There is significant research demonstrating that yoga practice can have a positive effect on health, happiness and wellbeing. The Yoga4Health programme is designed by experts to help people improve their health and wellbeing in supportive environment if you:

• Suffer from stress or anxiety or mild depression
• Need to lose weight
• Need to improve your heart health
• Need to lower your risk of Type 2 diabetes
• Just need help to feel well, healthy and supported…

The Westminster University evaluation of the Yoga4Health programme concluded that…

“Patient reported outcome data demonstrated significant improvements from baseline to post-intervention on all outcome measures, which were sustained 3 months after the yoga4health programme. Service users showed statistically significant and clinically meaningful decreases in perceived stress, anxiety, and depression suggesting the mental health benefits of the course. Significant improvements were also found for patient activation (confidence in managing one’s
health), wellbeing and social connectedness, highlighting the programme’s positive psychological and social benefits.”

Guidance for Patients

Thank you for joining the Yoga4Health 10-Week Yoga Programme Digital Pathway. Remember that if you get a chance to attend an in-person course, we encourage you to do so. Doing the course digitally first does not prevent you from attending in person. Yoga4Health was created by expert yoga teachers, doctors and researchers to enhance your health and wellbeing. You will be guided by an expert teacher through 10 classes which can be done on a chair or on a yoga mat. During the course you will develop your own personalised yoga toolkit of practices to support your health and wellbeing.

During the course we will be sending you unique home practice resources, and at the end of the 10-weeks we will issue you with a Certificate of Completion. We will also provide you with ongoing access to free yoga classes, both live and recorded, when you have completed this course. In order to do this we ask ALL NHS patients living in the UK who are doing the course to register with us. Your data will be held securely and not used for any purpose other than running the Yoga4Health course. We will never share your data with any third parties in line with our Data Protection Privacy Policy.

In order to register for Yoga4Health Digital Pathway, please CLICK HERE and select the Yoga4Health Digital course beginning in the current month (if it is not yet the 15th of the month) or next month (if past the 15th). As part of our accountability to the NHS and to ensure Yoga4Health continues to meet patient needs, you will be asked to complete a short online survey at the beginning and end of the course.

WHAT IS YOGA?
Yoga is an ancient mind-body system developed in India. Yoga ranges from classes focused on physical yoga postures, to those that place their main emphasis on mindfulness and meditation. The Yoga In Healthcare Alliance was commissioned by the NHS in 2016 to develop an evidence-based social prescribing yoga programme – Yoga4Health – because healthcare professionals recognised that yoga could make a big difference to the health and wellbeing of their patients.

BEING SAFE IN CLASS
The Yoga In Healthcare Alliance will gather medical and other information when you register for the course. However, it is up to you to ensure that you listen to your body and practice the modifications offered during the session to make the course safe and within your capabilities. All classes start in a chair. If you are not physically able to go down to the mat, you can continue the session from a chair, wheelchair, or with the support of a chair. You can mix chair and mat practice as you wish. All physical practice is gentle and led by the breath.

You will be more comfortable if you avoid eating a large meal close to the start of your class. Any loose and comfortable clothing can be worn. You will usually take off your shoes for the class, unless you need them on for medical reasons.  Please ensure your practice space is clear and safe.

WHAT HAPPENS IN A YOGA4HEALTH CLASS
All Yoga4Health classes begin in a chair (or wheelchair) and those who are able work on the floor go down onto a yoga mat after the first three segments of each session as listed below. It is important to understand that this is not a gym-sytle yoga class. If you are looking for a physical workout you will be disappointed. Yoga postures were created hundreds of years after the essential elements of yoga were established. This course focuses on the subtle – and we say more powerful – practices of breathwork, mindfulness, and concentration, alongside a highly intelligent protocol of physical practices that can be adapted to meet everyone’s needs. Stretching is good – and you will lengthen your muscles, increase core strengty, and explore range of movement in your joints – but we want so much more for you than that. We want you to develop expert control over your breath and have at your fingertips a personal toolkit of yoga practices that work for you. Yoga practice is a daily process, not a linear goal. You will develop the skills and knowledge to clear the mind, reduce stress and anxiety, improve relaxation skills and feelings of wellbeing, and find more ease and space in your physical body. And you will be working in a way that is true to the yoga tradition dating back over two thousand years. Everything we do in class is evidence-based, secular and inclusive and we follow the same structure each week: –

• A short introduction, establishing the theme for that week’s class
• Guided breathing practice
• Opening chair sequence of breath-led movements
• Chair or mat-based practices
• Relaxation
• Guided breathing to support home practice

HOME PRACTICE/GETTING THE MOST OUT OF Yoga4Health

The aim of the Yoga4Health programme is to give you the skills, knowledge and confidence to use yoga practice to support your health and wellbeing. For this reason, we strongly encourage you to have a daily home practice of the yoga techniques you learn. Many participants find the breathing practices to be the most useful part of the course. Home practice can be for as little as 5-10 minutes per day and can fit in with your schedule. We know that people who practice regularly gain the most benefit from the Yoga4Health programme.

