This photo above shows the well-known child pose which is an excellent "pose of repose" that I go into between other poses. The type of gentle yoga I do is excellent for beginners (and non-athletes!) because it emphasizes slow and simple poses with pauses in between that can help you relax and relieve stress.
The other day I was thumbing through one of my back issues of the Yoga Journal, a publication that has been dedicated to yoga for 35 years. I came across a fascinating article discussing the relaxation and pain relief that yoga can bring to people suffering from fibromyalgia, a curious chronic pain disorder that wasn't officially recognized by the American Medical Association until 1987. Its sufferers feel like they have writers cramp in all their muscles throughout their entire body all at once along with often crippling fatigue, headaches, and insomnia.
Fortunately, the regular practice of yoga has helped alleviate the pain of fibromyalgia sufferers because yoga helps elongates the muscles that have become constricted and cramped up causing pain. Yoga returns muscles to their normal length and also shifts the nervous system out of a stress response into a relaxation response. For one woman with fibromyalgia, yoga practice has enabled her to increase her range of motion, decrease her pain, and improve her sleep. How wonderful! You don't have to have such a disorder to benefit from yoga, so go roll out your yoga mat right now....
Serenely yours,
Laura Venecia Rodriguez