Towards the One

Both systems of yoga, the Iyengar method and the Ashtanga Vinyasa method are both essentially hatha yoga with different interpretations. They both have great emphasis on bodily postures and the same ideology that suffering can be reduced or even removed by exercising the physical body and keeping it active. The hypnosedation group experienced less inflammation, less post-operative pain, and less post-operative fatigue than the general anesthesia group. Breast cancer survivor Kelly Painter entered a newer trial using hypnosedation at MD Anderson Cancer Center to have her tumor surgically removed in 2017. She reported, It took a little longer than a traditional surgery because they had to numb the area with lidocaine. But even so, I was in the operating room at 8:30 A. I never even really felt hypnotized, and the worst pain I felt was a little pinch. It was mostly just pressure. And I didn't have to take any pain medicine afterward. Or consider something as common as painful menstrual cramps. One study randomly divided 50 nursing students with painful cramps into two groups. One received ibuprofen for three menstrual cycles and then no medication for the following three cycles. Still, there was a niggling, unsure part of me that said, Maybe I am doing something provocative. And I wanted the relationship to work. So I continued trying to modify my wardrobe and limit physical contact with men, hoping against hope this would solve the problem. There was so much incredible about this man, I didn't want to lose him. I struggled with the questions How much do you work on a relationship? And when is enough enough? But finally, predictably, his relentless suspicions destroyed us. They prevented him from trusting me enough to fully commit.

Also, I was plum tuckered out from being treated like Othello's Desdemona, a woman who was falsely accused. So, with great anguish, we parted. Although the cold weather doesn't help, it isn't solely responsible: Australia has similar problems after Christmas, and it's the middle of summer there. Such is the impact of the loss of a week or so of community services to the holidays. In an NHS hospital an empty bed remains empty for barely a nanosecond. Scans and a biopsy confirmed that the cancer had spread. An oncology opinion was sought. The options were limited, but Joyce did not want to be `messed around' in any case. Declining treatment, she deteriorated over the next few weeks and died at the local hospice. At her funeral I spoke of what an influence she had been on me. Not through great words of wisdom or high achievement, but through her strength to live her life the way she wanted. Hers was an unselfish life, devoted to her daughter and grandchildren. Both systems also believe that in order to have strength in the mind, one must have strength in the body. The physical body is understood as being a temple where your soul resides. So nothing spiritual can be gained unless the physical body is first attended to. A huge priority is placed on our bodies by both systems, which was not really emphasised before. It existed before 1920 but not with the same importance as it does now. Most modern yoga teachers teach a hybrid of the Iyengar and Ashtanga Vinyasa system (almost unknowingly sometimes). They are essentially the original schools of modern physical yoga. Everything you see today has been influenced in some manner by them.

So, as a brief summary, yoga was created by Shiva 12,000 years ago (culturally speaking) and then defined by Patanjali some 2,000 years ago (as the stillness of the mind). It was then given a different dimension by the great Gorakhnath around 1,000 years ago. The second group received hypnosis. Not surprisingly, the medication group only experienced pain relief for the three cycles when they took the ibuprofen and had no significant pain reduction for the following three cycles. The hypnosis group experienced a significant reduction in pain for all six cycles. If there were no alternative for someone in pain, the risk may warrant the benefit. But this study shows that a risk-free alternative does exist, and it uses your subconscious brain. INTEGRATIVE VISUALIZATION When it comes to cancer, autoimmune conditions, chronic pain, and elusive conditions, throwing a bunch of prescription pain pills at someone is like throwing water on a grease fire. So it's important to integrate SVT into a holistic treatment plan. As you already know, SVT incorporates many strategies, including CBT, mindfulness, hypnosis, bilateral stimulation, and guided visualization, into one easy-to-use, at-home tool. If your well-being is at stake, it may also mean pulling out all the stops. It took a long time for my heart to recover. Well-meaning friends came to my rescue, saying things like What a shame he wouldn't go into couples therapy and How sad he couldn't deal with his jealousy. For me, it was certainly a shame and sad. But now, having had time to reflect, I believe, more than ever, that everyone has the inalienable right to deal with dark emotions, or not. At this stage in his life, apparently, it wasn't this man's path. To him, it wasn't sad at all that he didn't face his dark side. As an environmentalist, he felt he had other worthy work to which he was devoted. Still, I got a good chuckle when my friend Berenice, a psychotherapist, and I joked: In his next life, poor guy, he'll be reincarnated as a therapist.

Then he'll have to deal with emotions! Still, I see jealousy as shackling his heart. There was no fuss or drama, no manipulation or attention-seeking. Joyce died an unselfish death while she was still useful to others and still very much loved. It's a death I aspire to. We can no more choose the illness that carries us off than control the weather. But we can resist treatments that may have little benefit other than prolonging our own suffering and the distress of our children. Such decisions require courage. There is a part of me that believes future generations will look back at some cancer treatments used in the opening decades of the third millennium with the same bewilderment we feel when contemplating the common treatments from the eighteenth century. Wafer-Thin Margins and Modern Medicine The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam For most of history medicine was just someone's opinion and was as useful as any other human opinion unsupported by evidence. It was then made popular by Krishnamacharya between 1920 and 1940 with a much greater emphasis on the physical body and yoga postures/asanas. It was finally refined and redefined by the late great B. S Iyengar in the 1960s. Additional teachers who have paved the way for teachers like us include the inspiring Indra Devi (1899-2002), who was an ex-dancer of Russian decent and the first foreign female student of Krishnamacharya studying alongside B. S Iyengar and Pathabhi Jois. Indra Devi was instrumental in creating the worldwide appeal of physical yoga, having taught the first ever physical yoga class in China in 1939. Indra Devi once said, Yoga is a way to freedom. By its constant practice, we can free ourselves from fear, anguish and loneliness11.

V Desikachar (1938-2016, Krishnamacharya's grandson) developed viniyoga (a more individual-adaptive form of yoga rather than a class-led one). On the subject of yoga, Desikachar has said, Yoga is a mystery. Cut gluten or dairy. Limit your toxin exposure, especially if environmental toxins have triggered an autoimmune condition. Pairing a liposomal glutathione supplement with SVT is just one example of a strategy that may be used for detoxification. If the brain is damaged from injury or stroke, hydrogen can be used to help in the healing process. A far infrared sauna is another evidence-based, drug-free possibility that I frequently recommend. They improve the quality of life for those with diabetes,8 and just eight sessions of side effect-free infrared sauna also led to a clinically significant reduction in pain and stiffness in people living with rheumatoid arthritis. Tests & Tools I also recommend the latest in evidence-based care, including genetic testing and a neurotransmitter panel, to determine what may be causing or exacerbating an elusive condition or chronic pain. Genetic testing is empowering. You may have inherited an inability to convert certain B vitamin precursors into the forms usable by the brain and body. This relationship taught me more about jealousy than I'd ever thought I'd learn. Grueling as it was, the fact is, I'm grateful for what I experienced and was able to take from it. Even for the most ingenious mental health practitioner, delusional jealousy is difficult to treat. Patients must want to change--rare because, like all card-carrying delusionals, they believe their perceptions are valid. But even if they desire help, it's still hard. The problem, as I see it, is that this kind of jealousy is largely based on a disowned projection rather than solely low self-esteem: sufferers project onto mates what they themselves want to do, such as being flirtatious or promiscuous. Because they either have a basic inability to be self-aware or find owning the projection too painful, their delusion holds on. Treatments with partial success include antidepressants, antipsychotics, psychoanalysis, and behavioral therapies to reprogram responses to jealousy.