Beyond the Mat: Practices & Resources
Welcome to Yoga Therapy Insights, where we explore valuable knowledge from yoga therapy to support areas such as sleep quality, joint health, stress resilience, nervous system regulation, and much more.
Whether you’re new to yoga therapy or looking to deepen your practice, these insights will guide you in enhancing your body-mind connection. Join us as we uncover ways to use yoga therapy for healing, empowerment, and lasting transformation.
Why WHO Classifies Yoga Therapy as Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Discover why yoga therapy is classified as Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and how it supports holistic health. Unlike conventional medicine, yoga therapy emphasizes self-regulation, mind–body balance, and addressing root causes rather than just symptoms. Backed by neuroscience and integrative health research, it is increasingly used worldwide alongside medical care for stress, chronic pain, mental health, cardiovascular conditions, and more. Learn how this personalized, evidence-informed approach restores resilience and well-being.
Re-Integrating Breath, Core, and Posture
In 2025, Narayani’s Yoga Therapy focuses on the re-integration of the respiratory and musculoskeletal systems. Rather than treating the body as a collection of isolated “problem areas,” we address the functional synergy between the diaphragm, pelvic floor, and deep stabilizers. When these pillars operate as a unified kinetic chain, the body achieves systemic coherence, moving away from chronic compensation and toward autonomous stability.
Every respiratory cycle serves as a neuro-mechanical intervention to:
Facilitate Spinal Decompression: Utilizing the Intra-Abdominal Pressure (IAP) mechanism to provide internal pneumatic support and reduce vertebral loading.
Regulate Autonomic Tone: Leveraging diaphragmatic excursion to stimulate the vagus nerve, shifting the nervous system from protective guarding to physiological safety.
Optimize Structural Alignment: Transitioning the body from superficial muscular “bracing” to deep, efficient stabilization, significantly reducing the metabolic cost of posture.
At Narayani’s, we help you move beyond “holding” yourself together, retraining the nervous system to support a body that functions with mechanical efficiency and neurological ease.
Introducing the Narayani Assessment™
After years of working together to help clients move beyond chronic pain, recurring patterns, and complex issues, we’re closing 2025 with something meaningful: the Narayani Assessment™. This new whole-person evaluation brings yoga therapy and functional therapeutic massage into one cohesive lens, offering a clear understanding of how the body moves, reacts, compensates, and holds stress. It’s designed for anyone who wants clarity, sustainable change, and a grounded path toward feeling better in their body.
Healing in the Space Between Who You Were and Who You’re Becoming
Healing in the space between who you were and who you’re becoming isn’t a pause — it’s a transformation.
Yoga therapy meets you in that quiet terrain, where identity softens, roles shift, and the nervous system slowly relearns safety.
Finding Peace in the “Now”: A Guide to Santosha
What is Santosha? As one of the Niyamas in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Santosha is the practice of contentment and profound acceptance. This guide explores the spiritual teachings of Santosha, featuring insights from Swami Sivananda and Swami Satchidananda, and offers actionable tips for practicing gratitude, non-attachment, and mindfulness in your daily life.
The Yoga of Selfless Action
Explore the essence of Karma Yoga — the path of selfless action as taught in the Bhagavad Gita. Learn how to transform ordinary work into sacred practice through mindfulness, devotion, and non-attachment.
Listening Before It Shouts: Understanding Anxiety Through the Lens of Yoga Therapy
5 Ways to Calm the Anxious Mind
An anxious mind is not a broken mind — it’s one that’s been overworking to keep you safe. Through the lens of yoga therapy, anxiety can be seen as excess movement of prāṇa — too much air and energy without grounding. The practice, then, is not to fight anxiety but to anchor it.
This guide offers five simple ways to begin:
– Listen to Your Body before it shouts through fatigue or tightness.
– Use Your Breath as a steady anchor in moments of overwhelm.
– Find Your Triggers and gently release what drains your energy.
– Create Micro Rituals of stillness — between calls, before bed, in small pauses.
– Nourish Through Āhāra (Food) — warm, calm, and sattvic choices that soothe the nervous system.
These are not quick fixes, but daily acts of remembering: peace is already within you, waiting to be practiced.
Yoga Therapy for Athletes: Balancing Strength, Flexibility, and Recovery
Yoga Therapy for Athletes: Balancing Strength, Flexibility, and Recovery
Athletes train hard — cycling long distances, sprinting, or competing on the court. But repetitive movement patterns often overwork some muscles while leaving others neglected, creating imbalance, fatigue, and risk of injury. Add the pressure of performance, and both body and mind carry a heavy load.
Yoga therapy offers a personalized approach to restore balance. By strengthening weak areas, releasing tightness, and integrating mindful recovery, it helps athletes move more efficiently, prevent injuries, and manage stress.
Understanding Neck Pain Through the Lens of Yoga Therapy
Neck pain is one of the most widespread modern health complaints, but its roots often extend far beyond the cervical spine itself. From weak core muscles and shallow breathing to stress, jaw tension, and even the way we stand on our feet, multiple factors can silently contribute to chronic discomfort and more severe cervical issues. In this post, we explore how yoga therapy views neck pain as a whole-body challenge—and how addressing posture, breath, and mindful movement can relieve strain while preventing future problems.
How Group Yoga Therapy Differs from Regular Yoga Classes
Both yoga and yoga therapy offer beautiful gifts—they simply serve different needs. A dynamic vinyasa class can leave you energized and empowered, while a restorative session might melt away stress and tension. Group yoga therapy, while sharing yoga's essence,...