Donna and I began attending yoga class about eight years
ago, largely due to health concerns. Doctors wanted her to
have surgery on her spine to correct a troubling stress
injury. The prospect of surgery scared us enough that we
were soon looking for every alternative we could find.
We became regulars at a chiropractor's office, one who
specialized in the treatment of athletic injuries, though
Donna's injury was more work related. He recommended
regular massage, so we found a gifted massage therapist. We
often drove to an acupuncture school where we learned the
basics of Chinese medicine, and she found a little relief
there. All these treatments served to strengthen her
muscles and joints, and relieve stress.
We heard about a weekly restorative yoga class at a nearby
church. My doctor encouraged me also to take better care of
myself, to get regular exercise, and because I was driving
anyway, I joined Donna for the class, discovering quickly
that my body liked this restorative pampering and
relaxation. The yoga style we first learned was called
Svaroopa, and I remember using lots of props: cushions,
blocks and straps (bondage?) to hold certain poses,
allowing us to surrender more deeply into them.
A few months later, we decided to relocate to shorten our
commute, giving us more time to get our domestic things in
order, and just plain have a life outside the rush hour
traffic congestion. After our move, we re-thought our
health care, finding a new chiropractor just a couple
blocks away, complete with an acupuncturist and massage
therapists regularly using his extra office space.
Turns out our new chiropractor has treated many yoga
instructors and students for years. He recommended an
instructor who herself began practicing yoga years before,
because of a horse riding injury.
We began enjoying her classes at a new studio for us,
learning more about yoga as a healing practice for our
bodies and minds - and also - very important - how to take
care of yourself in class.
If a teacher doesn't offer alternative postures, or suggest
backing out of uncomfortable positions, or encourage you to
honor your body's abilities, then you're on your own, you
need to do these things for yourself.
It's very easy to want to please a yoga teacher in a yoga
class, in part because they create a safe place to learn
outside your comfort zone, to stretch your limits, doing so
in a compassionate and forgiving way. And the safe place is
central to learning the practice, a learning that takes
years. We have so few truly non-judgmental spaces in our
cities and towns, that this freedom at the yoga studio - to
just be - is refreshing, an oasis and balm to the endless
hustle and stress outside.
We soon found our two weekly basic Iyengar classes with
Lori were making a significant, if gradual, improvement in
Donna's strength and range of motion, and in my own
flexibility and sense of well being as well. The Iyengar
approach, as taught by Lori, was the perfect transition
from the purely restorative to a more active style for us,
with the easy flow between postures serving to get us
moving more comfortably and breathing more deeply in the
classes.
I got some razzing from my brothers about turning myself
into pretzels and getting all new age-y around them, as was
to be expected. But when I noticed them complaining about
the inevitable aches and pains of aging, I was able to
offer a couple exercises like the cat-cow and variations on
long deep breathing. They felt some immediate effect, and
soon backed off from their initial skepticism.
It was during this time that I came up with the idea of 60%
Yoga. In this approach, it didn't matter what style of yoga
was being taught, only that the teacher encouraged each
student to think of the experience as their own
personalized class. Each student is always responsible for
taking care of themselves, backing out of uncomfortable
poses, checking in with the teacher whenever they need any
kind of help.
The 60% figure is the result of two self scores. You get
50% just for showing up, starting with a credit rather than
a deficit. And you're required to attempt only 10% of what
the teacher is suggesting, thus 60% total. The showing up
is key, and 10% is never too much to ask, the threshold
always providing an easy permission to begin as modestly
and gently as you wish.
It's important to understand that a yoga practice is about
showing up, becoming more present in your body, in your
interactions with others, in your better estimations of
yourself. If you begin with 10% and hold that as a
baseline, then the time will come when you'll naturally
adjust what that 10% means for you. Each class truly
becomes YOUR class.
I am an often lazy yogi. We've been at this still new
practice for over eight years now. Donna has almost 100%
range of motion back, and much less pain. We've taken up
dance classes for a couple seasons (something that never
could have happened without the yoga) and have several new
projects we're looking to immerse ourselves in,even
entering a new graduate school course of study.
When we found ourselves in yoga teacher training a year
ago, along with an enviably younger and truly enthusiastic
group, my 60% yoga idea required some explanation, so I
refined it, just as I was exploring a new style for me,
kundalini yoga.
Kundalini is not quite as approachable with the 10%
criterion to begin, as it's designed to engage your whole
self, keeping you so busy, inwardly and outwardly, that
there's little room to think. But I do allow myself as a
new student again to take time in the breathing and
movements, some days giving it more like 95%, but always
respecting the journey I've taken, keeping the 60% Yoga as
a kind of beginner's touchstone, one that carries great
value for the skeptical and still reluctant parts of me.
I'm grateful for how far I've come with these varieties of
yoga, especially since this physical yoga experience was
nowhere on my radar of possibility until Donna's injury.
We're both much healthier now, with reasonable strength,
endurance, even a few decent dance moves, and great yoga
friends, some of whom started as we did, with very little
interest beyond feeling better or tagging along with a
spouse, without much more than a 10% capacity to begin.
Some exercises and poses are still uncomfortable, but I
have my own inner permission to back off and take a pass
when that suits me. I do find it interesting how some poses
that were beyond me at the beginning are now a piece of
cake - tree pose for instance. I could not for the life of
me maintain any consistent balance on one leg, and now I
hold myself still as long as I wish. My 10% became 11%,
then more, until it all became easier as I kept showing up
- at class, in the poses, in the breathing, in my life.
And the idea of surgery for Donna was laid aside a long
time ago. There are far better choices, and yoga offers
some surprising new ways of thinking and being, in addition
to the health benefits over time. A great yoga instructor
is worth going out of your way for. Find someone you can
trust, and your life will change - for the better.
----------------------------------------------------
Jess Freer attends regular yoga classes with his wife
Donna, and recommends his '60%' approach to anyone,
especially reluctant men interested in seriously improving
their health, but is unsure how to begin.
http://mypieceofthe-e-pie.com
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