YOGA MAY BE REMEDY FOR YOU

The first thing you should understand about stammering is that it is not a disease. Stammering has more to do with the personality and mind of an individual. There are around 45 million people who stammer in the world today, with around 10 million in the US alone. This condition is considered to predominately affect males, as 80 percent of individuals who stammer are males. It is also found to affect mostly the first born child. Stammering usually appears before the age of 5, and if no treatment is given, it will usually increase after the between the ages of 10 and 18. After this, the stammering will usually gradually fade away as the individual gets older.
Although there are no specific activities or concepts in yoga to cure stammering the effects of yoga on general health and psychological health are tremendous and would therefore exercise a positive influence on the condition. Performing breathing exercises and certain asanas in yoga to cure stammering can be very effective. Simasana (Lion Pose) and Makarasana (Crocodile Pose) are both good yoga postures to cure stammering. These postures will help sync your articulation with the speed of your thought. Practicing pranayama (breathing exercises) will also be helpful to cure the stammering problem. Kapalabhatti (cleansing breath), Brahmari (bee breath), Sitkari (cooling pranayama), and Anuloma-Viloma (breathing from alternate nostrils) are effective yoga pranayamas to cure stammering.
Practicing meditation is also an effective form of yoga to cure symptoms of stammering. Mediation helps in relieving stress and tension, which contribute to stammering significantly. Individuals who stammer are usually conscious about their stammering and get very anxious when they have to speak. Meditation will help the mind stay calm, allowing the person to relax during anxious moments, which is important when articulating. To meditate, get into a sitting position by performing either the Sukhasana (Easy Pose) or Padmasana (Lotus Pose). Then, keep your focus on your breathing by concentrating on the rise and fall of your stomach or the area of your nostrils.
You could follow some tips to help remove stammering like talking to yourself in the mirror. You could also take the help of your friends and family members. Stammering usually decreases when you talk to people who you feel at ease with. It is also essential that you develop self-confidence to cure stammering problems. Once you start to believe in yourself and forget what other people think, you will start to make progress. You could also go in for speech therapy, which is considered one of the most effective ways to cure stammering. The process of speech therapy helps to relax the mechanism of speech, thereby reducing stammering. It involves reducing the speed of speech and breathing deeply before you speak. By developing a positive attitude towards yourself and using the tips and yoga exercises to cure the symptoms of stammering, you will be able to ensure fluent and lucid speech.

 SOME OF THE FAMOUS YOGA FOR STAMMERING:-

 

•     Kapalabhatti (Skull Cleansing)
•     Anuloma-Viloma (Alternate Nostril Breathing)
•     Brahmari (Bee Breath)
•     Sitali or Sitkari (Cooling Pranayamas)

 Together with these you should practise the following:

•    Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutations)
•    Sukhasana (Easy Pose)
•    Vajrasana (Warrior Pose)
•    Padmasana (Lotus pose starting with single leg)
•    Simhasana (Lion pose – tongue outstretched without too 
      much effort or strain)
•    Tadasana (Palm Tree pose)
•    Ekpadasana (Hand to toes pose – standing)
•    Ardha Chakrasana  (Half Moon Pose)
•    Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose)
•    Dhanurasana (Bow Pose)
•    Shalabhasana (Locust Pose)
•    Chakrasana (Wheel Pose)
•    Kakasana (Crow Pose)
•    Mayurasana (Crow pose if you can manage it, and only at after
     a few weeks of practice)

Meditation
Start with slow, progressive relaxation in a sitting position, hence the importance of Sukhasana (Easy Pose), Vajrasana (Warrior Pose) and Padmasana (Lotus Pose) mentioned above. Then gradually start concentrating on your breath, either in the region of your nostrils or on the heave and fall of your abdomen. Stay with it, observing what you are feeling without, in any way, being judgmental.

It would help you to also start practising focusing on your breath and slow breathing in order to control your thoughts and emotions.

A positive attitude, learning to love and accept yourself and things around you with dignity and gratitude will certainly go a long way in helping you.

Pranayama - Breathing Exercises

"When prana moves, chitta (mental force) moves. When prana is without movement, chitta is without movement. - Hathayoga Pradipika 2.02."
Pranayamas are breathing exercises developed by the ancient yogis. They are used to purify the Pranic nadis in the Pranamaya Kosha by controlling, regulating, and channelizing the Prana in the body.Prana is taken in through the air we breathe,...

