Yoga while sick

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#21

Hello Renie,

Wow another bout after that episode in April?
I have a few things to share with you.

First I’d like to clarify the question and shift it from “can I do yoga?” because I believe you are actually asking about asana. Yoga is something lived. Asana is something formed with the body. Please continue to do the first but refrain from the second until your body is ready to mobilize.

Obviously, anyone can get sick, ill, catch a cold or get the flu. And while I’ve read some things indicating the most recent version of flu hits young people with strong immune systems the worst, I cannot verify such a thing.

What we learn (hopefully) is that disease is a form of communication from body to mind. Thing of it as a 911 call of one degree or another. The question is what is the message and how best do we heed it.

When we fail to listen to that call AND continue to place great physical demand on our body it can weaken the immune system (activity burn out). In that scenario the body will continue to send messages, escalating them from whisper to shout. If none are heeded then you’ll get knocked on your butt.

There are ways to support and bolster the immune system and while activity and movement are critical for human well being it is not the most direct method for that immune system support. The immune system functions best when the nervous system is parasympathetic and that equals “at rest”.

So in the case you’ve broached I would ask the student to rest, meditate, and do specific things relative to nutrition and lifestyle. But I would not ask them to do asana.

gordon

#22

Thank you Inner Athlete. You’re absolutely correct. One of my faults is to ignore what my poor traumatized body is saying. I think after intense exercise for 31 years, it’s time to listen to my gut feeling. This is far worse than the two viruses I had in February and March. I was able to work out through that, despite the imbalance. This has wiped me out beyond description. Now I feel like it’s moving again from chest to head. I will wait, rest, relax and wait to do asana again.

#23

I read the original question and the many replies after googling “yoga when sick”. So I registered to join the conversation.

Meditation is good now due its balancing affects but were instructed not even to do Qi Gong when we were sick because we would be moving the sick energy around in our body. There are meditation practices, like those cancer patients do, visualizing moving the illness/virus out, and there does come a time in recovery when your body is through the worst and you are ready to re-build and re-plenish. This would be the time to gently begin a light practice. Namaste, be well everyone.