brighid

Do you mean are these fertility clinics specifically recommending Kundalini yoga to assist with fertility problems, or are you asking if my inner goddess is the same one those clinics recommend “awakening’?

Brighid

brighid

On the fertility issue -

" Other recent evidence echoes the positive effects of yoga for infertile women. In 2000, Harvard Medical School researcher Alice Domar, Ph.D., published the results of a study in Fertility and Sterility (Vol. 73, No. 4) that showed women who participated in her program, which included relaxation and yoga, were almost three times more likely to get pregnant than women who didn't. In Domar's 10-week mind-body workshop, 184 infertile women who had been trying to get pregnant for one to two years were put into a cognitive behavioral group. This group received methods for emotional expression, nutrition and exercise information, and relaxation training—including yoga, meditation, muscle relaxation, and imagery. Interestingly, the group also learned cognitive restructuring, identifying recurrent negative thoughts, such as "I will never have a baby" and changing that thought to "I am doing everything I can to get pregnant." The results: 55 percent of the women in the group using yoga and other techniques got pregnant within a year, in contrast with 20 percent of the women in the control group who conceived in that same time period. " (page 2 of article)

http://www.yogajournal.com/health/586_1.cfm

I have not read the article and therefore cannot vouche for it's contents.

I would venture a guess that the adding the exercise and relaxation techniques of yoga significantly helped the body the create a most hospitable environment for pregnancy to take place. But that is just my guess. It also does seem that one goal of yoga can be the supression of sexual desire in order to attain enlightenment. In that respect I can't imagine why priests aren't jumping on that bandwagon.

Brighid

Amos

Very interesting, Brighid! From this I would conclude that our fertility problems are self inflicted by the many years of recurring thoughts "I don't want to get pregant" while practicing birth control. If his is true we should tax birth contol methods like tobacco and donate that money to the CC for their foresight and good effort despite much opposition.

brighid

Well ... now that IS an interesting take on that article. What I got from the article is that stress (and other unhealthy life factors like lack of exercise, improper nutrition and insufficient sleep) contribute to some infertility problems. Now that doesn't take rocket science to figure that out, now does it? Changing ones psychological outlook to be more positive has a positive affect on the body and it's systems ... again no mystery. I personally feel it is much more destructive to ones own body and even worse, the body and the mind of the child you bring into the world when a family is either unwilling, or woefully unprepared to care for a child in the way it's humanity dictates.

If you believe God designed us, the infertility issue is simply another argument for his imperfection. At a very tender age we are most capable of easily producing off spring, but more often then not we lack the emotional maturity and life experience to best care for the physical, emotional, educational and financial well being of a precioius child. Therefore many couples chose to wait until they feel prepared to provide properly for the child they so desire to love and care for. Then, the body isn't quite as willing and may need some coaxing. The stress of this situation, a long with common sedentary lifestyle just make it all the worse.

It could be argued that if these men and women had always had a yoga (or other stress relieving exercise program) as part of their life plan that many more couples would never have a problem getting pregnant because the environment within their bodies and minds would be healthy and hospitable to the growth of new life.

The CC has done more to add to the stress of raising children adequately with their irresponsible stance on birth control, including the damage and stress attempting to prevent unwanted pregnancies through "natural" family planning then all the birth control used through out history, and in this respect should credit for nothing.

Edited to add: Furthermore, since one goal of yoga can be to subdue or remove the lustful nature of man and woman in order to attain enlightment and a closer relationship with the divine (similar the celibacy preference Christ himself seemed to have according the Christian mythology) it would seem the Church would support a system such as yoga. But alas ... the hypocrisy of the Church exposed again ...

Brighid

beth

I think that it is a good idea to teach our children yoga, as long as they do not incorporate New Age beliefs into the form. I wish that my children's school would incorporate it into their physical education course. School these days are extremely stressful, I think even more so than when I was in school. My children's school is evacuated at least once a week for false bomb threats.(The schools in the entire county are evacuated if there is one threat.) Now that testing is going on, the threats are sure to be even more frequent. When I was a kid, I have no memory of school shootings. I was, however, bussed to school in the middle of the projects and there was often much racial tension, even riots, so I can relate a little to fear of violence in school. My children and many of their classmates are now fearful of terrorists acts being carried out at their school, so that is another stress. These are all in addition to the stresses of trying to learn and be prepared for testing.

I think that yoga helps to release stresses. It helps one to think more clearly and to maintain mental health. For me, yoga helps to alieve anxiety. If I can practice during an anxiety attack, I am able to calm myself without medication. I was practicing Chakra yoga, but it was a little too new agey for my tastes. Now I practice my own form.

Starboy

hinduwoman, maybe you are right. It is a slippery slope. If they teach yoga then they will have to allow gymnastics, kirate, volleyball and yikes! Football!

We should put a stop to it now!

Starboy

Amos

Good for you blondegoddess but don't worry about that New Age thing because that is just empty words and will do you children no harm except maybe short circuit the purpose religion as a whole . . . which is much better then sending them into the hands of fundies that can drag them into the eternal torture chambers you are trying to leave behind.

Amos

Jeepers Brighid, I liked my deduction better but will agree that stress is not good and that it is really foolish to let stress become part of your life. Eg. to try and become "assertive" is to admit defeat-- or we could not become 'other' then what we are already.

Yes he did, but we "take charge" and still must pay for the sins of our fathers in our hereditary component. As a matter of fact, in the sacrament of priesthood (the seventh sacrament), the unspoken or effetive cause is to raise the Kundalini from the groin to the heart. If you are familiar with the actions of this sacrament (which I am not completly so as to defend it in detail), you will see that there is a resemblance and this would automatically lead to the necessity of celibacy . . . because the Kundalini is raised (no more sexual desire).

never been there

Yoga class was way cool, and the 'religious' element was the best part. I've never been the same since. Between a brief period with Yoga and some martial arts, I've learned that I don't have let anything get me upset to the point where I make things worse.

I don't buy into the gods of the original religion, but they've found some very good physical, mental and spiritual practices that are good for one's physical, mental and spiritual health.

hinduwoman

this is a surprise --- I had no idea yoga was this widespread in the West.

Maybe the priests are afraid of the religion of bannana?