...and since the breathing exercises increase the amount of air we take in, they also increase our intake of Prana.
In Sanskrit Prana means energy or vital force and yama means control. So, in English this would translate into control of the vital breath. However, there's much more to Pranayama than just control of the vital force. Pranayama essentially involves three things: regulating the breath, controlling the vital force and chanalizing the Pranas in the right directions.
The principle of in Yoga is that, order to alter a situation we must make changes in the energy that governs it. To bring about positive changes in body and mind we must understand and work upon the energies through which they work. This is done through a set of exercises that entail synchronized breathing. In Yoga the right or solar nadi is considered masculine or solar in nature. The left is feminine or lunar in nature. It is Pitta or fire predominant and increases energy on the right side. The left or the lunar nadi, is Kapha or water predominant, and increases energy on the left side of the body. To maintain harmony in our Pranic or Subtle body, we should have an equal number of breaths from both nostrils. Since this is not always possible through normal breathing, Pranayama helps chanelize them.
It is also for precisely this reason that Yoga also prescribes a sattvic diet, rich in Prana i.e., foods full of the life-force and a mind rooted in moral and ethical values like truth and non-violence. An impure or toxic body and mind cannot remain healthy for long.
But, before we proceed further, there is something else we must understand. You might have noticed the use of the word Pranas in the last line of the first paragraph. Essentially, and little known to the general public, the Prana consists of 5 different Pranas, viz Prana, Apana, Samana, Vyana and Udana, each performing a different function.
They are all contained in a sheath called the Pranamaya Kosha consisting of roughly 3,64,000 nadis or subtle nerve channels that are connected to out other gross and subtle bodies and sheaths. Thus, the one primary Prana is divided into five, basis their movement, direction and function. Further, they can be classified as energies and processes occurring on different levels in our system.


Prana
Literally meaning "air flowing forward", it governs the flow of energy from the head down to the navel, the Pranic center in the physical body. It is responsible for all types of inward reception from inhalation to eating, drinking to reception of sense perceptions and experiences. Propulsive in nature, it sets and guides things in motion, thereby governing the basic energy that sustains our lives.


Apana
Apana, means "regressing air" and, like the name suggests, it moves downward and outward. It governs the movement of energy from the navel down to the root chakra and is responsible for all forms of systemic discharge, including carbon dioxide in the breath, stools, urine, semen, menstrual fluids and the fetus. On a deeper level it forms the basis of our immune system and governs the expulsion of all negative sensory, mental and emotional experiences.


Samana
Meaning "balanced air", Samana flows from the perimeter to the center, in a judicious churning movement. It chanalizes the flow of energy from the entire body back to the navel. Primarily, though, it governs the gastrointestinal tract, i.e. it facilitates digestion of food and absorption of oxygen in the lungs. Mentally it serves to digest and assimilate all sensory, mental and emotional inputs.


Vyana
Vyana, means "air flowing outward". Contrariwise Samana, this one governs flow of energy from the navel throughout the body. Flowing from the center to the periphery, it governs all circulatory functions and, in the bargain, assists the task of all other Pranas. It regulates the flow of oxygen, nutrition and water throughout the system, as well as disseminates our thoughts and emotions.


Udana
Udana, "upward moving air," literally moves upwards. It governs energy movement up from the navel to the head. Naturally, it is responsible for growth, aids and abets all bodily effort, enthusiasm and will, including the ability to stand and speak. Our main positive energy in life, it facilitates development of our different bodies as well as in evolving consciousness.
In summation, Prana governs the intake of all forms of nutrients, Samana regulates their digestion, Vyana sees to their circulation, Udana administers the release of positive energy and Apana, the elimination of waste matter from the system. Pretty much like operations of an organization, Prana fetches the fuel, Samana transforms it into energy, Vyana distributes it to the various departments and Apana discharges the waste matter produced in the process. Finally, Udana decides how the positive energy generated is to be used.
The secret of good health lies in balance and harmony. Since all the Pranas are interlinked, if even one becomes unstable, the others are susceptible to similar imbalance. Result, the working of the entire machine goes out of gear. This gets translated into mental and physical afflictions and indispositions.



