Foreword

Yoga, and its related discipline of Ayurvedic medicine, has a long history as a healing practice. Over time the yoga tradition has impacted much of South Asia, including Thailand, which has embraced many aspects of India’s culture through Buddhist and Vedic practices. In each of the cultures into which yoga has been assimilated, it has been the basis of new local developments and insights that add much to the richness of yoga’s approach. Thai Yoga is an especially compelling result of this assimilation process.

One of the key concepts of the greater yoga tradition, and a concept central to Ayurvedic medicine and its constitutional types, is the need to adjust the teaching relative to the individual by considering each student’s unique nature and the changing conditions of her or his energies, temperament, and capacities. The same practices cannot be given to everyone, and what may be good for one person at one time may not be helpful at another time. Individual adaptation is the key to applying yoga properly.

This need to individualize the practice is even more important when yoga is being applied as part of a healing process, when conditions are yet more variable. Just as a physician cannot recommend the same medicine or therapy to every person or for every disease, neither can the same exercises or set of asanas be expected to work for each person. The individual must always be taken into account and worked with regularly in order to know what will really work, considering who that person is as well as the condition of the body and environment.

Though they have their specific structural effects, yogic asanas can be varied in terms of their energies. Pranayamas are more fixed in their energies, but they too can be varied in their effects according to the way in which they are performed. Individualizing treatment is not just a mechanical issue of applying one asana or practice; it requires working with the person in terms of attitude, energy, and awareness, as well as according to the specific procedures that may be recommended, considering that individual’s body, mind, and spirit.

According to Ayurvedic medicine, asana is an ideal therapy for musculoskeletal disorders, whether the condition is owing to internal organic factors or external structural problems. Combined with massage by a healer in whom the prana, or inner life-force, is awakened, yoga asanas have yet more power. Ayurveda considers pranayama to be the ideal tool for balancing the doshas at an organic level, helping us to adjust the prana that is behind all three doshas of vata (air), pitta (fire), and kapha (water). Pranayama is an important part of all therapies and of any healthy lifestyle.

Thai Yoga Therapy for Your Body Type is unique in that it brings together these key concepts of yoga and Ayurveda for determining individual type and condition. This adds a great deal of depth and specificity to the treatment. The authors link yoga therapy with the broader range of Ayurvedic lifestyle recommendations relative to individual constitution; those recommendations include diet, which is central to how the physical body functions and moves. This range of treatment recommendations places yoga therapy in the context of an entire set of natural healing practices, providing the opportunity for yoga to impact the whole of our lives.

The authors look at yoga asanas as part of this greater system of Ayurvedic healing, providing guidance through which the asanas can be more effectively utilized. For the reader unfamiliar with these concepts, Thai Yoga Therapy for Your Body Type explains the three doshic types of vata, pitta, and kapha in clear terms. The text examines the role of the five vayus (prana, apana, samana, udana, and vyana) and their energetic effects, important for determining the effects of asanas and pranayamas. They consider not only the condition of the physical body but all of the five koshas, or sheaths of the soul, which reflect the deeper levels of our being.

The book is practical, providing many specific and well-delineated exercises that can be useful for a broad range of health conditions. The authors have condensed a great deal of important information in this single volume, reflecting much experience and insight from their own work and study.

I have personally met Kam Thye Chow and Emily Moody, and was I impressed by their degree of insight and willingness both to look into the Ayurvedic roots of Thai Yoga Therapy and to develop those connections further in light of current knowledge. Their book is a welcome contribution to the field and helps open the way for further research and examination. I have also experienced the authors’ treatment methods. Thai Yoga massage is a gentle, relaxing form of treatment that stimulates the higher sattvic (spiritual) vibrations of the mind and heart. It is useful for health maintenance as well as for treating a variety of conditions.

When yoga therapy is employed according to non-yogic systems of medicine, asanas often get reduced to a mere adjunct or technique of physical therapy, which is the case for much of yoga therapy today. Ayurveda helps restore yogic healing to its real breadth and depth. Ayurvedic medicine provides us with a complete yogic system of medicine in terms of philosophy, diagnosis, and treatment methods. It forms the ideal foundation for the application of yoga therapy as well as offering the appropriate support practices of diet, herbs, massage, and other clinical procedures to link it to the whole of medical practice.

It is important that all yoga therapists consider the role of Ayurveda in yoga therapy and learn to benefit from its many tools of health, well-being, and inner transformation. The authors have shown how to bring an Ayurvedic perspective into Thai Yoga Therapy, which greatly enhances this system of healing. The book is an important addition to the literature on yogic healing. It is hoped that more yoga teachers will take such an approach in their work and studies. It is also an important book for Ayurvedic students, relative to both yoga and massage, and adds many new insights for their work as well.

Dr. David Frawley

Author of Yoga and Ayurveda, Yoga for Your Type, and Ayurveda and Marma Therapy

Director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies