|[ Excerpt from The Science of Yoga, page 193 ] The second level
of awareness in yoga is emotional awareness. No diet or physical
training can bring health to the someone whose mind and emotions
are unrestrained. I've known countless people who struggle to
overcome ill health while 'doing all the right things' --
meaning that they religiously do the exercises that their
therapist assigns, eat the proper foods and receive all the
complementary healthcare treatments too. Yet the improvement in
their state of health is hardly noticeable. Some other, even
more important factor must be at play. Positive emotions have a
beneficial effect on health and negative ones have a detrimental
effect. Modern medicine is starting to understand that physical
symptoms cannot be treated by physical means alone -- that the
mind-body-emotional complex is inseparable when it comes to
health. This is what the term 'psychosomatics' is referring to
-- emotions (psycho) affecting the body (soma). In yoga, we call
this adhi-vyadhi. As D