The Art of Pranayama


Pranayama is both the science and art of purifying the nadis in the Pranamaya Kosha. Through regulated breathing i.e. altering the rhythm of inhalation and exhalation, it is possible to control the prana, vital force in the body. Pranayama is the process by which such conscious control is achieved through synchronized breathing. Purifying the channels along which the life stream of 'prana' flows, helps prevent and even cure a variety of physical and mental ailments. In the process, it also increases one's overall immunity and resistance to disease.
The best position to be assumed for these practices is sukhasana or the easy pose it also happens to be the most comfortable. The critical thing to bear in mind, however, is posture. The back, neck and head should be kept erect, i.e. in a straight line. And yet, the body should not be stiff. It should be in its natural relaxed condition. You can prepare for this by practicing shavasan, the corpse pose, for a few minutes. To prepare for pranayama it is first better to breathe relaxed in the abovementioned ratio. Do this a few rounds, for a few days. The next step is to learn the knack of full yogic breathing. This is also called Dirga Pranayama the three part breath. Known as the "complete" or "three-part" breath, Dirga Pranayama teaches you how to fill the three regions of the body with Oxygen.

• The first is the belly (on top of or just below the navel),
• The second is the chest (the thorax or rib cage), and
• The third is the clavicular region (or upper chest, near the sternum)

Technique

1. Sit in sukhasana or any other comfortable position with back, spine, and neck erect. Alternately you may even lie down on your back. Start by taking slow, long, and deep nasal breaths
2. As you inhale, let your abdomen fill with air. As you exhale, let your belly deflate like a balloon. Repeat the exercise a few times, keeping your breath smooth and relaxed. Never strain
3. Breathe into your belly as in Step 2, but also inflate your thoracic region by letting your rib cage open up. Exhale and repeat the exercise a few times
4. Follow steps 2 and 3 and continue inhaling by opening the clavicle region or upper chest. Exhale and repeat the exercise a few times
5. Combine all three steps into one continuous or complete flow

Once you have got a good feel for this style of breathing, start practicing without the aid of your hands. Finally, relax and breathe in the three positions quietly feeling the waves of breath move in and out, up and down the body.


Benefits:
The practice of Dirga Pranayama inculcates correct diaphragmatic breathing, relaxes the mind and body, optimally oxygenates the blood and cleanses the lungs of residual toxins.
For all Pranayama the right fingers and thumb should be used to control the right and left nostrils, unless one is otherwise naturally left-handed. A ratio of two to one is generally maintained, that is, the inhalation time should be half that of exhalation. For example, if inhalation takes 5 seconds, exhalation should take 10 seconds. Breathing should be slow and steady, in and out of the nose, unless otherwise advised.


Please Note: Not all Pranamayas can or should be mastered in a day or week or month. The process may and should take a few months. Even after that, it is not necessary to do all 8 Pranamayas daily. The daily mandatory Pranamayas are Kapalabhati and Anuloma Viloma. The rest may be done at one's own convenience


The 8 Pranamayas are:

1. Kapalabhati
2. Anuloma Viloma
3. Ujjayi
4. Bhastrika
5. Shitali
6. Sitkari
7. Suryabhedana
8. Bhramari

Take into consideration your own time and convenience but see that all 8 Pranayamas are covered in a week. The same goes for asanas.
But remember, even though Kapalabhati is not a Pranayama, yet it is a vital part of the program. As the name suggests, it is a cleansing technique in preparation for Pranayama and should be done everyday, without fail. For complete, step by step details of how it should be done, kindly refer our section - Cleansing Techniques
For optimum benefits, yoga practices should be coupled with a balanced diet, Naturopathy, Ayurveda and Aromatherapy.

What are the benefits of Alternate Nostril Breathing?

 

Alternate nostril breathing or Nadi Shodhana is a technique of breathing in which the individual breathes in and out through one nostril and then goes on to the next. Alternate nostril breathing helps in directing the flow of prana or the life force of the body through the entire body. Alternate nostril breathing benefits by bringing about a state of deep relaxation, clearing the mind, and calming the body. This breathing technique also helps in balancing the right and left hemispheres of the brain. You can enhance the benefits of yoga by practicing alternate nostril breathing after the Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) sequence.

