Читать книгу Yoga Therapy as a Whole-Person Approach to Health - Lee Majewski - Страница 17

According to Swami Kuvalayananda, founder of Kaivalyadhama, positive health does not mean mere freedom from disease but is a jubilant and energetic way of living and feeling that is the peak state of wellbeing at all levels—physical, mental, emotional, and social. He says that one of the aims of yoga is to encourage positive hygiene and health through the development of the inner natural powers of the body and mind. Thus, the adaptation and adjustment of the internal environment of man [sic] helps him enjoy positive health and not just mere freedom from disease. He emphasizes that yoga produces purification of all channels of communication (nadi shuddhi) and eradication of factors that disturb the balance of body and mind (mala shuddhi).

According to Swami Kuvalayananda, yoga helps cultivate positive health through three integral steps:

• Cultivating the correct psychological attitudes based on friendliness, compassion, cheerfulness, and indifference (maitri, karuna, mudita, upekshanam) towards those people, places, and events that are at ease, suffering, virtuous, and non-virtuous, respectively (suka, duhkha, punya, apunya).

• Reconditioning the neuromuscular and neuroglandular system—in fact, the whole body—enabling it to better withstand greater stress and strain.

• Laying great emphasis on appropriate diet conducive to such a peak state of health, and encouraging the natural processes of elimination through various cleansing processes (nadi shuddhi or mala shuddhi).