Yoga for Holistic Wellness &

Optimal Healing

by Prof KR Sethuraman. MD,PGDHEVice-chancellor,

Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth, Pondicherry

Part -1 From Pathogenesis

to Salutogenesis

Part 2 – Salutogenesis,

Optimal Healing &Yoga Therapy

Peace versus anti-War

“- I will never participate in anti-war demonstrations. “But if you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there.”

• Mother TheresaIf not at war, are you at peace?

If not ill, are you well; if no disease, is it health?

And Not merely the absence of disease

Salutogenesis

• Derivation of Greek + Latin• Latin: salus = health• Greek: genesis = source

• In combination = Sources of health

‘Father’ of Salutogenesis• Aaron Antonovsky • (1923 – 1994)• Medical Sociologist• Coined term in 1968 to

capture an emerging concept• Why did some manage

to avoid illness and do well even under extreme stress? (Nazi Holocaust survivors)

Salutogenesis vs. Pathogenesis

SALUTOGENESIS versus PATHOGENESIS…

Pathogenesis • What causes diseases?• About Avoiding Problems• Disease/Illness an anomaly• Reactive - Absence Disease• Against pain or Loss• Prepares one to live

Salutogenesis• What causes Health?• About reaching Potential• We are inherently flawed, • Proactive - Presence Health• For Gain or Growth• Discover how to live fully

AND

Salutogenesis• Medicine is increasingly focused on the origin of

illness• an equally important question to ask: "what is the

origin of health & wellness?" • Aaron Antonovsky showed that relatively

unstressed people were more resistant to illness than those who were more stressed. • He proposed: “the experience of well-being is

based on Sense of Coherence.”

Sense of Coherence (SOC)

The heart of Salutogenesis

“a pervasive, long-lasting and dynamic feeling of confidence that one’s internal and external environments are predictable and that there is a high probability that things will work out as well as can be expected” (Antonovsky, 1979)

SOC has strong positive correlations to perceived health, mental health, and quality of life.

3 components of Sense of Coherence (SOC)

Comprehensible - Cognition- “My world is understandable”

Manageable - Coping Skill- “My world is manageable”

Meaningful - Motivation- “My world has meaning”

Those who break bad news experience the client’s intense “sense of incoherence”

Components of Meaning

• Purpose• Goals• Future fulfillment

• Values• Justify course of action• Moral decision making

• Efficacy • You can make a

difference• Self worth• Skills• Belonging to groups

you value

Lastly, Do you want your grandson to remember you as ‘smoking grandpa’?

Making one’s Life Meaningful…

SOC helps the ‘diseased’ to manage it ‘be well’

• Comprehension, Meaningfulness & Manageability (SOC approach) in chronic diseases keeps them ‘well’ despite any limitations

• Similar to ‘physically disabled’ becoming ‘differently abled’• A case of ‘early bronchiectasis’ – SOC approach kept

him doing the bronchial clearance twice a day – • A 14-year boy with Becker’s myopathy lying in bed

‘waiting to die’ was counselled in 1995; he resumed Studies and works in a Bank

From: “what did I do today to treat disease / illness?”

To: “what did I do today to create health/wellness?”

Part 2 – Salutogenesis,

Optimal Healing &Yoga Therapy

• Healing: “the processes of recovery, repair, renewal, and reintegration that contribute to a person’s physical, mental, social, and spiritual health and well-being.”• Healing and Cure are mutually complementary, and

both are essential.• Adopt Healing-oriented practices and environments to

create an optimal healing environment (OHE)

4 domains of Optimal Healing Environment

(OHE)

*OHE: 1-Internal Domain

• How Yoga attends to the internal factors

• Mindfulness = Focus

• Wholeness

* optimal healing environment

PERSONAL

OHE: 2-Interpersonal Domain

• How Yoga-therapist attends to the interpersonal factors

• Therapeutic relationship for wellness • Promote Holistic healing

OHE: 3-Behavioral Domain

• How Yoga-therapist attends to the behavioral factors

• Promotion of “Satvik lifestyle”

• Integrates well with “Western Medicine”

OHE: 4-External Domain

• How Yoga-therapist attends to the external factors

• Foster • Sattvik guna and• symbiosis with Nature

Healing Intention

Personal Wholeness

Healthy Relation-ships

Healthy Organisation

Healthy Lifestyle

Integrative Medicine

Healthy Spaces

Green & Ecosustainable

INTERNAL

INTER-PERSONAL

BEHAVIORAL

EXTERNAL

Yoga practice (total hours) versus positive attitudes & subjective vitalityInt J Yoga. 2013 6(1): 11–19.doi: 10.4103/09736131.105937

To Sum up…• Preventive and promotive practices protect against

pathology• Health goes beyond mere absence of pathology• Up to 40% of illnesses have no pathological basis (MUS)

• Lifestyle-based wellness choices can maximize positive life experiences (salutogenesis)• joy, vitality, serenity, happiness, self-actualization, and

other qualities, which make life worth living• Yoga is an ancient set of integrated mental, physical

and spiritual practices that promote Salutogenesis.

Thank You !