What is One Nostril Breathing aka Alternate Nostril Pranayama ?

 

The one nostril breathing pranayama is a breathing exercise that helps in stimulating memory. The simple technique of left nostril breathing helps in improving spatial memory. This type of memory enables you to remember effectively where you have placed your things. To practice this breathing exercise you should close your right nostril and breathe slowly and deeply through your left. Continuing this exercise regularly will slow down the activity of the sympathetic nervous system and increased heart rate. Another breathing exercise you could try is alternate nostril breathing, which is considered to be a very effective stress reliever. It is also essential that you maintain a proper diet to maximize the benefits.

What is teeth hissing? - Sitkari | Teeth Hissing Exercise

Teeth hissing or Sitkari refers to the sound that is made when air is drawn in through the front teeth either slightly opened or tightly closed, with the tip of the tongue regulating the pressure of air and sound. This technique refers only to breathing in, while exhalations take place normally through both the nostrils. Properly practicing the teeth hissing exercise one can help reduce the effects of thirst, hunger as well as laziness and sleepiness. The teeth hissing exercise is also considered to be effective in preventing the increase of bile in the body, and it also helps improve physical and mental performance.

What Are The Advantages And Techniques of Abdominal Breathing | Children

When the diaphragm gets weak, individuals with lung diseases develop a pattern of breathing that makes use of accessory muscles like the rib, shoulder, and neck muscles to breathe. Diaphragmatic breathing is a breathing technique that helps in correcting this habit by making the abdominal muscles and diaphragm strong. The advantage of this abdominal breathing technique is that more air will go in and out of the lungs without the chest muscles getting tired. Abdominal breathing in children tends to come naturally, but as we grow, with the tensions and pressures of everyday life, we start to breathe from the chest. Therefore, make sure to check you breathing technique and bring about the necessary changes for better health.

What Are The Benefits of Pranayama And Bumblebee Exercises?

 

Bumblebee yoga is a breathing practice in which the lips are to be kept shut and one needs to smoothly and gently make the sound of a humming bee in the throat. This pranayama exercise is considered to be very effective in making the breath smooth and the mind quiet. Some of the other benefits of the bumblebee exercise are the reducing of migraine headaches, bringing better concentration in the mind, and getting rid of mental agitation. Advanced practitioners can get into deep meditative states with this exercise. This exercise also helps in inducing sleep, stability, and relaxation. However, make sure to practice this breathing exercise under the guidance of a qualified instructor.
To perform the bumblebee breath asana you should practice Tadasana with your spine straight and tall. Take a deep and slow breath through your nose and exhale making the sound ‘hummmm’ as long as you can. Then, do it again with your eyes closed, concentrating on the sound. Then, try it again with your eyes closed and your hands blocking your ears. Practicing the bumblebee breath meditation can help soothe anxiety and bring calmness to the mind. It also helps with concentration and memory. Pranayama and pratyahara comes in to enable a transition from the asanas to meditation. Pranayama helps us control vital energies and pratyahara helps us master unruly senses.


FOR MORE YOGA TIPS YOU CAN SEE THE VIDEOS OF THE YOGA ON YOUTUBE OR READ ON YOGA WEBSITES.....



HOPING THIS MAY HAVE HELPED YOU..........

a very good personal experience by ellen marie silverman

 THIS IS THE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF A STAMMERER WHICH I WANTED TO SHARE ALL THE PEOPLE

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH STUTTERING AND MEDITATION
Ellen-Marie Silverman

Introduction

      I am thankful to have the opportunity to share my experiences as someone who stutters who has self-treated her particular problem rather successfully. Organizing my story and then sharing it has brought me more deeply in touch with who I am and, therefore, more capable of helping others. My story, as is anyone's, is both unique and recognizable. My experiences added to others attest to the positive results firm motivation and "personal locus of control," i.e., personal responsibility, can bring. This we all know but need reminding from time to time.

My Stuttering Problem

     In October of 2003, I will be 61 years old. On that day, I will have had a stuttering problem for 58 years! But, for 22 of those years, I didn't realize I did! I first recognized I had a problem when I was 36. And, ironically, I am a speech therapist who researched, wrote about, and provided therapy and counseling to help others deal with stuttering since I was 21. This is, perhaps, the truly unique aspect of my story.

