In recent years, the month of October has become bright with the appearance of pink ribbons.

These pink ribbons are reminders of breast cancer in our society. Each year in the U.S., more than 192,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer. That’s the population of a medium-sized city. In the face of such numbers, how can yoga help?

Research shows that yoga may be able to help improve physical functioning, reduce fatigue and stress, improve sleep and improve overall quality of life.

This can be especially true for women recovering from surgery or undergoing chemotherapy. In addition to the physical concerns, yoga can address the emotional aspects associated with breast cancer.

If we see breast cancer from the perspective of energy, we can say that congested energy from stress and negative emotions can block energy flow in the heart chakra.

Eventually, this blockage affects the body physically and can create conditions more favorable for the disease of breast cancer.

The main focus of Dahn Yoga known as Energy Yoga (“Dahn” means vital life energy) is to help release stressful energy first from your chest and then from your whole body through various exercises such as opening chest exercises and breathing, and change emotional mode to happiness by smiling or laughing.

Dahn Yoga can help with not only preventing the disease but also mitigating symptoms of the disease and side effects of treatment by increasing your vital energy.

We still don’t know exactly why one woman develops breast cancer and another doesn’t. What is known is that some risk factors like family history, personal history, and physical inactivity, increase one woman’s likelihood of developing the disease.

Yoga can be a holistic approach to promoting a healthier lifestyle, which can in turn reduce these risk factors.

Christie Jensen in an instructor at Kirkland Dahn Yoga. For more information, visit www.dahnyoga.com or call 425-893-9642.