If you ask a group of people why they do yoga, you will likely discover that most of them are doing it for therapeutic reasons. It is to reduce stress or to learn to relax. Or, they may be using yoga to manage a more serious health condition.

If we look closely at what is happening in yoga classes, we discover that yoga doesn't really fix or cure anything. It simply helps bring the body and mind into an aligned, relaxed natural state, in which self-healing may occur spontaneously. Yoga practice to this end is called restorative yoga.

"As we grow older, our body shrinks and the spaces between the body tissues and skeletal joints decrease. This anatomical distortion leads to physiological dysfunctioning, resulting in pathological changes. The regular practice of yoga stretches and strengthens the different muscle groups and creates space in the body. This helps to bring back to normal the physiological functioning of the different anatomical systems, which enables nature to re-arrange and repair the diseased parts of the body the natural way." Dr. S.V. Karandikar