About the Book
Long Covid symptoms can often leave people feeling incredibly fatigued and stressed, and conventional yoga practice may not be suitable for their needs or ability. This practice-based guide addresses the symptoms of Long Covid and fatigue directly and offers adapted techniques to help yoga therapists and health professionals work with clients struggling with their symptoms.
Beginning with an initial theoretical explanation of the science behind Long Covid, each subsequent chapter focusses on different elements of this condition and offers scripted practices that professionals may read aloud or adapt as needed. Themes include a trauma-informed approach to stress, breathing techniques, how to rest, making a kind connection to the body, pacing vs moving, the five pranas, and working with the chakras to increase energy. Each section maintains a focus on helping clients reduce and better manage their symptoms in order to heal, with one chapter dedicated entirely to supporting children with Long Covid.
This guide is an imperative resource for health professionals and yoga therapists on how to guide students struggling with Long Covid and fatigue symptoms in a way that won't exacerbate their conditions.
About the Author :
Fiona Agombar is a yoga therapist and an Accredited Advanced Yoga teacher with the British Wheel of Yoga. She runs Restful Yoga for Fatigue, a large online community of people with Long Covid and CFS, where she also offers mindfulness sessions. She ran teacher-training weekends through British Wheel of Yoga and YogaCampus, teaching yoga teachers how to work with ME and CFS in the UK. She was Trustee of Action for M.E for 10 years (major UK charity) and was a regular contributor to Yoga and Health magazine. She splits her time between the UK and Spain.
Review :
The perfect antidote to the (sometimes) reductive tendences of modern medicine, this thoughtful and compassionate book blends evidence-based science with ancient practices in a truly holistic manual. The journey to acceptance or recovery can be a lonely one, and this book will provide those suffering an empathetic and hopeful hand to hold during what can be dark days. It is an invaluable resource for yoga therapists, therapists, and healthcare professionals as well as patients experiencing symptoms of Long Covid or any chronic disease.
Through practical exercises, we are gently guided in how we might access the tools we have within ourselves to directly influence and heal the inflamed or dysregulated autonomic nervous symptoms, regaining mind-body coherence and allowing for recovery. In the same way that motor and sensory nerves can be rehabilitated after injury, so too can autonomic nerves. The techniques described in this book are accessible, easy to follow and safe.
Through personal experience and extensive research Fiona Agombar and Nadyne McKie offer a resource for hope, inspiration, understanding, support and healing to the millions of people around the world suffering with chronic fatigue, depression, and the debilitating effects of Long Covid.
They have skilfully tackled what are worldwide epidemics affecting the lives of millions of men, women and even children; reaching all with soothing, understanding and supportive voices; sharing personal experience, extensive research and intelligent and accessible practical guidance toward a return to wellbeing, ease and recovery. In fact, this is a book for everybody in today's stressful world!
Important and timely. Breathe, Rest, Recover is a beacon of hope for anyone battling chronic fatigue or long covid. Seamlessly blending yoga wisdom with modern science, this enlightening companion offers clear, compassionate guidance for those looking to heal. A transformative read!
I loved this book. As ever, Fiona Agombar and Nadyne McKie write clearly and with great compassion. It is accessible for both yoga teachers wanting to support their teaching for all students suffering with fatigue, but also for students themselves, blending scientific evidence with yoga philosophy and ancient teachings. There are several simple practices described, all of which I tried myself and felt great benefits. This is an important and useful book for not only those living with long covid but for anyone teaching and living in our fast-paced world.
A powerful piece of literature for the world of Yoga Therapy! This book beautifully blends science and spirituality, helping the reader to make sense of the complexity of Long Covid, with scientific evidence and theoretical knowledge complimented with gentle accessible Yoga Therapy practices. The authors thoughtfully address interests of both audiences, encouraging those that struggle with Long Covid to embody practices for recovery, as well as supporting therapists to sensitively expand their understanding and skills in a trauma-informed approach.
It is a great contribution both to the academic literature and expanding knowledge base of Yoga Therapy but most importantly to the community whom it serves, clients and professionals alike! A fantastic, inspired and informative read, essential for healing from and working with Long Covid!
Fiona Agombar and Nadyne McKie are compassionate authors with personal experience of surviving and recovering from fatigue conditions, as well as working with others to do the same. The book is a refreshing antidote to a modern life that can disconnect us from our ability to heal and recover from illness. The book provides helpful breathing exercises and gentle practices, but it is much more than that: providing the reader with a wider approach to management and recovery from long-COVID, underpinned by yogic principles as well as Western knowledge and understanding of health, illness and fatigue conditions.
Yoga therapy is an integrative, holistic profession that considers all aspects of the person from the body to the breath, to the mind and includes all within an intervention. "Breath, Rest, Recover", presents an unprecedented array of therapeutic yogic practices underpinned by scientific research. years of clinical practice, and lived experience to support those in recovery from long-covid and other fatigue conditions. It is also an excellent resource to educate health professionals about best practice for working with fatigue conditions.
Elaborating on the concept of radical rest, Agombar and Mckie, discuss how a combination of adequate, good quality sleep, energy management, and practices that profoundly relax the mind and body can collectively and gradually tap into the body's inherent capacity for restoration and healing. Crucially, the practices provided in this book and its exposition on radical rest are relevant to anyone needing to listen more to their body, develop self-care, and enhance their wellbeing; so just about everyone!