     For 33 years, I was shy, terrified to speak one-to-one and in small and large groups unless I was teaching or providing therapy or counseling. In those settings, I prepared carefully and felt emboldened, perhaps, a bit self-righteous. My only concern was to share appropriate knowledge and experience. In other settings, I felt totally inept and terrified to talk. My years of experience speaking only when I had to, and, then, mostly in classrooms left me without speech skills needed for effective discussion, argumentation, and every day conversation. By 27, having the responsibilities of developing a career, maintaining a marriage, and parenting my daughter, I was unwilling to take time to learn skills I lacked. I resigned myself to remaining in the tight little circle in which I felt comfortable and avoided other arenas. And I was afraid to admit I wasn't perfect and needed help of such a basic sort. But I had no idea underneath it all was an unresolved stuttering problem!

      In my 36th year, my world changed radically. I was awarded academic tenure. No longer concentrating on achieving tenure, I suddenly had a clearer vision of my whole life. Who I was. Where I was. What I needed to do to express myself. And, importantly, I recognized I had the time and resources to develop my individuality. My over-whelming desire was to paint, a core impulse repressed until then. I soon became a Sunday painter and have not been the same since. I began to see more deeply, as is necessary to draw and paint convincingly. I began developing more synergistic impressions of life than the behaviorist outlook, that had been my exclusive window on the world since beginning graduate studies, allowed. In short, I was discovering my right-brain and accessing it more and more. Much later, in fact in my 60th year, I discovered my right hemisphere probably is dominant, when I serendipitously noticed I easily signed American Sign Language with my left hand and struggled signing with my right! Previously I thought I was ambidextrous, right hand dominant.

      I began to have opinions about life and a desire to talk about them. And, in a short while, I suddenly I began stuttering severely! Part-word repetitions of 5 or more units on the first or first several words launched utterances that fizzled out from my bewilderment, embarrassment, and physical discomfort with my inexplicable, loud, conspicuous stuttering. I would experience this for days at a time and then revert to limited speech to stop stuttering. I was frightened.
I continue to stutter as I did then, particularly when I am unable to verbalize thought forms exciting to me as quickly as I would like. But I have learned to make bodily adjustments in breathing, phonating, and articulating, and to modify my self-perception so that these episodes are mildly irritating and even instructive rather than catastrophic.

     During a chance encounter with an aunt and uncle I had not seen for 12 years, I learned, that although I spoke early and well, I had had a Abad" stuttering problem when I was three, just months before my mother died. They were no more specific than that. Although, I wasn't able to consciously recall the sensation of stuttering, I was able to remember some feelings and thoughts immediately following my mother's shocking death at 36. Intense psychic body aches from that abrupt, wrenching separation. Feeling alone and terrified. Then I recalled a key thought: I would have to take care of myself. When my mother died, I had yet to learn to ask for what I wanted. She anticipated my every need. That seems strangely over-protective for an elementary school teacher. Perhaps, she was trying to shield me from the discomfort and anxiety of stuttering I was showing at the time. Taking care of myself meant I would have to ask for what I wanted. I panicked. I didn't know how. I entered a state of shock, which I have only recently exited.

     As I relived thoughts and feelings immediately following my mother's death, I remembered her death. Late, her first night home after giving birth to my sister, she began vomiting. The sounds terrified me. I wanted them to stop. More than that; I wanted her to be OK. I ran into my parents' bedroom, and shouted at my mother, "Shut up! Shut up!" I still can remember the look on her face when she realized how frightened I was and knowing she was incapable of comforting me. She died that night. She had had a stroke. Later on, thinking as a child thinks, I believed my words killed her.

     At 38, I initiated divorce proceedings from my husband and colleague of 13 years. Some of you know him. He has had a severe stuttering problem for more than 50 years. Yet, he is quite at ease talking with others and even was a college debate champion. Ironically, I had depended on him to speak for me at work and in the world at large, which he was more than happy to do, to my detriment in many ways. For the first time, I was on my own, relating to colleagues, service personnel, my daughter's teachers, and so forth. I was terrified but didn't shirk what I thought were my responsibilities. I did not anticipate stuttering, nor attend to it when it materialized. I was intent solely on meeting my responsibilities. Several years after our divorce, I left academia , the kindest and most welcome home I had known, to re-experience the satisfaction of being a full-time therapist.

