Both Yoga and Naturopathy play an educational role.
YOGA teaches body-mind-spirit connection through awareness of one’s body, which needs to be supported by the mind and spirit for good functioning.
To give a practical example, Vriksha-asana known as the “Tree pose” cannot be performed correctly without training the mind to concentrate in keeping that posture – therefore not to wander, otherwise one is apt to fall down. Who has experienced that pose long enough may agree that the spiritual part is consequential to the mental ability of concentrating. Body-mind balance necessarily brings to a connection with one’s inner world. At the same time, breathing – which is a body function – is involved in the ability to concentrate, which favours body-mind balance, and we know how it also plays a leading role in calming the mind and therefore drawing toward a state of meditation.
By experiencing Vriksha-asana we not only learn how to keep our body in balance, but indirectly we also learn how to train our mind to adjust to our body’s balance and how to connect to our inner world through mind-body balance.
A NATUROPATH is most of all an “Educator”. He teaches his clients body-mind-spirit connection in different ways. Awareness of one’s body is experienced through its limitations, whereas awareness of the power of one’s mind can be experienced through some of the techniques as well as the natural remedies that the Naturopath uses in his practice. Awareness of one’s spiritual path is consequential.
An example could well be a client complaining of a physical pain. A naturopath would try to understand the cause lying behind that pain, which could well bring to an emotional/mental problem to be dealt with. By facing that problem the client would learn much about his mind, and how it relates to his body, hindering his inner growth. Of course, self-healing is not always that easy, and most of the time the client would need to be supported by some natural remedies and advices on nutrition etc. But what I would like to stress here is the importance of learning the body-mind-spirit connection for a client who goes to a naturopath, and the need for a naturopath to teach his clients.
Giovanna Mazzarino 