The story on my website about how I got started with yoga describes a bout of sciatica* I got through with the help of acupuncture. After the sessions had healed that pain, the acupuncturist, Helen, suggested I try yoga to keep my back in shape, and I never looked back from there.
That is true. I did use a Rodney Yee VHS tape to get started with yoga. I bought more tapes and followed along with 90’s fitness personalities like Kathy Smith, who were adding yoga to their aerobic dancing repertoires. But my real yoga practice began when my kids’ ballet teacher invited the moms to a new, weekly yoga class.
I was hooked. Soon I was taking every class she offered, which at one point was three a week. My body took to it immediately and the awkward poses quickly felt familiar and right. I have a naturally strong and flexible body, and although I have never been thin, yoga didn’t care.
A few years into my practice, I gained some weight. I don’t remember what was happening back then, but for a year or three I carried an extra fifteen pounds on my, as I already mentioned, never thin body. Yoga didn’t care.
I could feel the extra padding at the waist during Bound Angle Pose. I bought stretchy tanks tops to wear under my t-shirt so no one would have to glimpse my soft white belly during Downward Facing Dog. I started wearing my yoga clothes more because my regular clothes were uncomfortable, but yoga still didn’t care.
Then an old knee injury came back to haunt me. I hustled back to Helen for more acupuncture, and she told me to go to a doctor. I resisted that, and decided to first lose weight to see if that helped. It did help some, but not enough. I had surgery to remove excess synovial fluid from my knee and a few weeks later was back to yoga.
All this to say, if you’ve been wanting to start a yoga practice but didn’t think yoga was for you because you carry some extra weight, or have a cranky knee, or think you’re too old, or whatever . . . yoga doesn’t care.
When the financial mess hit in 2008 and I found myself with some time on my hands, yoga studios had started to proliferate. My sister suggested I become a yoga teacher and next thing you know I’m hanging out with some sweet people I still hang out with today, learning to teach others that thing I loved.
I already knew yoga would be great for pretty much anyone. Now I knew how to demonstrate that was true.
The movement we do in yoga is endlessly adaptable. You can’t get up from the floor? Practice with a chair. Your knee hurts when you bend it like that? Keep it straighter. You tip over too easily when you try to balance? Hold a wall and for heaven’s sake, keep practicing because balance gets more and more important as we age!
Then there are the other parts of yoga that help us push through this often frustrating, scary, unexpected world we inhabit: Breath, meditation, connection.
If I didn’t know how to breathe through my stress, I don’t know how I would have handled my sister’s untimely passing. If I hadn’t learned how to meditate, I think my mind would have spun out of control more than once during this pandemic. If I didn’t have my yoga students to keep me grounded and give my weeks some structure, I wouldn’t know what day it was!
What yoga DOES care about is that we are resilient, that we learn to recognize what is happening within our bodies and all around us. Yoga cares when we feel off-balance, and it brings us back toward center. It is concerned with our emotional state as much as our physical state. It helps us use what we have to move forward into a more even, stable place.
Yoga is not magic, though it has felt that way to me sometimes. Yoga is a practice, and there is always more to learn and benefit from. Yoga isn’t a cure-all but if you use it in conjunction with your conventional medical partners, it can be a powerful adjunct to your healing.
I’ve been walking the yoga path since 2000; it seems like both forever ago and just yesterday. I still haven’t been thin, and my knee still reminds me to be aware, and I don’t do Crow Pose anymore, but yoga is still my guide.
It’s not too late to start. You are not too old or too heavy or too awkward. Take it from me: Yoga helps with Life. Talk to your doctor, then call me when she agrees that yes, yoga is for you!
We can build a practice that fits you. You can build your resilience, strength, and balance. You can learn to soothe your anxious states, and come back to an appreciation of your body, your mind, and even of this crazy world we inhabit.
Peruse this website for more information (and to read my “official” how-I-got-started-in-yoga story), then email me and we can set up a time to talk. There is no obligation; I’d love to chat with you and see how you’re doing.
Peace to you and yours.
Jeannette
*I know how I hurt myself: Lifting my squirming toddler high enough out of the grocery cart to maneuver her clunky sneakers free from those leg holes, then up higher and over the handlebar into my arms. Though she was only 18 months or so, she was tall, and lifting her so high at that awkward angle caused an instant twinge that grew into a long-lasting pain. I can still see that scene in the parking lot of Shop-Rite and it makes me grimace.
Taking time off from Yoga Teacher Training in 2009 to participate in some home repair in upstate New York. Dangling readers and all!