International Meditation Society Sivananda Ashram, Victoria, BC

SHOULD WOMEN DO YOGA DURING THEIR MONTHLY PERIODS?

A question of considerable importance to one half of the people of the world, arose recently in the ALT. YOGA forum on the Internet. One relative newcomer asked the title question of one and all. The largest world wide Yoga teaching organisation in the world, the International Shivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres, (which also partially trained this writer in 1977), for instance, does NOT tell women not to do inverted postures during their menstruation periods.

The author of this article replied on the Internet that the only organization that he knew of, which advises their students with their periods not to perform asanas (namely inverted postures), is the Iyengar group. This brought forth an irritated reply from one of their teachers, who said that Iyengar's daughter had written a book giving such advice and that following it had helped her. Subsequent communication with her established that she suffers with a large range of extremely unpleasant side effects from her periods, perhaps the worst I have ever heard of.

However, others wrote to this author implying that it was probably a left over in INDIA of the desire by men to keep women in a secondary position in their society and out of traditional activities like Yoga and residence in Ashrams or monasteries. As a Yoga teacher of nearly 20 years experience, this writer has not yet met a woman who actually experienced any difficulties that she reported as caused by following a regular asana or posture class during her period, including doing inverted postures. So the question arises, what is the truth here?

To this end, this writer has begun a research project to find out. Several of the writer's own female Yoga pupils have attested to him personally that during the last 12 months inverted asanas were done at least once a day, seven days a week, periods included, and that the Yoga actually helped them have an easier time during their periods. One young women stated that, due to the Yoga, she believes, that all the uncomfortable side effects have been totally dispelled! So here we have the other extreme, attested to by living witnesses.

This writer is also concerned that one person's extreme solution to extreme personal menstrual problems should not be presented to the world as "The official teaching of Yoga on the subject", thus denying, perhaps, some of the on-going benefits of regular Yoga practice to half the world's population.

We would like to hear your views and experiences on this subject and will be happy to publish the results on the Internet. This is an important subject, your opinion counts, please let us know how you feel.

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