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In recent years there has been a surge in awareness surrounding the challenges experienced by menopausal women, along with impassioned calls for more specialized support from health and wellness professionals. In Yoga for Menopause and Beyond, author Niamh Daly shares how yoga teachers can help answer these calls.
Written in an open and heartfelt conversational style, this book is a reimagining of yoga viewed through the lens of menopause. It will help you understand which elements of yoga are already ideal, what may be unhelpful, and what you might add to support symptom relief, health, and self-esteem.
Daly addresses topics such as biochemical, physical, social, and emotional impacts of menopause; specific physiological effects that necessitate a changed approach to asana; changes to the nervous system that influence what practices we choose; changing health risks and how the benefits of yoga can help reduce these risks; using movement for comfort and pleasure through somatics and instinctual movement; reconsidering your language to be inclusive of the broad array of possible experiences, including trauma sensitivity; incorporating what you learn into a class or workshop; empowering women through knowledge and recommendations; research and the importance of transparency in offering yoga tools for menopause; and practical advice, for within a class and outside, including sections on nutrition and medical options. Yoga for Menopause and Beyond is the ideal guide for anyone wishing to create a relevant and supportive yoga practice for women as they journey through menopause and into the postmenopause years.
From the Publisher
Dancer’s pose with modification incorporating support of a wall
Use yoga to support women on their journey through menopause
Yoga for Menopause and Beyond is the ideal guide for anyone wishing to create a relevant and supportive yoga practice for women as they journey through menopause and into the postmenopause years. Written in an open and heartfelt conversational style, this book helps you understand which elements of yoga are already ideal, what may be unhelpful, and what could be added to support symptom relief, health, and self-esteem.
It addresses the biochemical, physical, social, and emotional impacts of menopause, as well as the changing health risks and how the benefits of yoga can help reduce these risks.
Dancer’s pose
Here in dancer’s pose, I flex the ankle to activate the back leg and protect the knee. This takes it closer to active than passive stretching because, with activated muscles, I am unable to pull fiercely on the leg and overdo the hip or spine extension.
1) In Dancer, seen on the left, might a micro-bend in the standing knee be safer than locking the joint? Plantar-flexing the ankle could engage some support structures for the raised-leg knee, and taking the backbend through the full spine evenly will reduce any excess pressure on one or two vertebrae.
2) Could the version on the right offer the stretch for some people who don’t need a full dancer’s pose to feel the front body lengthening, and who value the support of a wall?
A new approach to yoga for menopause?
My intention is to use yoga as a tool to offer our organisms a more comfortable, pleasurable journey through the years, with a reasonable expectation as to what a body that has lived our life can and wants to do.
The core yogic principles I focus on are:
· Ahimsa/non-violence to self and student (safety over achievement)
· Satya/truth (no false claims)
· Koshas/layers of being (all layers welcome)
· Pranayama/breath work (selected)
· Dhyana/meditation (adjusted)
· Asana/physical practice (adapted)
· Svadhyaya/self-study (of our changing body, our reaction to those changes, and to societal pressures).
Make your yoga classes “menopause friendly”
Opening circle: each woman has space to speak…
Practice:
Breathing: achievable breath practice with mention of evidence basis for its usefulness and suggestions as to how to take this into daily life for optimum benefit when not at yoga class.
Warm-up: interoception-developing movement of your choice, like somatic-movement style practices, with improvisation suggested/allowed, pleasure mentioned as a possible focus. Indicate benefits of a little of this every day, in achievable circumstances.
Asana: floor and/or standing strength-based asana reaching eustress, with added focus on muscle and bone stimulus, pelvic floor, balance, brain stimulus, functional flexibility, and injury avoidance. Offer strength or brain-training snacks students can perform during the week.
Relaxation: extended relaxation, perhaps a restorative pose, plus shavasana, with touch offered.
Meditation: guided meditation that addresses some common struggles.
Publisher : Human Kinetics; First Edition (June 3, 2024)
Language : English
Paperback : 224 pages
ISBN-10 : 1718236913
ISBN-13 : 978-1718236912
Item Weight : 1.25 pounds
Dimensions : 7.45 x 0.46 x 9.65 inches