Why Restorative Practises Are Crucial For Cancer Patients

What do people think about or picture when they hear the word ‘yoga’? For most people this will be some kind of posture, and probably one that is difficult to achieve! Even as yoga teachers fully aware that yoga is more than exercise, when we think about teaching yoga for cancer the tendency is to think first of suitable and adapted asana practises.

 Obviously, there is a very real physical impact that cancer diagnosis and treatment have on any individual. Much of what we include in classes does need to address the side effects and consequences of surgery and various medications. Of course, we want to help people regain a good and functional range of movement, we want to encourage lymph flow and avoid oedema, we want to support bone density. Indeed, research shows that staying physically active during treatment and beyond gives better outcomes from treatment overall and lowers the risk of recurrence.

 However, if we only teach active yoga practises, we miss out on the true healing benefits that yoga can offer.

When I say healing, I do not mean in a curative sense of the cancer itself, but physical healing from surgery and medication side effects, and healing on a mental and emotional level. Returning to a sense of wholeness in oneself and an ability to do normal everyday things gives a quality of life that is meaningful and enjoyable whether or not the cancer remains.

As yoga teachers we can offer a safe nurturing space, our compassion and understanding. We have skills and techniques we can teach people to help manage their stress, process their emotions, and regulate their nervous system. The right kind of asana practise has huge benefits, but all the other practises we offer as yoga teachers are equally beneficial and important. This is why I feel yoga is so vital for people dealing with cancer. We don’t just offer ‘exercise’, we can also offer relaxation, breathing, mindfulness, meditation, yoga nidra and restorative yoga.

 Trauma is a very real part of experiencing cancer; the severity varies a lot, but I feel it is always there to some degree.

What I usually see in people coming to my classes is a combination of fatigue, anxiety and stress, or in its more extreme versions, exhaustion, terror and overwhelm. Often it is the receiving of their cancer diagnosis and how this was done which is the main trauma.

If there is one thing, I would love to change in the medical system is how people are told about their diagnosis. All too often it is done in an offhand manner, very matter of fact with no evident recognition of the impact receiving this news has. This is then quickly followed by a schedule of treatment where their body is referred to in only a material way. Students have often told me they felt they were treated “like a piece of meat” rather than a whole person. Perhaps this is a coping mechanism for the doctors, surgeons and consultants who have to deliver this news on such a regular basis, but I do feel it would land softer for patients if they received their diagnosis from someone with better communication skills and a more holistic understanding of wellbeing.

 When someone is in a state of stress, trauma or emotional upset, the impact on the mind and body is profound.

Typical effects I hear often are the lack of ability to relax, pain and tension throughout the body, inability to sleep properly, disconnected appetite – either comfort eating or not eating enough, inability to concentrate or process information, feeling overwhelmed and unable to cope. In this state, it is much harder for the body to recovery from surgery, to cope with the chemotherapy, to heal from radiotherapy. Coming out of these heightened states makes a huge difference in how well people cope with treatment and recover afterwards.

 Getting into states of deep rest and relaxation help the body let go of muscular tension and focus its energies on things like cell repair, digestion and the immune system. It helps to regulate the nervous, circulatory and hormone systems. All of this means people function and feel much better. I have lost count of the times people have said something like, “I can’t really explain how exactly, but since coming to yoga I just feel more myself and more able to cope with everything”. It is so wonderful seeing the change in people as their face opens more and shoulders drop, a lightness in step and the ability to laugh again.

 What most people don’t really understand is that relaxation is a skill we need to develop.

Like any other physical skill repeated practise is key to embed this ability into our body. We may know the theory, but doing the practice is how we make shifts in our body systems. Every time someone comes to class and gets to be guided into and experience states of calm and relaxation, we are helping them train those ‘muscles’ so that it becomes easier and easier to get into those states by themselves. This is another way that we can empower our students to have some control over their own wellbeing and quality of life. I really believe that the ability to relax is essential and this is why there is a whole module of the teacher training course devoted to restorative practises.

 So yes, movement is essential but so is rest!