ISSN: 2578-4986
Authors: Vidhi Sadana*
There is been surge of interest in yoga as a tool to improve health and wellbeing in the last decade or two. There have been a number of research papers that have been published on efficacy of yoga in rheumatoid arthritis offered in a group setting. However, there haven’t been any studies offered in an individualized setting. We conducted, first in the UK pilot study at Central Middlesex Hospital, to study the efficacy of individualized yoga therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis. The present article addresses unique conceptual mechanisms found in our study. In-depth, experiential accounts through feedbacks were completed with 10 patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis along with anxiety and depression. Feedback invited participants to recount their experiences of the intervention, and the service in a hospital setting. Aspects of the experiential accounts pertained to intervention experience and positive benefits were analysed to provide generation of a provisional model of how positive change occurred. The model suggests that distinct, temporal experiences build on each other to generate multiple, positive benefits. This article is an attempt to integrate the precious wisdom of the yoga sutra in a language that can be understood by the western medical profession. As pointed out in yoga sutra text enhanced attentional capacity was important, and it validated the mechanisms of healing proposed by the yoga sutra-s of attunement, empathy, supporting self-care, awareness, introception and experiential learning to states of empowerment, self-discovery and acceptance, which may be central to positive outcomes. Understanding mechanisms of change may help support participant engagement and trust in yoga therapy and enhance participants’ ability to apply tools offered within yoga therapy to their daily life.
Keywords: Yoga Therapy; Rheumatoid Arthritis; Introception
