Yoga and its meditative practices in chronic pain

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the effects of meditative practices involving physical postures, breathing, sound use, visualization, and relaxation practices as part of therapy for the control and improvement of chronic pain. Method: This is a review of the literature in medline, science direct, pubmed and scielo databases, having as reference period the last 15 years. The keywords used were "yoga" and "chronic pain" and their corresponding ones in English, "Yoga" and "chronic pain", isolated or in combination, without delimiting a time interval. Results: An increasing number of scientific studies have demonstrated the improvement of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and relational issues of yoga practice and its techniques isolated RM individuals with different health conditions. There was a reduction in anxiety and stress, as well as improvement in mindfulness, executive function, mood, emotional state, self-compassion and general mental health. Final Considerations: The evidence in the literature has shown that chronic pain is not unifactorial, but associated with comorbidities that end up leading to numerous pathologies and interference in quality of life. Yoga offers several benefits for pain control, remodeling and strengthening of the body and psyche. Therefore, yoga can be a beneficial complementary therapy for the management of chronic pain, although more studies and more evidence are needed in clinical practice.