Everybody knows the various health benefits of yoga. This healing system, which originated in India, is well known for its principle of ensuring the harmony of the mind and the body. This leads to yoga being an effective cure for a wide variety of ailments and health problems. However, not many people know that yoga is beneficial as well for seemingly minor bodily conditions such as stuttering and other speech disorders.
At some points in their lives, children and adults experience speech difficulties such as getting stuck on their words. While it seems it is just normal to stutter, this could pose a problem in a person’s day-to-day interaction with other people. If you stumble every time you speak, it would be very hard for you to get your message across. Worse, it can affect your self-esteem and performance in various social situations.
According to Yoga principles, stress has a lot to do with most speech problems. People start to stutter when they become overly stressed. Anxiety is another factor that causes people to stutter. When you are very nervous before you start speaking, your vocal cords become tensed. And when you begin to talk, you will naturally stutter.
Yoga experts believe that the only way to stop people from stuttering is through relaxation. This is where yoga and meditation come into play. Yoga trains people how to relax so that they can speak with much ease. Simple yoga postures and Pranayama, in particular, aid in managing stress and the stammering. When paired with speech therapy (under the supervision of a trained speech therapist), yoga and meditation can effectively reduce the frequency of stammering in people and improve their speech abilities.
People tend to stutter if they breathe incorrectly before and while speaking. The proper way to do it is to breathe in deeply before you start to say something and then breathe out while you are talking. Yoga can help you address breathing problems through Pranayama, which is a system that corrects breathing patterns. Pranayama uses the optimum capacity of your lungs so that you can cope with breathing and speech difficulties.
Are you interested in practicing yoga to control your tendency to stutter? The first things you must focus on are recognizing and accepting your speech problem. Then think about all your talents and positive attributes. In doing so, you will have a better perception of yourself. You will be less self-conscious as a result. This positive thinking will greatly help you deal with stress that causes your stammering.
The next step is to practice the following Yoga postures and breathing techniques to make you feel more relaxed:
• Surya Namaskar (sun salutation)
• Progressive relaxation techniques and meditation
• Suksham Vyayama (a relaxing breathing exercise)
• Concentrating on breathing to make it easier for you to deal with stressful thoughts
• Positive attitude for better self-esteem and self-image
• Bhastrika and Nadi Shodhana that help solve breathing problems
• Simhasana (lion pose)
Without a doubt, yoga is an effective way to heal stuttering. It is advised that you practice yoga with the help of a trained yoga therapist to train you about proper relaxation and breathing techniques.