      Two years before, while studying to be a transactional analysis therapist, I recognized my life-long speech anxiety stemmed, in part, from believing I had nothing of value to say. My immediate family heaped verbal abuse on me daily to which I was forbidden to respond without risk of severe physical abuse. When I answered questions about friends or activities or offered information or opinions, what I said was ridiculed. By first grade, I was selectively mute. I rarely spoke at home or in class. I was a good student and caused no trouble. By high school, other students called me "The quiet one."

     No one, including me, referred to me as a stutterer. Nevertheless, my subconscious memory of early childhood stuttering was contributing to personal choices and shaping my self-concept. When I encountered people labeled stutters, including my ex-husband, I wanted to provide relief for them. But I did not make the connection between their difficulty speaking and a probable root cause of my own speech anxiety.

     No one referred me for speech therapy although I lived in a large metropolitan area. Ironically, when I entered college, I was excited to major in speech correction, as speech therapy was then called. I looked forward to sparing children difficulty communicating with others, without being consciously aware that, by doing so, I might be helping myself.

     By graduation, I had discovered the joy of writing, through which I could express my thoughts and feelings without anxiety. Writing continues to be my preferred mode of interpersonal communication. But, having built a successful business during the last seven and one-half years, I have learned effective business communication skills and have lost all limiting apprehensions about negotiations and discussions.

Meditation Practices and Benefits

     Studying and applying Transactional Analysis first convinced me I could learn to communicate successfully, although learning to ask for what I wanted was so difficult at first that I almost quit half-way into my first class. Blushing, sweating, looking at the floor but not seeing it, hearing my heart thumping while stating what I wanted from training group members was excruciating. I did not stutter, but I was extremely hesitant. Unlike other communication situations, this one required me to associate thoughts and feelings with my behavior and work them out. My usual complaining and self-pity were unacceptable. Despite the intense anxiety this process provoked, I knew this training was right for me. I continued, practiced, learned, changed, and changed some more. I learned rules for communicating clearly and concisely. It helped that our trainer had been born in Australia and was educated in England and valued precise speech! And she tolerated no excuses and did not credit anyone with trying, only with changing. A very good environment for me!

     We were a diverse group consisting of nurses, social workers, clergy, classroom teachers, counselors, and therapists. Through my contact with individual members, I learned of meditation. Initially, I learned the value of visualization. I was convinced as I witnessed thoughts relax my body and induce rhythmic, deep breathing that the mind effects the body. At this point, I was not attending to my stuttering in a direct manner. My attention was more encompassing. I was addressing my need to become a competent communicator and to use my mind to positively influence my body.

     Experience with visualization led to the practice of transcendental meditation, a meditation technique popular in the early 1970's, although considered somewhat exotic. I did not find sufficient benefit for the time required and practiced only sporadically.

     Not until the mid-1980's when I immersed myself in the study of spirituality and religion and established a practice of daily prayer, did I re-visit meditation as a disciplined personal practice. A friend offered me a primer on Buddhism. I read the slim volume, impressed by the assertion that life is difficult but that we can free ourselves from suffering by actions. But I was more than a little frightened by a practice arising from an Eastern culture. I somehow over-looked the Eastern genesis of Judaism and Christianity! Because I desired to not suffer and be happy, I soon began daily study and practice of Theravadan and Tibetan Buddhist meditation techniques and yoga. I continue to do so.

     Not then, nor since, have I directly addressed my stuttering. But it is no longer a problem. Why? Daily study and meditation practices help me calm and strengthen my mind and modify my outlook and behavior. I have accumulated the following benefits, all of which are known to reduce the frequency and severity of stuttering:

1) Reduced personal and existential anxiety. 2) Increased body awareness. 3) Heightened mental clarity. 4) Acceptance of personal responsibility. 5) Increased personal acceptance.

