Tag Archives for yoga

Yoga For Healing and Strength: Sun Salutation

I was never what one might call a yoga devotee. Although, I remember the very first yoga class I went to about 15 years ago with a friend from work and how well I slept when I regularly went to classes. I also remember how strong and flexible my body felt. Because of these memories, I’ve attempted to do some yoga since becoming ill to ease the stiffness and soreness all over my body, and improve my sleep. Unfortunately, most of the poses I tried made me feel more pain instead of soothing it. The only pose that helped at all to calm my severe pelvic pain from time to time was child’s pose, which doesn’t require much movement at all.

As part of my decision to be a more active participant in my healing, I’ve decided to try practicing yoga again. I did a bit of research and found the website Yoga Journal. The site doesn’t only provide instructional videos for “doing” yoga; it also includes educational information about the history and benefits, and can help you find the type of yoga and specific poses to practice depending on what you believe your body needs.

Today was the first day I attempted to do a complete yoga sequence: the sun salutation or Surya Namaskar in Sanskrit. I was able to complete three rounds of the basic variation – minus the jumps to transition between poses and deep stretching –, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but considering what happened the last time I tried, it’s a huge improvement. I used to work through the series of poses that make up a sun salutation without much thought. I can’t do that now.

I’m relearning how to move my body, after almost three years of being sedentary because of pain. I have to be mindful of each movement I make, how fast I make it, and whether it makes me have an intense pain flare up. I also have to remind myself to breathe because while I focus on moving my body I hold my breath, which makes me tense and could cause me to injure myself. I’m hoping that a slow, steady yoga practice will rebuild my strength and increase my healing, even if it means making each movement cautiously and enduring a little extra pain to start.

 

Yoga Journal – Watch + Learn: Sun Salutation

 

Convergence of Pains

I almost passed out this morning. My body couldn’t figure out how to absorb the pain that was being forced through me. To compensate, my brain was on the verge of shutting me down to protect me from feeling anymore.

The pain was a convergence of two separate pelvic pains. The first is the undiagnosed pelvic pain I’ve been living with for over 18 months. This pain is with me every minute of every day with varying degrees of intensity. It is accompanied by referred pain in my legs and back. The second pain, is a recurring one and has been with me for a few days because of the not-so-joyful miracle that is womanhood. My periods have been unbearable since the arrival of my first one when I was almost fourteen. I dread them. When they show up the cramps simultaneously apply a vise-like squeeze and stab my lower abdomen; and the lower backaches and leg pain make standing straight difficult. What a wonderful time to be a woman (imagine that swimming in sarcasm).

Each of these pains is like a super villain jockeying for the role of superior ruler of the realm formerly known as my body, which is no longer controlled by my will. This morning I was captured and held hostage while the two battled each other for supremacy. For a few hours my period was on top. I definitely felt her dominance when I was reduced to a sobbing, crumpled ball on my bathroom floor begging for mercy.

For now the two seem to have reached a truce. They have divided the territory within the borders of my pelvis to build their individual camps. They have settled in for the foreseeable future. When they will pull up stakes and leave permanently is an unknown.

I got through this morning’s battle because I didn’t know what to do except stop resisting the pain. The tenser I became the more intense the pain became. While I was on the bathroom floor I positioned my body in child’s pose. It is the one yoga pose I can move my body into without adding to my pain. It helps to calm my body just enough so I can cope. This morning it helped me to surrender.

 

The Beatles – Come Together