5 adults in America experience some form of chronic pain. What makes yoga such a powerful healing modality is its ability to improve flexibility.
Dr. Soo Kim at Johns Hopkins University chimes in, “The flexibility is very important to prevent from getting any injury. Also, yoga plays a huge role in having a proper posture. I always try to educate my patients that a lot of spine related disorders, neck pain, and back pain actually are coming from poor posture.”
Thanks to our digital age, a lot of chronic pain is now being developed from long hours hunched over a laptop. Yoga can really help to strengthen the core muscles and maintain proper body position while typing or sitting through virtual meetings.
If you find yourself at a computer for long hours, focus on using your back muscles and pull your head back over your shoulders. An elevated monitor is also essential for managing neck pain.
Finally, another powerful aspect of yoga that helps manage pain is breathing. Breath exercises are a key part of yoga, and Dr. Soo Kim emphasizes the breath for anxiety and pain relief.
Alleviating Daily Stress with Yoga
When looking at pain relief, the physical and mental tensions we experience daily go hand-in-hand. To truly ease pain, one must work on lowering one’s stress levels. At the Heal Pain and Stress Relief Center in central Florida, holistic stress relief is at the core of every service provided.
Experience a relaxing deep tissue massage and then head to the salt room before winding down with color therapy. Maria’s healing center also does energy work, such as Reiki and chakra balancing.
In relation to yoga for stress relief, Maria comments, “No matter what your experiences with yoga in the past have been, maybe it wasn’t the right type of yoga, or maybe it wasn’t the right teacher for you, you know? But always explore because there are different practices to help with that physical and mental tension.”
And there are so many types of yoga you can explore: hot yoga, pranayama, hatha yoga, and yin yoga. No matter what yoga you practice, it all helps stimulate blood flow and regulate the nervous system. Two things that are incredibly important for pain management.
Maria says, “Everybody is a yoga body. So just keep that in mind.”
