Farah Hassanbhai-Kapoor has been a yoga practitioner for over 30 years. She obtained her RTY-200 from Three Queens Yoga in Philadelphia and is a certified teacher at Yoga Alliance International. Farah is also a member of the Women’s Board at Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, and is co-author of a recent report, “Creating a Vision of Women-Centric Cancer Care”. (Published FemTech Summit, 2023.)
Her website is flowwithfarah.com.
As a lifelong yoga practitioner, Farah Hassanbhai-Kapoor has studied under many teachers in Singapore and India and practices mainly Hatha Yoga. Through her yoga practice, Farah has seen many positive changes in her own body and lifestyle.
The true nature of yoga is to heal and strengthen your physical, mental and emotional states in your body. The asanas, or the yoga postures, as well as the proper use of breath, allow the body to get strong by igniting the chakras within the body, thus gaining internal organ and muscle strength.
What are the general benefits of yoga?
Improves your flexibility
Builds muscle strength
Perfects your posture
Prevents cartilage and joint breakdown
Protects your spine
Betters your bone health
Increases your blood flow
Drains your lymph nodes and boosts immunity
Reduces high blood pressure
Regulates adrenal glands
Lowers blood sugar
Helps you focus
Improves balance
Helps you relax and improves sleep
Boosts immune system and keeps you healthier
Improves digestive system
Keeps you happy.
What are the specific benefits of yoga for people with breast cancer?
Research suggests that there are real benefits to regularly practicing yoga after a breast cancer diagnosis, particularly for emotional wellbeing, cancer-related pain.
Being diagnosed with breast cancer and having treatment can cause anxiety and, for some people, depression. It’s important to look after your emotional wellbeing and yoga is a great way to take some time to relax and focus on yourself. The breathing techniques practiced during yoga can slow down mental chatter and give your mind some rest, which can make a big difference to your overall stress levels.
Yoga may help you to:
improve your emotional wellbeing
reduce cancer-related fatigue
reduce pain
take time for yourself
lower stress and anxiety
What is the practice of Mudra & why is it helpful for people with cancer?
Mudras are systematic hand, body and face gestures that create “closed electrical circuits” of the subtle channels of the physical and energy bodies. The word “Mudra” comes from the root word, “mud,” which means to impart bliss. The Mudras in my book are hand Mudras, or, gestures, which are based on the connection of each finger to a lobe of the brain. The use of Mudra is a gentle practice that can benefit everyone. This practice is especially very important for people dealing with cancer.
The most important aspect of the approach to yogic therapies for someone with cancer is to avoid the activities that burn energy of the body as it is already so depleted from the treatment. You want to maximize the energy without using the energy of the body. Most cancer treatments burn, or use, the energy of the body. They have very debilitating effects, and it depletes the nourishment of the body, taking away prana, or life force energy. From the yogic point of view, all forms of healing, therapy and treatment are nothing but maximizing of the prana. Mudras are an almost effortless way to maximize the prana.
Mudra works not only at the subtle level, but at the physiological level as well. What we want to accomplish is to increase the healing capacity of the body, to improve the intra- and extra-cellular communications, to facilitate the draining of the toxins and the metabolic wastes, to improve the blood circulation and to improve the cellular restructuring. Mudra can help to support all of those functions.
Mudras are wonderful tools because unlike many therapies, they are accessible to people who are feeling weak or fatigued.
Prithvi Mudra:
Method: Tip of the ring finger touching the tip of the thumb, with the other three fingers stretched out.
Specialty: It reduces all physical weaknesses.
Time Duration: One can practice it for 40 to 60 minutes daily until necessary.
Benefits:
Helps to increase the weight for weak people
Improves the complexion of skin and makes the skin glow
Makes the body active by keeping it healthy
Varun Mudra:
Method: Tip of the little finger touching the tip of the thumb, with the other three fingers stretched out.
Specialty: It balances the water content and prevents all diseases which come due to lack of water.
Time Duration: One can practice it for 40 to 60 minutes daily until necessary.
Benefits:
Helps the proper circulation of blood and fluid in the body
Reduces the dryness of skin
Can improve the ideation of thoughts and communications