An orthodontic specialist, Dr. Hwang says yoga helps her with her posture as backache is often an occupational hazard for dentists.
Dr. Hwang Yee cheau has many degrees from Singapore and the UK. She is currently the CEO of TP Dental Surgeons, a multi-disciplinary dentistry space in Ngee Ann City.
I started doing yoga 15 years ago. As you may know, backache is an occupational hazard for many dentists as our job requires us to constantly stoop or bend while examining patients. Yoga has not only improved my awareness of my own body, but it has also improved my posture.
I highly recommend yoga to everyone and think we should all incorporate it in our lifestyles. I appreciate it so much that I arranged to have a yoga instructor to come into the office to give yoga lessons once a week to my staff. Those who attend always say they feel better and more rejuvenated compared to the ones who don’t.
When people start practicing yoga on a regular basis, they start talking about its unique benefits. Dentistry is about detail, finesse and focus, and yoga has, and continues to, help me achieve this better. One word of caution is to learn it under proper guidance and listen to instructions correctly. That’s when you start experiencing maximum benefits, and start craving for more classes. I attend classes at Pure Yoga once a week, and I try to practice it at home every day, even if it’s for 10 minutes.
I don’t meditate because I always fall asleep when I try to sit in silence. But I certainly hope that one day I will be able to do so.
My favorite pose is the Balasana, the child pose, because it is always done at the end of a yoga sequence. This is the time your adrenaline is pumped up and you can feel it in your breath, and in the way your body responds to the stretching. One gets to enjoy the high of the adrenaline, and gradually feel so relaxed and meditative, with a great sense of achievement and gratitude.
Interview by Kavita Chandran, 2016
This article was first published in the print edition of Yoga Journal Singapore,which is now Yogahood Online.