We also invite you to reflect on what you would like to achieve from participating in the course. This could be anything from better physical health, more mobility, or being able to better manage stress or anxiety. It is even better if you can identify a specific goal that will really help to motivate you to attend and practice at home. One NHS patient who came to us wanted to feel strong enough to make a long journey overseas to visit her daughter. Another wanted to improve his balance and mobility and feel able to move through life more confidently. Both achieved their goals.

Towards the end of this manual, there are links to home practice resources, and recordings of all 10 Yoga4Health classes which you can use if you miss a session or want to repeat a particular week. Below is a visual guide to the protocol of physical practices which are the same every week and so will quickly become very familiar to you.

Now let’s begin…

Week 1 – Body and Breath Awareness

Catchphrase: Notice where you feel your breath

In Week 1 of the Yoga4Health programme we begin to connect to our bodies and breath, learning foundational skills for a yoga practice that supports our health and wellbeing. Breathwork and mindfulness are at the core of this programme. Research shows that they powerfully and positively effect body systems, improving your breathing, reducing stress and anxiety, and bringing space into the body. Every body is unique, so use the modified practices offered to find exactly the right level for you. Never try to work through pain or significant discomfort. Instead aim for pain-free range of motion and breath-led practice. If something doesn’t feel right, release gently from that practice. No one knows your body as well as you, so listen to it.

Week 1 class below (if you require subtitles please click on this link to be taken to the class on Vimeo where you can click on CC for subtitles)

Week 2 – Grounding Part 1

Catchphrase: Feel the touch of the body on the ground

In Week 2 we begin the first of 3 classes with a theme of “grounding”. It is important for us all to feel grounded so that we can we can function in all parts of our lives – home and work life – with stability and a sense of inner calm. In terms of our physical body, it is a great help to become more aware of the touch of the body on the ground and to use that feeling as a foundation for our posture and the different physical yoga practices that we do.

 Week 2 class below. If you require subtitles please click on this link to be taken to the video on Vimeo where you can activate CC. 

Week 3 – Grounding Part 2

Catchphrase: Inhale up from the ground; Exhale long ocean breath back down to the ground

Yoga4Health is an evidence-based programme commissioned and accredited by the NHS. Our research shows that the breathing practices are the most useful ongoing tools for patients during and after the Yoga4Health course. Our carefully constructed sequence of physical yoga practices is the same each week to build familiarity and confidence in home practice. But the breathing practices move on each week. By the end of this course you will be a breathing expert! In this class we continue to develop the theme of grounding by adding in the visualisation of our breath coming up and going back down to the ground. This imagining is like a trick to the mind, helping us to effortlessly lengthen the breath, especially in this class the long exhale.

Do the Week 3 class below. If you require subtitles please click this link to access the video on Vimeo where you can activate CC

Week 4 – Grounding Part 3

Catchphrase: Inhale ocean breath up from the ground; Exhale long ocean breath back down to the ground

In this class we move onto the next stage in our breathing journey by learning to do the technique of ocean breathing on the inhales as well as the long exhale. It is well worth investing a little bit of time in perfecting each of these ocean breathing techniques by watching the additional short breathing practice and technique videos. As your breathwork develops, the ocean breathing brings a new quality of mindfulness to your yoga practice and the realisation that you are working on your mind just as much (if not more) than the body.

Week 4 class below. If you require subtitles please click on this link to be taken to the video on Vimeo where you can active CC

Week 5 – Space

Catchphrase: Inhale-Exhale-Pause-Space

In this class we move on from grounding, but maintain our sense of mind and body stability from the classes so far. It is very difficult to experience space in the body and mins without a sense of grounding providing a feeling of foundation from which to explore the idea of creating more space. We all benefit from space, whether that is in uncluttered homes, being outdoors or in nature, or finding calm and space between our thought in the mind – even in the busiest places.

