Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Acute care issues: awareness and concept of laterality

Mr M Taylor's post evokes an important issue of how "old life dies" and new issues surface after a stroke and how those yield best to yogic intervention. Stroke leads to disintegration of the concept of wholeness and induces asymmetrical body image. Patricia Burke in her article (http://www.byregion.net/articles-healers/Road_Rage.html) talks about laterality as a relationship between the hemispheres. She also list alternate nostril breathing and breathwalk techniques as some of the integrative exercises. She states, "We can increase our energy, control our moods, refine our mental quality, and experience connectedness in our lives using very simple breathing techniques combined with focus and gazing exercises for the eyes, lateral movement, and sound. Because these movements recruit all the quadrants of the brain, they are integrative systems."
So in simpler terms, as we approach a stroke client in acute phases, we want to be mindful of the deeper signs of resultant disintegration and deeper needs of reconnecting with the wholeness that one is. Simple breathing techniques to increase awareness and deliberate attentiveness to the affected limbs are vital. I found information at http://www.holisticonline.com/Yoga/hol_yoga_breathing-ex-nadisodh.htm to be helpful about alternate nostril breathing.
I see this intervention approach complicated when severe cognitive and visuo-perceptual deficits accompany the post-stroke motor deficits.
Please share any tried methods and approaches.
Thanks