The Power of Posture

102 Pages·2014·1.45 MB·English

by  Dr. Renu Mahtani

Published by Jaico Publishing House
A-2 Jash Chambers, 7-A Sir Phirozshah Mehta Road
Fort, Mumbai – 400 001
[email protected]
www.jaicobooks.com
© Dr. Renu Mahtani M.D.
Editor: Meeta Kabra
THE POWER OF POSTURE
ISBN 978-81-8495-618-4
First Jaico Impression: 2015
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
Page design and layouts: Special Effects, Mumbai
Dedication
To all those who have taken charge of themselves
and have actively participated in their health and well-being.
GRATITUDE
I thank the Divine for uniting me with yoga and for giving me innumerable
opportunities to serve those in pain and help them discover the magic of
awareness for living pain-free lives.
Doing the book was challenging and needed opinions and inputs of many that
I could share, with utmost joy, every detail of yoga postures with lucidity. I am
grateful and owe deep gratitude to each one of them.
I thank my loving family and dear friends who have encouraged and
supported me in my quest to explore healing and health:
Dr Nagarathna from SVYASA, Bangalore, for guiding me to combine medical
knowledge with the fundamentals of yoga. Dr Warren Reaves, FRCS
Orthopaedics, the most revered osteopath and chiropractitioner, who is a role
model of good posture. Your trust and blessings in this project have been
invaluable; you have been an extraordinary mentor.
Surhuda Kulkarni and Devika Mundkur, for your expert inputs to my first
draft. This project got the kickstart it needed because of your efforts.
Meeta Kabra, you were Godsend for the project. Being a content designer and
yoga teacher, you understood the subject and put all your passion into enhancing
it – a feat that you alone could have accomplished.
Anuradha Sule, for the monumental task of sketching my ideas into simple,
comprehendible pictures. The readers will truly benefit from your illustrations.
My incredible team of yoga teachers – my second family; who motivated me to
bring out these simple yet effective concepts in the public arena. Many thanks to
Dr Sanyogita Nimbalkar, Deepa Nair, Aakash Ramchandani and Anjeli Singh –
our yoga teachers, for being the models in the photographs. Your poise,
enthusiasm and smiling faces will be the biggest motivators for the readers.
Vinay and Sanjay, for your remarkable talent through the lens and adding life to
the photographs.
Last but the most important of them all, my clients, who have complete faith
in me and without whose love and conviction, I would not have become a better
person and a better doctor.
Thank you every one for making this project happen!
PROLOGUE
L
iving with awareness should be a way of life. Being aware of yourself helps feel
well, look well and stay healthy. I learned this the hard way when a chronic
and stubborn skin disease struck me. It prompted me to look for a holistic
solution to a problem that was more than skin-deep. That is when the pill of
awareness came into my life in the form of yoga. The varied physical practices
and breathing exercises of yoga not only cured my skin problem, but also
improved my general health and energy levels over time.
I also had a slight hunch on my back and suffered frequent neck and upper
back pain. Sitting for long hours to study the voluminous medical text books
added to the discomfort. I had been told that the hunch was genetic since my
brother and uncles had it too. I took this to mean that I had to live with the
hunch and accept that my aches would keep surfacing intermittently. Therefore,
I never paid heed to the pain and continued racing with life with my distorted
frame and associated aches.
The yoga practices prescribed for the skin disease started spilling out, off the
yoga mat, into other aspects of my life. I carried the straight back posture to my
office chair – keeping my head, neck and spine in one line. I also started sleeping
correctly in tune with my physical axis, acknowledging Lord Krishna's words in
the Bhagwad Gita –
Sama Kaya ShiroGreeva – Keep the head, the neck and the spine in one line.
Without any conscious effort, to my utmost surprise, the depth of my
hunched back reduced. Needless to say, the nagging neck and upper back pain
totally disappeared!
I then realized that being a doctor was my biggest strength and doing yoga my
greatest passion. It was at this point in time that I decided to fuse the two so that
I could share the age-old wonders of holistic living with all my very dear patients.
I not only ventured out as a student to various yoga institutes for learning yoga
in depth, but also started sharing its simple techniques with my patients as and
when my medically logical and intuitive mind guided me.
I gained tremendous experience in treating a wide range of diseases from the
simplest to the most critical ones and changed my treatment methods – from
prescribing medicines to patients to getting them off prescriptions. I started
bringing them to participate in achieving their own good health.
With my medical experience and formal training from four different yoga
institutes in India and outside, I began yoga sessions for small groups based on
their specific needs. In no time, these sessions for small groups took the form of
an organization where different forms of yoga were offered according to the
needs of the participating individuals.
The establishment of the organization meant an exposure to an even wider
variety of health problems in patients ranging from 20 to 80 years. They came to
the organization after being exhausted with the conventional prescriptions and
hoping to receive holistic solutions. Yoga, a holistic science, is known to offer
solutions for the most chronic diseases. It has not only given relief to my patients
with chronic lifestyle diseases, but has also helped them look for solutions for
their nagging physical pains. Many of my patients suffering from excruciating
chronic pain were already doing physiotherapy or yoga, but their pains and aches
persisted. To determine the cause of the pain, I would often ask them to perform
their exercises before me. The demonstrations given by the patients became a
turning point in my life as I began noticing that:
People have different body frameworks, depending on gender, genetics,
lifestyle and level of awareness.
Patients who have experienced a particular type of pain in a specific part of the
body cannot be prescribed the same set of exercises.
People need to adapt themselves to exercises such that they meet the need of
that particular body framework.
People tend to overdo the exercises, both in the range of movement and in the
speed. Overdoing a practice does more harm than good.
Inaccurately performed physical exercises eventually do more harm than
good, even to very physically fit and athletic individuals.
Sedentary lifestyle destabilizes the baseline tone of our muscles; without
regaining this tone, no pain will ever go.
Slowly, a mantra started emerging: How you do is as important as what you
do.
In spite of having an exercise routine, the number of out-of-shape, round-
shouldered white-collared professionals there are is shocking. Even people who
are seemingly aware of their bodies do not actually have enough practical
knowledge regarding how to carry themselves in commonplace activities.
The digital age has brought conveniences in our lives that are now necessities
rather than luxuries. However, urbanization and industrialization coupled with
mobile and other wireless devices have, in many ways, made us immobile. For
the growing number of young professionals, work and life today revolves around
computers, TVs, and mobiles. As a result, they end up with rounded shoulders,
protruded heads, upper back humps, slumped gait and so on.
This lifestyle – intellectually challenging but physically sedentary and crippling
– is responsible for back and neck pains, upper back soreness, migraine, poor
sleep and general irritability in spite of technological advancements like
ergonomic chairs. This lifestyle has also created other major health risks
including obesity and flabby muscles that lead to a host of other diseases. That,
however, does not mean that we stop enjoying the materially-driven world. It
only indicates that we must teach ourselves to enjoy it without hurting ourselves.
The ensuing chapters are an attempt to share my experiences and learning
with those looking for a comprehensive, healthy living. So, flash 'OPEN
SESAME' to the awareness that the following pages bring and they will unravel a
treasure trove of health that you wish you had known long ago.
Dr Renu Mahtani