The problem with fibromyalgia is that you experience pain, but the pain does not have a physical cause; fibromyalgia is a diagnosis that is made after all possible physical causes of pain have been explored.

The experience of constant pain leads to several physical and emotional outcomes, among which are a reduced activity level, depression, stiffness, and a sense of frustration.  The pain of fibromyalgia actually starts a person into a negative cycle of not moving around because of pain, and feeling worse because of not moving around.  The reduced activity level contributes to stiffness and constant pain contributes to depression and frustration, a sense of hopelessness.

One way to address the problem of fibromyalgia is to move around despite the pain.  It is important to choose gentle ways of moving and also forms of moving that involve stretching, to get rid of some of the stiffness.

Many people find yoga to contribute to improving their health.  Yoga is ideal for a person with fibromyalgia because it involves gentle types of movements and it also involves stretching.  Anything that gets a person moving is going to get the good chemicals going in the brain, so yoga can help a person get a feeling of well-being that is all too absent in the lives of people with

Also, yoga gives a person a sense of being able to have some control in their lives.  When nothing works for the pain and the pain is constant, people feel helpless.  By choosing to do yoga, people with fibromyalgia are choosing not to be controlled by the disease.  This is an important psychological aspect of yoga health.

Another aspect of yoga that is healthy is the fact that the emphasis is on the process of movement, not some kind of product like the time on a stopwatch at the end of a race or the number of miles one has run or walked or the number of laps one has swum.  Yoga is not about getting better at doing something; instead it is about being present in the moment with ones own body and paying attention to how that body is feeling as it is being gently stretched.

Finally, yoga focuses on relaxation, something that is all too often missing in our hectic lives and something that people with constant pain need to do consciously.  Pain causes our muscles to tighten up and it becomes important to pay attention to that tightness and let it go.  Yoga helps in this process.  For people with fibromyalgia, yoga offers a gentle way to get moving and feel better.