Why Do Yoga Poses Take Animal Names?
Yoga therapy employs a wide variety of poses and postures. Japanese researchers conducted physiological studies on various poses, continuously recording respiration, blood pressure, and pulse, selecting poses such as Cobra, Bow, Tortoise, Camel, Spider, and Grasshopper. Yoga poses often take animal names because animals naturally assume these postures. Humans, having evolved to walk upright, adopt unnatural positions, leading to excessive strain on the spine, commonly causing back pain and internal organ prolapse. Adopting natural animal postures can thus achieve therapeutic effects. During breathing exercises, practice abdominal breathing or count breaths. When focusing attention, concentrate on a single issue or a specific part of the body—eyes half-closed, gazing at the tip of the nose, maintaining alertness while inwardly turning focus. During meditation, unify oneself with the environment, eliminate opposition, and align thoughts with actions. Research confirms that breath control is the most crucial aspect of yoga therapy—controlling breath enables control of posture, regulates blood pressure and pulse, and modulates other autonomous functions.
Yoga therapy can be conducted once weekly, lasting two hours per session, with about ten participants. First, perform various poses, then practice breathing exercises, followed by 20 minutes of meditation. After each session, open discussion on yoga and psychosomatic disorders allows collective therapeutic effects. Yoga therapy is often combined with other treatments. Indications include anxiety states, hypochondriasis, hypertension, cardiac neurosis, and other psychosomatic illnesses. Obsessive-compulsive and depressive states are moderate indications. It is contraindicated for hysteria.