      I have learned that I can present myself competently through speech and other ways and that, should I stutter, I am no more or less of a person than when I do not. I do not like the feel of stuttering. I am frightened by losing control of my body. But I am learning to appreciate the opportunity stuttering provides to release my need for complete control. I value sensitive listening and caring, compassionate, truthful speech. I place a premium on my personal perceptions. I take full responsibility for solving my problems. I believe I am no better nor no worse than anyone else.

     I still talk little but no longer because I'm afraid. I prefer to think and do rather than talk. I embrace the biblical admonition to avoid idle speech and the Buddhist practice of "Right speech."

Conclusion

     What I have learned is that "locus of control" is key. When we accept we can either consciously control ourselves or be controlled by subconscious influences, we can constructively live our lives, despite any difficult childhood experiences we may have had.

     A March, 2003 article by Pema Chödrön, a Buddhist nun, published in Shambhala Sun, provides insight and direction into one method of overcoming urges, i.e., shenpa, especially habitual ones. She likens shenpa to a fish hook and identifies tensing as the first sign we are hooked. Chödrön describes the stages involved in working with shenpa as four R's: "... recognizing the shenpa, refraining from scratching, relaxing into the underlying urge to scratch, and then resolving to continue to interrupt our habitual patterns like this for the rest of our lives."

AYURVEDA CURE FOR STAMMERING

AYURVEDIC WAYS TO CURE STAMMERING

I have read at many places that stammering can't be cured by chemical medicines....so many people opt for ayurveda...

WAYS TO CURE STAMMERING AND STUTTERING IN AYURVEDA

 Given below are some ayurvedic home remedies for stuttering and stammering.

 
All activities of the human body is controlled by the brain. The brain processes all the information it receives through the senses and makes it more meaningful. All of the physical activities are controlled by the brain and specific areas of the brain control specific organs and the corresponding activities. Most of the activities of the brain are beyond the conscious control of the individual.


When a part of the brain is damaged due to various reasons, the specific body part and the corresponding activities come to a standstill. That part of the brain which controls speech may get damaged and this can result in stuttering and stammering. This is the physiological reason.


Just as our bodies can be kept fit by exercises, stuttering can also be cured by specific set of exercises.


Ayurveda states that the brain is under the control of ‘Prana’. Therefore to cure stuttering we have to improve the functioning of ‘prana’.


Vallarai is a herb that is found in shades in villages. A few coriander seeds and palm candy are placed inside 3 or 4 vallarai leaves and chewed. Also vallarai leaves can be dried in shade and powdered. This powder taken regularly helps reduce stammering. Paste made by grinding the leaves can also be taken with milk. It is surprising to note that the shape of vallarai leaf resembles the human brain.


Cow’s ghee is also recommended by Ayurveda to cure stammering. According to Ayurveda texts cow's ghee acts positively in the sphere of memory, speech, knowledge, wisdom etc. To sense things, store them in memory, express things coherently from memory etc all belong to this domain. Hence cow’s ghee is used in preparation of medicines that help improve memory, cure stammering, stuttering etc.


‘Saaraswatha choornam’ half a teaspoon and ‘brahmi kirutham’ one and half teaspoon are mixed in honey. This mixture is then placed inside rice balls and taken internally and masticated well. For this purpose it is recommended that you have rice along with hot sambar and rasam as breakfast. After breakfast, saraswatharishtam 30 ml should be taken.


Apply warm brahmi oil on top of head and allow it to soak for about 30 – 45 minutes. Afterwards bathe using warm water. This process helps improve memory as well clear stuttering and stammering.

The above mentioned ayurvedic remedies complement very well with the conventional treatments like fluency shaping, hypnosis, stuttering modification etc




                                                           .................................................

SOME VERY USEFUL TIPS FOR A STAMMERER:-

How to help yourself:

Define the problem. 

 

 What do you actually do when you stammer?

• Do you repeat sounds (s...s...s...supper) or syllables (su...su...su...supper)?
• Do you prolong sounds (sssssssupper)?
• Do you get blocked in speech so that you are unable to make any sound (s...upper)?
• Do you close your eyes or rush through speech?
• Do you try to avoid the word by changing it for another that is easier to say?
• Do you give up speaking altogether?

 

You also need to consider what you feel about your stammer.

• Do you think it is severe or quite mild?
• Do you think it is holding you back in your social life or at work?
• Is it better in some situations and with some people?
• How do you feel when you stammer: embarrassed? annoyed? frustrated?
• Do you get angry with other people, with yourself, or both?

