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Yoga + Acupuncture = Better Health

Did you know that yoga and acupuncture are cousins? The former originated in India over 2500 years ago, while the latter originated in China over 4000 years ago. Both help with your health physically, emotionally and spiritually and when you practice them together, you notice a huge impact. This article is going to explore the ways they go hand in hand.

1. Increase circulation to alleviate pain. There is a saying in Chinese Medicine, “Where there is no flow there is pain, and where there is pain there is no flow.” Yoga under the proper instruction is wonderful at getting the heart rate up, increasing vasodilation, and promoting flow. Acupuncture helps balance your energy to clear blockages in your body by promoting the parasympathetic state (rest and digest) of the body when healing occurs. It is fantastic at increasing circulation of blood and qi (pronounced CHEE), meaning energy force. In this way, acupuncture can also relax your muscles, help prevent and stop muscle spasms, and promote healing on many health fronts. This is especially true when combined with herbal formulas.

2. Increase flexibility. When practiced consistently, yoga can help your flexibility. Maybe you won’t become a pretzel overnight but over a few weeks you can notice a marked change. Acupuncture can also help your flexibility. When muscles are injured they are in a state of contraction. A style of acupuncture called motor point needling helps return muscles to their original length. This can help with improving your range of motion and at the same time, alleviate pain, and help you avoid further “compensation injuries”. Compensation injuries are injuries which occur because the body adjusts its structure to avoid pain.

3. Cultivate mindfulness. Both yoga and acupuncture bring yourself into the present moment. They both invite you to slow down, breathe, and be where you are now. When you practice yoga and hold poses, you balance yourself and explore your edge. Along the same lines, when you receive acupuncture, you’re acutely aware of how you’re responding to the acupuncture points your practitioner is choosing. Maybe you feel a heavy sensation or maybe you feel nothing at all. Notice and accept your experience.

4. Strengthen the mind-body connection. Both yoga and acupuncture awaken your mind, body, and spirit to improve communication among all three. In our fast-paced modern world, it’s easy to be “connected” with others but “disconnected” from our bodies, minds, and spirits. Yoga and acupuncture can help you put the call through, instead of it being dropped.

When practiced together (mind you, not doing yoga with acupuncture needles in you), yoga and acupuncture can help improve your health physically, emotionally and spiritually and help you be your best in 2015.

If you’re interested in learning more about what acupuncture can do for you, contact us today at (773) 915-3683 or palmgrenacu@gmail.com.

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