Thursday, May 5, 2016

Use Yoga to fix Yoga

Im a Power Yogi.  Meaning that I gravitate to all those practices that fall in the category of Power Yoga - Ashtanga, Vinyasa, and all its offshoots and teacher choices.  I took my first class over 10 years ago and it was so hard I was terrified to go back again but deep down I knew I wanted to.  Then one day practicing yoga changed from "looking forward to the end of class" to "looking forward to the beginning of class", which happened not long after I had committed to take a class every day.

Then I took it to the next level, practicing 2 and 3 times a day sometimes.  One time I remember going to 5 classes in a day. Teacher Training. Workshops.  Books. But this writing is not about obsession.  Its about injury.

Even before the obsession kicked in, I started to get injured.  First shoulder, then hamstring, then back.  Increasing the frequency of Power Yoga classes didn't help.

So I started going to a new age chiropractor.  New age because before or instead of cracking and yanking he used massage and needles.  His handy work didn't help my injuries but a story he told me did.  He told me about all the yoga instructors that came to him and in spite of their injuries did not stop doing poses that aggravated them.  This stuck with me enough to peel back my yoga to once a day which was not enough. But the story lingered.

And then I read about how Ganga White hurt himself practicing, and he couldn't practice.  Meaning he couldn't practice in the way he was used to. And then one of his students suggested that he use yoga to fix himself. This was an AHA moment for him.  And for me.

Yoga is meant to be a healing transformative practice.  So I thought, why am I going to physical therapists chiro's and el, so that I can do yoga. Rather I must listen closely to what the practice I love is telling me.

In my mind Power Yoga was yoga and I needed to open my eyes and recognize yoga's core which manifested itself in so many other versions of the practice - Iyengar, Viniyoga, Kundalini, etc.  So many different perspectives on the use of Hatha poses and Kriya's.

So down the rabbit hole I went, and today I am injury free.  And I am still a Power Yogi...just a bit more open minded and less obsessive.  My intellect and ego has learned to treat transitions as a pose and the same duo knows which poses not to do on any given day. They can spot the pose that is not right for me from a mile away.

Is funny how injuries were teaching me yoga's most basic lesson - it does not matter what I look like in a pose, what matters is what my awareness looks like.

14 comments:

  1. They are not too tight but definitely not too loose either. I love the stretchy material. I'm definitely going to step up my workout now! I will be back to order more, just wish there were more colors of work out leggings to choose from.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Most women are not aware of the health benefits of yoga to increase fertility. The health benefits of yoga are innumerable and so are the benefits for the mental, emotional and spiritual self. Ayurveda retreats india

    ReplyDelete
  3. Similar to most practices of yoga, hatha yoga maintains the belief that techniques such as meditation and concentration should only be practiced after the body and the mind having purified. -click here-

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You there, this is really good post here. Thanks for taking the time to post such valuable information. Quality content is what always gets the visitors coming. yoga school in goa

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow, cool post. I'd like to write like this too taking time and real hard work to make a great article but I put things off too much and never seem to get started. Thanks though. best yoga mats 2016

    ReplyDelete
  7. Irrational musings, for example, fears and preposterous apprehensions, which we see to be genuine, can program us for disappointment, or cause a condition of frenzy. The response to fears and absurd feelings of trepidation can raise the beat rate, abbreviate the breath, increment sweat, bring about shaking, and in extraordinary cases, cause demise. Face Massage

    ReplyDelete
  8. However the victor may have what it took to win that show, it's normal different ladies the manager, distributers, supplement organizations and so forth, feel is more attractive. Bungee Fitness

    ReplyDelete
  9. The item could end up being gainful for patients with AIDS or Crohns illness, ongoing headaches, despondency, and malignant growth.https://thebestcbdcreams.blogspot.com/2021/06/cbd-pain-reduction-cream-for-sale-near.html

    ReplyDelete
  10. Health stresses really fill a need and this design isn't hard to identify on the off chance that one looks profound enough into this example of conduct.call center burnout

    ReplyDelete
  11. Colorful retreats that are treated as necessities Retreats are beautiful and a pleasant method for getting focused, loose, and restored. It's anything but a necessity for tracking down profound edification. Consequently it's anything but a reasonable or legitimate method for selling an extremely extravagant elegance itinerary, https://www.quora.com/Where-can-I-learn-import-and-export-laws-properly

    ReplyDelete
  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Yoga shares a few qualities likewise with Buddhism that can be followed back through history.
    YogaAdventuresWorldwide

    ReplyDelete
  14. A few retreats are in everything, others are only a short ride away from the activity, and a couple are far sufficiently off to keep you grounded in yoga and communing with the effortlessness of nature and your internal identity.
    https://yogaadventuresworldwide.com

    ReplyDelete