How We Incorporate the Eight
Limbs of Yoga or Eight Fold Path in the Healing Process
What are the Eight Limbs of Yoga
or Eight Fold Path?
The first book to systematize the practice of yoga was the classic
treatise the Yoga Sutras (or Aphorisms) of Patanjali dating
from 200 B.C. The Yoga Sutras are ethical blueprints for living a
moral life and incorporating the science of yoga into your life.
In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali describes Yoga as "chitta
vrtti nirodhah". This may be translated as
the restraint (nirodhah) of mental (chitta) modifications (vrtti)
or as suppression (nirodhah) of the fluctuations (vrtti) of consciousness
(chitta).
How We Incorporate the Eight Limbs of
Yoga or Eight Fold Path in the Healing Process
The heart of Patanjali's teachings is the eightfold
path of yoga. It is also called the eight limbs of Patanjali, because
they intertwine like the branches of a tree in the forest. In our
individual and group programs, we use the eight fold path to help
to individuals gain insight as to how they treat themselves and others,
while working towards personal disciplines and attitudes, withdrawal
of the senses, inward focus and letting go of old attachments—including
attachment to illnesses—that are keeping you stuck.
In our yoga and eating disorder recovery programs at Reconnect with Food®, we use the chakras to get to the root of your food-related behavior. Often, when emotional pain is unresolved, this emotional imbalance manifests itself through physical pain based on the emotional energy or block and is associated with a specific chakra.
What are Chakras?
In our yoga and eating disorder recovery programs, we use the Chakras as a means to reconnect the mind, body and spirit.
The chakras are spinning wheels or vortices of vital energy linking
the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual being into one. The
chakras are said to have a location in the “subtle”body
as shown in the graphic to the right, even though they are not actually
in the physical body.
Interestingly, endorphins are concentrated along the spine in a
way that corresponded to the chakras. The chakras overlap two chains
of nerve bundles located on either side of the spinal cord, each
rich with many of the information-carrying peptides.
How We Incorporate
the Chakras into the Healing Work of our Individual and Group Programs
The first chakra, muladhara:
Your roots and external messages that form your food beliefs and rituals.
The second chakra, svadisthana:
Your relationship with food and how it parallels every other relationship in
your life.
The third chakra, manipura:
Issues related to responsibility, self-esteem, and nourishing your soul.
The fourth chakra, anahata:
How you use food to deal with emotions and learn to let go of old behaviors.
The fifth chakra, vishuddha:
The power of choice in healing your relationship with food.
The sixth chakra, anja:
Learn to use your intuition and insight in making food and related-behavior
choices in your highest good.
The seventh chakra, sahasrara:
Explore the spirituality of food and your spirituality in the healing process.
In our yoga and eating disorder recovery programs at Reconnect with Food®, we work toward balancing the energy related to the chakras to heal physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually and therefore heal your relationship with food.
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