Yoga For Pain Relief: Simple Practices to Calm Your Mind & Heal Your Chronic Pain

Description

Based on the latest advances in mind-body research and the wisdom of the yoga tradition, Yoga for Pain Relief offers both a new way of thinking about the causes of suffering and practical strategies for ending it. Readers will learn how past experiences with injury, illness, and other stressful life events change the relationship between body and mind and how negative mind-body habits actually create and reinforce pain. Far from being a simple book of postures, this guide presents a complete mind-body program for healing chronic pain. Readers learn deep relaxation practices drawn from the yogic tradition, and work toward incorporating those practices into their daily lives. The book also helps readers address feelings of anger or betrayal that may be keeping them from making peace with their bodies. Author Kelly McGonigal presents two forms of physical yoga exercises: moving with the breath and holding poses and stretches. Black-and-white photographs clarify the yoga postures.

Kelly McGonigal is editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Yoga Therapy and Yoga Therapy in Practice. Her writing has been featured in yoga publications nationwide, including Yoga Journal. McGonigal uses yoga to prevent and calm her own chronic pain, as she suffered for years from debilitating headaches. She teaches yoga, psychology, and healthy back classes at Stanford University.

"Yoga for Pain Relief is an empowering toolkit for people living with pain or illness." --Halle Tecco, founder and executive director of Yoga Bear, a nonprofit organization that teaches yoga to cancer patients and survivors "Yoga for Pain Relief provides accurate, easily understood principles of self-care in a user-friendly format. The book offers professionals immediate activities for clinical adaptation with the best, most up-to-date evidence. The person in pain can celebrate the artful bridging of ancient wisdom with the genius of the author in creating an easy-to-follow, personalized road map that is sure to sustain hope and allow him or her to remember joy!" --Matthew J. Taylor, PT, Ph.D., RYT, president of the International Association of Yoga Therapists and founder and owner of the Dynamic Systems Rehabilitation Clinic "Yoga for Pain Relief will help you to find your ease, courage, and ability to transform your chronic pain. Unlike many other pain treatments, McGonigal's book illuminates a path free of adverse side effects that is synergistic with your present pain therapy. Yoga for Pain Relief is a jewel, and its brilliance and clarity will touch the heart of healing within." --Julie Good, MD, DABMA, clinical assistant professor of pediatric pain and symptom management at Stanford University "From a place of personal experience, McGonigal reaches out of these pages with clarity, knowledge and warmth. I was not only educated about my pain, but left hopeful that I could come to view it as a beloved teacher. This book not only provides a map for developing a yoga practice through which I can change my relationship to pain, but also empowers me to find my own way via my unique experience." --Elissa Cobb, director of programs at Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy and author of The Forgotten Body "In this book, McGonigal provides insightful pathways that can lead those with chronic pain toward a healthier life. Highly recommended for those suffering with chronic pain as well as healthcare practitioners and yoga teachers who work with people in pain." --Shoosh Lettick Crotzer, director of Mobility Limited and Enhancement, Inc., and author of Yoga for Fibromyalgia "In this important book, McGonigal elegantly and simply empowers us, through science and ancient practices, to compassionately transform pain and suffering into ever-present joy blossoming in our hearts. A gift for us all!" --Nischala Joy Devi, international yoga teacher and author of The Healing Path of Yoga and The Secret Power of Yoga "Kelly McGonigal's Yoga for Pain Relief is easily one of the best books I have ever read on yoga therapy, and includes plenty of research and practical tips for dealing with pain. This book is perfect for anyone who lives with any kind of physical or emotional pain, as well as for those working with these conditions professionally, including both conventional and alternative health care providers and yoga teachers. The book has heart and soul, is both kind and informative, and recognizes the individual experience without being reductionist or prescriptive. This book will be required reading for all of the students in my yoga therapy training program." --Molly Lannon Kenny, MS-CCC, founder and director of The Samarya Center, an internationally recognized training institute for yoga and yoga therapy "Whether you are in pain now or you treat those who are, Yoga for Pain Relief will broaden your view of suffering and change your life. McGonigal outlines a clear, step-by-step method, evidence-based yet ancient, to reconnect with the wisdom and joy that is your birthright--the source of wellness that is so much bigger than your pain." --Amy Weintraub, MFA, E-RYT 500, is founder of LifeForce Yoga Healing Institute and author of Yoga for Depression "Yoga for Pain Relief is an epic book for an epic condition. McGonigal is a quintessential teacher and a brilliant author. Highly recommended for healthcare providers, yoga teachers, or anyone in pain." --Larry Payne, Ph.D., director of the Yoga Therapy Rx Program at Loyola Marymount University and coauthor of Yoga for Dummies, Yoga Rx, and The Business of Teaching Yoga "McGonigal explores the complex picture of chronic pain, recognizing the many dimensions that contribute to one's suffering. In simple, easy-to-follow steps, she takes you on a journey, connecting your mind and body through the yoga experience. This book is very much in line with all that the American Chronic Pain Association teaches. I recommend that you relax, renew yourself, and enjoy your adventure through Yoga for Pain Relief." -Penney Cowan, executive director of the American Chronic Pain Association