A Reflection of Traditional Medicine & Acupuncture On Yoga

Traditional medicine stems from traditional Chinese methods of treatment, with a central focus on an approach to balancing emotions and hormones and calming the mind. Traditional medicine has also been compared to other forms of working from within the body, such as acupuncture and yoga, which are considered more integrative techniques for healing the body and mind.

Yoga centralizes its focus on breathing and flexibility, using movements, poses, breathing, and meditation. Yoga also strives to work more “in the moment,” with a primary target on the person to just be there for the time you are working with your body. Similarly, acupuncture takes an approach by creating a centralized focus in particular areas, but instead of poses, needles are used to concentrate the energy inside and work to heal.

This reflection of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, and yoga can demonstrate how each one compliments the other and why it can be beneficial to work with each piece to help gain a sense of well-being and improve your health. 

he approaches are somewhat different, but they work to achieve a similar result.

How Do They Complement Each Other? 

As you are aware, yoga works to remove blockages within your mind and body. With acupuncture and traditional medicine, there is more focus being directed on restoring the “qi of our human body” by manipulating complementary and opposing elements of our yin and yang directing energy. In essence, all of them complement one another in terms of well-being. 

Your yoga classes work to balance physical and mental inner peace and eliminate tension and pain through movement. Similarly, acupuncture works towards an outcome by inserting needles instead of putting your body in specified poses; and also coincides with traditional medicine’s approach to meditation to help heal the mind and remove pain and tension with a focus on aligning your chakras. 

They complement one another and work together. Meditation is utilized in traditional medicine, acupuncture, and yoga to help you concentrate and work from within to fix your condition or issues. When you can take the time to pinpoint the source of tension, muscle aches, pains, or other ailments, you can more easily find a solution.

Yoga, acupuncture, and traditional medicine also share a common goal for overall health management. The approaches are somewhat different, but they work to achieve a similar result.

How Do They Differ From Each Other?

The idea of healing from within takes a different approach from each side. Yoga’s healing is by focusing on oneself and removing the stresses and triggers that can contribute to feelings of anxiety or depression through poses, breathing, and exercise. 

Acupuncture works to energize the body with centralized pressure, remove pain, and allow the muscles to relax and move energy in a more balanced way throughout the body. In addition, there is dry needling vs. acupuncture, where dry needling is primarily used to trigger body pressure points. 

Then acupuncture’s goal is to work with brain chemistry and energy—both approaches within acupuncture help make you feel better by balancing hormones and relieving stress and tension.

Traditional medicines from Chinese methods work to treat simply through meditation and calm. So, for example, you may focus on breathing, similar to yoga, but instead of a series of poses and movements, you would only stay in one solitary placement.

Yoga Working with TDM and Acupuncture

Yoga works well with acupuncture so that you can understand and know which poses will be best for specific health conditions. Yoga also works with traditional medicine and uses meditation as the primary approach to helping gain balance of your emotions and calm the mind. Encourage your yoga students to combine traditional medicine like acupuncture with their yoga classes for a more increased sense of balance.

Our busy lifestyles and the corporate world can create problems like poor eating habits or environmental pollution. All of these healing methods - meditation, breathing, movement, and energy focus - all work to help you understand how to make changes and build a healthier lifestyle from within. 

On the other hand, if meditation proves challenging, you can work on the yoga poses and postures to focus on breathing and promote energy flow within your spine that will balance your mind.

Acupuncture and yoga stimulate the flow of energy to promote wellness. 

Unfortunately, you cannot go to your yoga studio after an acupuncture treatment. However, you can have acupuncture after a yoga class, so take yoga before inserting needles. Both will clear blockages and activate energy pathways to restore your physical and mental wellbeing.

Best Way to Use All Three Methods for Health

Traditional medicine, also known as alternative medicine, is a mainstream form of homeopathic therapy, utilizing force from within to heal the body. 

From a yoga perspective, Prana, which comes from Indian medicine in Sanskrit and literally means “breath” or “life force,” is a way to receive actionable energy to develop a spiritual, mental, and physical balance. Acupuncture activates meridians or pathways of energy to help restore flow and aims to create balance as well. 

Using all three methods together can assure that you will find a better sense of yourself to clear the way for your overall health and wellbeing. 

For example, following a traditional medicine meditation with a yoga practice in your studio, then an acupuncture treatment is the best way to speed recovery, increase your mental clarity, promote relaxation of the mind, and better circulation throughout your body.