fitness articles

Anxiety and emotional stress can trigger an asthma attack and make it harder to breathe once an attack is under way. A study published in the February 2002 issue of the medical journal Thorax, showed that a relatively new form of meditation known as Sahaja Yoga, developed in 1970, appears to make asthma attacks less frequent as well as less severe if practiced regularly.

"Saha" means 'with', "Ja" means 'born', "Yoga" means union with the all pervading power of Divine love. It is a unique method of meditation based on an experience called Self Realization (Kundalini awakening) that can occur within each human being.


Through this process an inner transformation takes place by which one becomes moral, united, integrated and balanced.

Scientists at the institute of respiratory medicine in Sydney, Australia, divided 47 asthma patients into two groups. All the participants were taking moderate to high does of inhaled steroids to control their asthma, but still had symptoms from time to time. Those patient in the first group practiced the yoga-based form of mediation, which involves focusing on positive mental thoughts in order to reach a state of ‘mental silence.’ The second group performed non-yoga relaxation techniques, such as visualization and progressive muscle relaxation.

People in both groups were required to attend weekly two-hour sessions for four months and were also encouraged to practice the techniques at home.

At the end of the study, standard lung tests showed that patients in the yoga group displayed less airway hyper-responsiveness, or twitchiness, than those in the comparison group. This is important because hyper-responsiveness is what cause tiny airway in the lungs to narrow in response to common asthma triggers, such as pollen or dust. People in the yoga group also showed improvements in mood and overall quality of life, reporting that they felt less tense and less fatigued. Furthermore, their airways responded more positively to their medications than they had before. According to the researches, the yoga technique helped every hit as much as inhaled steroids.

Relax the abdomen, allowing the lungs to fill with air. Do
not force the inhalation

Force the air out of your lungs by rapidly contracting the muscles of your abdomen.