This latest piece of research into the benefits of yoga for people suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is great news. The study by researchers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Sleep Disorders found that lung function, shortness of breath, and inflammation all showed significant improvement after patients completed 12 weeks of training. This was a small study, but it should be enough to help kick off funding for more in depth research.

With the World Health Organisation (WHO) predicting that COPD will become the world’s third leading cause of death by 2030 (apparently 64 million people had COPD and 3 million people died from it in 2004), this is going to cause not just a great deal of pain and suffering, but massive cost to countries in terms of health care and benefits. We need to take note...

Sun salutation anyone?

I read this interesting article about how yoga is helping people in prisons around the world. Some Oxford University research shows some interesting results between a yoga group and a control group (doing exercise). This must be really rewarding for the yoga teachers and is clearly wonderful work.

I can’t help wondering though, if yoga can help transform lives in this way for prisoners, some of whom have had very tough and, let’s face it, unpleasant lives (some of their own doing through poor choices), then what would happen if we dared to teach yoga to children? All children I mean, not just the privileged few. How many of those prisoners could have perhaps made the different choices, despite their environment and situations they found themselves in, that would have enabled them to avoid prison in the first place. Yoga isn’t the answer to everything. We need education, we need to pull people out of poverty, and we need to ensure people have somewhere they can call home, somewhere safe and warm to sleep. And we need to discourage the throwaway, consumerist, selfish behaviours we see across all classes within our society. I’m not suggesting we all walk around in natural fibres, eating beans and stop dreaming of the latest PC games or throw away our mobile phones, but toning down the greed would be good. Developing a self confidence that is based on who we are, not what we have would be good. For us all. Just a thought.

Not much I can say about this really. Following my practise outside the other day, where I enjoyed several standing postures and some glorious backbends, I had a long Savasana. Wrapped in sweatshirt and a fleece blanket, I fell victim to the 'yogi-cat', who appears, as if by magic, every time I roll out my mat. Sometimes she starts without me, and sometimes she just wants to share that little meditation moment at the end.