The hormonal system conducts our body like a great orchestra.
Nune Rojas, a chemist and yoga instructor with 20 years’ experience, developed her own method, YogaHormonal, which helps women restore their hormonal balance
I had been practising and teaching kundalini yoga for a long time. But a few years ago I began having serious gynaecological health problems. The doctors proposed some rather unpleasant procedures as treatment. I felt a deep inner resistance: how could I, an experienced yogini, be unable to handle this problem myself?
A friend from Berlin helped; she took me to one of the alternative medicine centres in Germany. When the centre’s specialists learned that I taught yoga, they advised me to shift the emphasis of my practice so as to engage the endocrine system, and to use intensive breathing, which massages the internal organs. I came home and began experimenting energetically, trying to listen to my body. Three months later not a single painful symptom remained of those that had made me seek help from doctors.
Almost immediately I began applying elements of the new practice in my own classes. Over time a whole system took shape, which now helps women normalise their hormonal state. I combine yoga practice with methods of working with the unconscious, skills I gained at the Scientific Centre of Psychoendocrinology.
Hormones have a double structure. Possessing an internal memory of their own, they read the surrounding situation and produce a particular chemical composition which, through chemical reactions, tells the body how to respond to a given situation — to feel joy or to be upset. And the fact that hormones have a memory of their own means that several generations’ memory lives in us. These are psychological patterns of thought and behaviour, and they are what underlie various psychological problems.
Women come to me with menstrual cycle irregularities, thyroid problems, excess weight, unpleasant menopausal symptoms, hot flushes and insomnia — and these are the complaints we clear up faster than any others through the practice. At present I run an experimental group of women at the Institute of Traditional Oriental Medicine, under the supervision of an endocrinologist-gynaecologist. The group started relatively recently, but there are already noticeable changes in the women’s health. Cycles have normalised in those whose cycles were disrupted; menstruation has become less painful and stopped causing discomfort even for those who had had the problem for many years; and some have seen unpleasant menopausal symptoms disappear. There are participants with complicated cases too, but overall everyone’s psycho-emotional state has improved, many have become more productive, their outlook on life has turned positive, and new creative projects have appeared.
Results this good gave me reason to think about training other instructors in hormonal yoga. So, together with a gynaecologist-endocrinologist who has her own methods for treating and correcting hormone levels, I am organising a YogaHormonal teacher training course at the Institute of Oriental Medicine, RUDN University.
About hormonal yoga
Hormonal yoga is based on female physiology and consists of a series of dynamic asanas and active breathing that act on the glands and stimulate hormone production. This kind of yoga improves the functioning of the whole endocrine system. Particular attention is given to strengthening the adrenal glands, the ovaries, the thyroid and parathyroid glands, the hypothalamus as the controller of all bodily functions, and the pituitary and pineal glands, which greatly influence our emotional wellbeing.
There is a special sequence of asanas in which each gland is worked, so that they are activated and begin to function properly. The system of exercises is also aimed at establishing the connection between the glands, which in many people is disrupted.
It is important to understand that a hormonal condition (hypothyroidism, for example) does not mean that only the thyroid is malfunctioning. It means the whole system is out of balance.
To change and retune your body through endocrine yoga, a minimum of two months of regular practice three times a week is required.
Sometimes women meet strong mental resistance, or inner sabotage, which is hard to overcome — but it can and must be done.
The very trauma that led to the health problem prevents you from being rid of it. Outwardly this shows in a person being unable to attend classes and always finding reasons to miss them. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to help in that situation.
Yoga should be practised with pleasure and with awareness — feeling every moment, every movement, keeping your attention on your body. Yes, this will slow down how fast you perform the exercises, but it will let you check that the asanas are being done correctly. It is like singing loudly but out of tune. Whereas if you slow down, “sing more quietly”, think, and feel every muscle, then yoga becomes conscious. And when it is conscious, areas of the brain that go unused in ordinary life switch on. All of this multiplies the effect of yoga many times over and protects you from injury.
