I keep trying it. I want to like it.
Today it was a beginning yoga class with an emphasis on maintaining a healthy back.
And I did kind of like it.
Progress.
*my healthy action today: a yoga class!
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365 true things about me
why this daily practice
For me, yoga totally entirely utterly depends on the teacher and on the style of yoga. So maybe try many until you find a teacher and style you like? For me, yoga snuck in through a side door. My high school friend Julie Gudmestad happened to be hiking with me six years ago and asked if she could point out something about my back. Seems the scoliosis I’d had my entire life was sort of taking over. Given that Julie’s a world-renowned yoga teacher, but humble, she humbly asked if she could make any suggestions. She taught me – and I’m very dense when it comes to muscle memory – a simple series of yoga poses combined with physical therapy, her specialty. I’ve been doing this most days ever since. When I went into Swedish Medical Center in Seattle for a knee tear, and they took a back x-ray, they said “Can’t believe you walked into this room. Can’t believe you are able to breathe.” This due to the scoliosis. The reason I’m able to alk and breathe is 100% from the almost-daily yoga for my back. I had no idea the ways yoga would change my life, not just in making me pain-free but many others.
Wow, Kirie, that’s quite an endorsement. With all your walking and kayaking and sleeping outside, I would never have guessed you had scoliosis. I’m not terribly flexible or calm while being still so I assumed it was me. But yes, I plan to keep trying…
Although I have no concrete proof, I believe yoga kept me from becoming a quadriplegic. Actually, both my neurosurgeon and neurologist credit yoga with the flexibility I retained although my spinal cord was pinched.
I agree that you have to find your way with yoga. It is a practice, and a lifelong one, I think. Mine is currently quite limited but I follow Peggy Cappy’s Yoga for People with Arthritis. It is very basic but with my health concerns quite appropriate; I am able to work with my body head to toe. Yoga changed my relationship with my body; I seem to be better at reading the signals it sends.
Karen
Karen, that’s amazing and another resounding vote for yoga. Thank heavens for it. This class I went to was all about spinal movements, and that’s what appealed to me–the slow, small movements in each direction, the twists and turns.
A 20 minute ‘Cat Nap’… on a firm sofa…
breathing deeply through the weariness…
and stretching my way back into the day.
from saudi with love… xxx
Good for you, Helena. I need to remember this one!