Yoga as Treatment for Headaches

Yoga is many things to many people, and they include being a great treatment for headaches.

This is on top of yoga being a form of exercise and way to keep fit, a way to relax and unwind, and a way to improve flexibility. It’s true - yoga can help you cure your headaches.

Yoga teaches you to get in touch with both your body and your mind through special breathing techniques and poses. It improves your flexibility, range of motion, balance and offers a sense of serenity that few other activities do. It is a true meeting of the mind, body and spirit.

While all the movements and poses work together to do all of those things, there are specific poses that are known to be a good treatment for headaches, improving and even curing them. Taking classes or at least a couple of classes in order to get familiar with the poses and proper form is recommended for beginners, but there are some great DVDs and even books available that can offer the guidance you need to get you started.

In the meantime, here are few poses and breathing techniques that work wonders as a treatment for headaches.

• The Heavenly Stretch Pose: This is a very simple move that offers wonderful relief from tension and pain in the back, neck and shoulders. You stand up straight and raise your hands to the sky as your heels come up off the floor so that you are almost standing on toes. Bring your hands together and intertwine the fingers and turn your intertwined hands so that your palms are facing up. Tilt your neck back slowly and look up at your hands; take slow, deep breaths, letting each one bring you closer to the sky.
  
  
• Child Pose: You start by kneeling on the floor, then touching your feet together and separating your legs a hips-width apart while sitting back onto your heels. Exhale as you lay your upper body forward and down onto your thighs. Lay your hands flat with palms up at your sides and hold your torso as close to your thighs as you can; let your shoulders drop towards the floor feeling the weight separating your shoulders and relaxing you. Hold the pose for anywhere from 30 seconds to several minutes.
  
  
• Downward Dog Pose: One of the best known yoga poses, the downward dog is simple. It is a good treatment for headaches, offering relief from mild headaches, because of the blood flow that is encouraged by the pose. Start off on all fours and slowly bring your knees up off the floor, lifting until your hands and feet are on the floor and your body is creating almost a point. Be sure to exhale as you complete the pose.
  
  
• Yoga Neck Rolls: Great for relaxing the muscles in the neck and shoulders and relieving headache-causing tension; you simply sit on the floor with your legs crossed, back straight and roll your head slowly starting from the right and down over to the left and repeat. A simple treatment for headaches, indeed.
  
  
• Cooling Breaths: Sitting on the floor with your legs crossed, begin taking short breaths in and out through your nose. Then roll your tongue as if trying to make a tube and inhale through the opening created by the tongue; exhale through the nose. A variation for those who can’t seem to roll their tongues is to just make a small ‘o’ shape with their lips and breath. You will actually be able to feel a cooling sensation with each breath, and feel the tension and headache slip away.

Using yoga as a treatment for headaches is a safe, natural and effective way to improve your health in every way while also having some fun. Remember that yoga is about relaxation, so take it easy and try not to force your body into a position that isn’t comfortable.

Every pose will work best if you’re comfortable, even if it means not reaching up all the way or crossing your legs completely if your flexibility isn’t quite there yet. Don’t worry - you’ll get there and, in the meantime, you’ll be relieving your ailment using this natural treatment for headaches.

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