Relation Between Yoga and Occupational Therapy

Introduction:

Occupational therapy focuses on getting or developing motor skills and sensory processing. It helps to get better behavioral regulations and social skills. In the case of yoga, it uses various types of posters and breathing techniques to calm the mind and body and give energy to the body. Yoga helps develop strength, increasing flexibility and improving the coordination and ability to process sensory information. Both yoga and occupational therapy combine a person's physical and mental health to affect overall well-being positively.

What Is Yoga?

Yoga is a group of mental and physical practices that controls the mind and body and recognizes suffering, health, and stress, giving relaxation. There is various yoga process that helps in relaxing different part of the body and mind. Each process has advantages that help leave pain in that area. Chronic pain is a combination of physical and social conditions. So to promote personal performance and to relieve the pain from the body and mind, a holistic invention using yoga and occupational therapy is used. Yoga with occupational therapy is used to treat complexity associated with chronic pain.

What Are the Benefits of Yoga?

The benefits of yoga include the following -

• Nervous System - It reduces stress and improves concentration and energy levels in the body.

• Respiratory Health - It helps in improving respiration and the quality of breath.

• Digestive System - Yoga increases the circulation of digestive fluids and helps in massaging surrounding muscles and which helps in speeding digestion.

• Cardiovascular Health - It increases fitness, improves blood flow circulation, and helps regulate normal blood pressure.

• Musculoskeletal Health - It improves the body's flexibility, increases muscle tone and strength, and helps release muscle tension and stiffness.

• Mental Well-Being - It helps in relieving stress and developing coping skills. It helps to increase calmness and to get mental clarity.

What Are the Health Benefits of Yoga?

Yoga has constantly evolved in the last five years because of its various health benefits. Various studies show that yoga can reduce stress, anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, and pain. It can reduce several risks for medical conditions like cardiovascular disease and hypertension. It can also help reduce the side effects caused by cancer treatment. Yoga can also increase the recovery chance of neurological diseases like stroke and Parkinson's disease. Yoga can increase the overall well-being of a person. Yoga can also be used with medications in certain conditions to relieve chronic pain and disability.

What Is Occupational Therapy?

Occupational therapy helps people with physical, sensory, or cognitive problems become independent in all areas of their life. It uses day-to-day activities, exercise, and other therapies to help them get independent. With occupational therapy, kids can improve their school performance and their daily activities. It also helps in increasing the self esteems of a person. They can get better motor skills so that they can hold and restores, and it helps in getting better handwriting and computer skills. They can do basic life skills like dressing, eating, waiting, or brushing their teeth. It helps to learn positive behavior and social skills and teaches how to manage anchor and frustration.

Who Needs Occupational Therapy?

Occupational therapy can be used in kids and teens with the following diseases or conditions.

• A birth defect or any type of birth injury.

• Disorders that lack sensory processing.

• Traumatic injuries to the brain.

• Injury to the spinal cord.

• Children with learning problems.

• Kids with autism.

• Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (inflammation and stiffness of the joints).

• Kids with behavioral problems.

• Any orthopedic injuries.

• Development delays.

• Post-surgical condition.

• Burns.

• Amputation due to any trauma.

• Cancer.

• Head injury.

• Severe hand injuries.

• Cerebral palsy.

• Chronic illness.

How Do Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy Differ?

Physical and occupational therapy help improve a kid's quality of life. Physical therapy helps in reducing pain and regaining strength. Physical therapy also helps in large muscle moments with hands or legs or using their body. In contrast, occupational therapy helps to regain fine motor skills, which include small muscle moments by using a finger or toes like grasping or holding a pen, eating, drawing, etc. It improves visual perception skills and thinking skills. It also helps in processing sensory skills.

How Is Yoga Used in Occupational Therapy?

The physical benefits of yoga in occupational therapy include maintaining and regaining inner strength and various ranges of motion, and it helps in the following.

• Strengthen Inner Muscles and Increase Gross Motor Skills - Yoga processes help in improving the inner mind and muscles to get stronger and do almost all types of activities like sitting, running, walking, etc. Initially, the balance is given by support using other people, which helps strengthen the muscles used for fine motor skills.

• Crossing the Midline - Crossing the midline is the ability of one person to cross across to the opposite side by walking. Using yoga practice, we can support this skill.

• Proprioception - Yoga health helps in getting the ability to sense a particular body part without looking into it.

• Vestibular System - Various yoga poses help balance an upright position during movement.

What Are the Simple Occupational Therapies Done for Children?

Some of the occupational therapy that is performed in children include pushing the chair, hugging a large bear, squeezing, or playing with dough. Pulling resistance bands using their hands, wall push-ups, asking them to carry heavy objects or books, and several simple yoga poses. To increase their motor skill of the kid, several small therapies are used, including playing with puzzles, using tweezers to pick up objects, playing card games, playing puzzles using stickers, painting a picture, coloring, building towers with small wooden blocks, use of a spoon to transfer some objects from one dish to another dish, ask them to cut a picture and paste them on another paper, etc.

Conclusion:

Occupational therapy and yoga are suitable for all ages of people who have any physical limitations or any kind of disabilities. It helps all people with various types of health conditions and people who are afraid to attend regular yoga classes because of low self-confidence.

Yoga with occupational therapy is goal oriented. So before starting the occupational therapy and yoga classes, the yoga instructors and occupational therapists will have a detailed assessment to identify the person's goal.