Week 5 class below. If you require subtitles please click this link to the video on Vimeo where you can activate CC

Week 6 – Space in the Shoulders

Catchphrase: Notice sensations in the shoulders in every pose

This class continues our theme of finding “space” but this time with a relentless focus on the shoulders. This part of our body is meant to be highly mobile. When tension develops in the muscles around the shoulders they can become tense, hunched, and rolled forwards. This can negatively affect our posture and cause discomfort in the shoulders, neck and head.  When we become more aware of sensations in the shoulders we can do something about it when tension arises, rolling them back and down. Chronic tightness in the shoulders has also been shown to negatively affect brain chemistry, so remembering to re-release the shoulders can help the physical body and our mood.

Week 6 class below. If you require subtitles, please click this link to the video on Vimeo where you can activate CC

Week 7 – Awareness of Bodily Sensations

Catchphrase: Notice the sensations in the body

In this class we focus on sensations in the whole of the body, not just the shoulders. We’ve been doing this every single week of the course. But in Week 7 we go deeper. You have now developed considerable skill and knowledge about your body and refined your awareness of breath and sensation. As we develop our attention to what we feel in our body it leads to greater day-by-day awareness of how we feel and this encourages us to listen to our bodies and look after ourselves better. Self-care using yoga tools is what this course is all about. When 279 NHS patients from West London were studied at Week 1, Week 10, and three months after they completed the Yoga4Health programme it was found that they had lost an average of 14cm from their waist measurement. We don’t specifically talk about food or diet on this course. NHS patients told the University of Westminster researchers that they naturally wanted to eat healthier food and look after themselve better through their yoga practice and this is likely why they lost so much weight.

Week 7 class below. If you require subtitles please click this link to the video on Vimeo where you can activate CC

Week 8 – Balance

Catchphrase: Find your equal breath

In this class we say goodbye to the long exhale and pause and swtich to a new breathing practice for the last 3 weeks of the course. That doesn’t mean we want you to abandon the yoga breathing techniques you have learned so far. The different versions of the breath leading up to the long exhale and pause are now very familiar to you and part of your personalised “yoga toolkit”. You can use them whenever you wish. The breathing practices so far have been designed to help you regulate your nervous system and trigger the relaxation response; ideal for relieving stress and anxiety and supporting relaxation. But in order to function well in our lives we don’t just need relaxation, we also need resilience. The equal breathing (sometimes known as coherent breathing) builds inner resilience and provides for a more energising yoga practice. The breathwork in this session is equal – balanced – and we will also continue to explore yoga postures that improve our balance. This improves our posture and the way we move, and may help us feel less at risk of overbalancing or falling.

Week 8 class below. If you require subtitles please click on this link for the video on Vimeo where you can select CC

Week 9 – Change

Catchphrase: Notice the beginning and end of the Inhale/Exale. Notice the arising and passing of sensations

In this class we continue with equal breathing and explore the theme of change. You have changed during the 9 weeks of this course. Perhaps those changes are very apparent to you. Maybe you feel more space in your body, or are experiencing a more settled mind. Change is part of life. We may fear change and wish for everything to remain the same, but that is an illusion. In reality, if we reflect for a moment, we know that everything is in a state of flux. How we feel day by day (even hour by hour) can change from feeling healthy and well, to having a bad day or discomfort. The essence of yoga is to see life as an experience of flow, with our daily practice being a tool to keep us connected to flow and to manage the ever-changing world around us (and relationships) with greater skill and enjoyment. We can struggle against the flow, or go with the flow, using our mindfulness and breath to move through life with greater ease.

Do the Week 9 class CLICK HERE

Week 10 – Connection

Catchphrase: We breathe together; we are all connected by breath

In this class – the last of the 10-week programme – we explore the connections that we have made in our body, mind, and breath. Many people move through life only paying attention to the body when it breaks down – like taking a car to the garage when it won’t start. When we have our own yoga practice that we can rely on we have a different relationship with our body. We notice the connections, the sensations, our posture, and how we are moving through the world. We notice how the breath and the mind affects the body and how the mind-body-breath connection is so strong that it’s hard to change one without changing the others. A sense of connection within ourselves also spills out into feelings of being interconnected with other people (family, friends, colleagues, people in our communities). We feel connected to ourselves and this helps us feel socially connected to others and brings a new quality to those connections. You may also find yourself yearning for greater connection, and finding it in simple (and inexpensive) passtimes like taking a walk in nature. 

Do the Week 10 class CLICK HERE