 

 

Tackle the problem piece by piece. Having analysed your stammer, tackle it one element at a time, starting with something you feel you might be able to change. For example, you might take one sentence of your speech two or three times a day and make a special effort to say that sentence slowly and calmly. Do not allow yourself to rush or panic; when speaking more slowly, most people stammer less. Or perhaps you might try to concentrate on not looking away from people, or not closing your eyes when you stammer.

Do not try to hide your stammer. You have probably adopted some ‘avoidance behaviours’ to hide or avoid your stammer. The problem is that the more you avoid, the more you need to go on avoiding. If you are avoiding very successfully, you may be thought to be fluent by workmates, partner and friends, but you have to be constantly vigilant to maintain this fluency. Your stammer does not improve or go away because you hide it.

 

 

Try to reduce the number of times that you avoid saying a particular word or talking to a particular person or speaking in a particular situation. As well as experimenting with stammering more openly, you may find it useful to try to talk about your stammer to one or two people who are close to you. You will start to learn that people are not as critical as you thought.

 

 

 

Be aware of degrees of fluency. You may think there are only two possibilities – either you stammer or you are fluent. Watch and listen carefully when people are speaking on buses, on radio phone-ins, at home and in shops. Is everyone as fluent, concise and articulate as you imagined? You may discover that many apparently fluent speakers are, in fact, quite hesitant when speaking, and that there is not such a clear division between speaking fluently and stammering. You may then begin to accept that you do not have to be fluent all the time.

 

EVERYTHING CAN BE TREATED:-

 

 

 

Treatment options

Speech therapy. You should get the help of a speech and language therapist, preferably one who specializes in the treatment of stammering. Your doctor can refer you, or you can get in touch with a therapist yourself. The therapy may be on an individual basis, or may be in a group. If you have already had speech therapy and feel that you were not helped, try again because therapy may have changed and you may have changed.

 

Echo earpiece. Some stammerers find they can sing along with others, and that their stammer is not as bad when they are with a lot of people all talking together in the same room. To reproduce this effect, an earpiece has been developed that sends out an echo of the user’s voice. It helps to ‘unblock’ the impediment to speech. According to the British Stammering Association, it helps some people but not all.

 

Don't hope for medication to cure the problem. Various studies have shown that drug treatment does not truly help.

 

 

 

 

If you are a parent and your child stammers:-

 

 Stammering is quite common in the pre-school years. Although three out of four children will grow out of it, many authorities think that pre-schoolers who stutter should be treated. Therefore it is worth discussing the problem with your doctor

 It is important to provide an environment that encourages slow speech, allowing the child time to talk, because slow and relaxed speech can help reduce stammering. Gentle, non-judgemental acknowledgement of stammering may comfort a frustrated child, such as saying “That was bumpy” or “That was smooth

 some tips:-

1. Speak with your child in an unhurried way, pausing frequently.  Wait a few seconds after your child finishes speaking before you begin to speak. Your own slow, relaxed speech will be far more effective than any criticism or advice such as “slow down” or “try it again slowly.”
2. Reduce the number of questions you ask your child. Instead of asking questions, simply comment on what your child has said.
3. Use your facial expressions and other body language to convey to your child that you are listening to the content of his/her message and not to how he or she is talking.
4. Set aside a few minutes at a regular time each day when you can give your undivided attention to your child. This quiet, calm time can be a confidence-builder for younger children.
5. Help all members of the family learn to take turns talking and listening. Children, especially those who stutter, find it much easier to talk when there are few interruptions.
6. Observe the way you interact with your child. Try to increase those times that give your child the message that you are listening, and there is plenty of time to talk.
7. Above all, convey that you accept your child as he/she is. The most powerful force will be your support, whether he/she stutters or not.

 

Helping a stammerer

• Do not give unhelpful advice, such as ‘slow down’ or ‘take a deep breath’. Just accept that the person stammers.
• Do be patient and maintain eye contact with the stammerer when he or she speaks.
• Do not interrupt or finish words or sentences for the stammerer. This is frustrating for the stammerer and you may guess wrongly.
• Concentrate on what is being said, rather than how it is being said.

 

 

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