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A former software developer has launched a website dedicated to highlighting yoga's ability to ease back pain. The site, www.yogabackhelp.com has been produced by Irishman David Meade after his personal experiences with back pain.

According to a report by www.prweb.com, Meade says: “As someone who spends too much time at the computer, I have found that yoga has been great for releasing tension and pain in my back – and for correcting my posture. I am, by no means, a guru. I am, however, a convert.”

The site will feature articles, tips, audio and video materials related to yoga and its capacity to help back pain.

Corena Golliver, a graphic artist who has used yoga to fight pain associated with a broken back, has provided one of the site's first audio interviews.

She says: “Yoga is a wonderful way to deal with back pain. I have found great relief through yoga and really appreciate David’s vision of getting that message out to others who may be suffering.”

In a US survey, 96% of respondents who practised yoga reported relief from persistent back pain, compared to 23% who were seeing neurosurgeons. Helpful asanas for the back include: the camel pose; the cow; the locust; the forward bend; and a gentle version of the fish pose."

Further information:

www.yogacards.com/back_pain_problems.html

www.spine-health.com/topics/conserv/yogaheal/yogaheal02.html

http://holisticonline.com/Remedies/Backpain/back_yoga.htm

Organic box company Abel & Cole has renewed its sponsorship of a series of yoga classes for sufferers of cancer and other chronic illness. The agreement will allow the classes – which are held at London wellbeing centre Harmony House – to continue for a further two months.

Leesa Muirhead, of Harmony House, says the classes, which focus on breathing and relaxation, aim to provide support, connection and inspiration to sufferers, as well as a support network.

She explains: “These are gentle, nurturing and supportive yoga classes, specifically for people with conditions such as cancer, MS, ME and arthritis. With a strong emphasis on the breath, the classes aim to create a relaxing yet energising space – a place to encourage healing.”

“While yoga is not a cure for cancer, it enhances physical and emotional wellness and brings a peace many patients thought they had lost forever.”

A spokesperson from Abel & Cole adds: “Harmony House is very local to us and we like to actively support worthwhile causes within our local community”.  Keith Abel, one of Abel & Cole's founders, also had personal reasons for supporting the classes, the spokesperson adds.  

A solid body of studies has found that stress has a negative affect on the immune system and can contribute towards the onset and progress of immune-based disease such as cancer. Yoga has been found to reduce stress levels and promote relaxation and wellbeing.

The classes will run every Friday afternoon until August 11.

www.harmonyhouse.co.uk

www.abel-cole.co.uk

Environmental groups WWF and BioRegional have teamed up to produce a practical guide to easier ethical living. Published by Alistair Sawday the 130 page book, One Planet Living, covers issues such as fair trade, sustainable transport, zero carbon, culture and heritage.

Introduced by Kevin McCloud, the reader is guided through each of the main ethical living principles with suggestions as to how to apply them to eveyday life

There are also case studies on people and companies already on the road to a more sustainable lifestyle.

Alistair Sawday publishing - better known for its guides to characterful accommodation - has also published Green Places to Stay.

One Planet Living retails at £4.99.

www.oneplanetliving.org

www.specialplacestostay.com

A Suffolk school is pioneering yoga sessions with its pupils in an attempt to improve concentration. Cherry Trees School, near Bury St Edmunds, sent its staff member on a day-long course teaching them how to adapt simple yoga moves for use in the classroom.

The basic moves included breathing techniques, rhymes to help the postures and visualisation exercises to prepare the children for meditation, according to a report by www.eadt.co.uk

Head teacher Wendy Compson says both pupils and teachers got a lot from the classes. She adds: “If you have a calm class you can get more done during the day, so the sessions are proving very effective.”

The £800-a-head training course, which was prepared by children’s yoga expert June Rowland, was funded by the school and with a grant from the Montessori Association.

The school plans to introduce the classes across the age range, including nursery pupils, later this year.

A growing body of evidence points to the manifold benefits of yoga for children – including improved concentration and energy levels; better flexibility; and enhanced creativity and self-expression.

This week's article about PraiseMoves, the self-billed “Christian alternative to yoga”, puts a spotlight on the deep distrust of yoga from some quarters as a New Agey, mumbo-jumbo off-shoot of Hinduism. 

PraiseMoves, increasingly popular in the US as a Christian answer to yoga, is a prime example: yoga is inseparable from Hinduism, argues Laurette Willis, PariseMoves' founder, and represents “the missionary arm of Hinduism”.

Willis' website mutters darkly about yoga's emphasis on breathing opening the “door to the psychic realms” - and quotes a biblical reference to Satan as “the prince of the power of air”.

A milder distrust be seen by the increasing popularity of other forms of self-styled 'Christian yoga'. Some, like US yoga teacher Marylyn Mandeville, are spearheading a growing movement to reformulate yoga in a Christian context.

Reverent Thomas Ryan, a Catholic priest and author of Prayer of Heart and Body: Meditation, Yoga as a Christian Spiritual Practice, argues that the 15 million people engaging in yoga in the US “need assistance making the points of connection with their Christian faith.” At least half of these 15 million come to yoga from a Christian background, he says.

This deep-rooted suspicion of yoga's religious and sociological roots is more prevalent than most of us would like to think – and not only in the USA.

A BSY-accredited hatha teacher based in the north of England recently recounted her neighbours' distrust of her status as a yoga teacher, and she had even been referred to in some quarters as a witch.

There are several strands of – interlinked – argument here: firstly, the notion that yoga is sinister, New Agey and somehow irreverent; secondly, that alternative forms need to be developed so that happy-clappy Christians can come up with their own half-baked version; and lastly and more importantly perhaps, that yoga is fundamentally a religious practice.

The idea that most of us practice yoga because we like to revel in its historical and religious roots – and view it as an expression of religious belief – is frankly absurd. The vast majority of well-balanced men and women in the West practice yoga for its well-documented physical and emotional benefits.

The West is an increasingly secular place, and (sadly, some would say) for many of us, the role of religion has little or no place in our every day lives. But if it does, there are plenty of other outlets for expression: the church; living our lives in accordance to our beliefs.

But the growing right-wing religious fundamentalism movement in The States has embraced its own form and imbued it with a religious significance that takes yoga further away from its Hindu roots – and twists it to fit in with another belief system. 

This is not only faintly ridiculous; it's also disingenuous and potentially dangerous – any attempts by a strong-willed minority group to present yoga as esoteric and inaccessible can't be a good thing.

Plenty of us (me included!) would admit to enjoying the mildly spirtual aspects of practising yoga: the incense, the OMs, the Sanskrit names for postures. But often there's none of this in an average class and there's a strong argument that says none of this really matters anyway.

Any move to marry yoga strongly with relgion misses the point of its appeal: yoga's open, inclusive nature and the fact that virtually anyone can do it, regardless of their faith, age or background.

image source: © Stephen Coburn - FOTOLIA