Over the past few decades, practicing yoga—the 5,000-year-old practice of asanas, or postures, designed to align your skin, muscles, and bone—has significantly caught on for many in the Western world, not only as a means of staying fit, but as a method of self-care. For Occupational Therapists, an increased knowledge of yoga may help to prepare them to meet the needs of clients in today’s ever-changing health care landscape. A recent study explored the perceptions of OTs and yoga practitioners on the health benefits of practicing yoga, as well as the role yoga could play within the scope of Western medicine, and found that, given the long history of yoga as a self-care strategy and its proven health benefits, there is a need to further explore incorporating yoga into the scope of traditional OT practice.
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