restore with yoga
We all have times in our life when we go to pot. It can be
- mentally and/or emotionally
- physical
I am no stranger to have to restore myself physically. I have had a long battle with serious anaemia, and honestly, during those years it felt as though all that I was ever doing for myself, was trying to restore my body and energy. I must say that in the long run, that it all took it's toll on my body. But things do seem to have righted themselves, due in part to no longer being vegetarian. And a recent iron transfusion.
So what about the yoga?
Personally, I do believe that if we look at using yoga to restore our health, then we need to make it a bit comprehensive, and not just poses and relaxation. For, if we have been very under par, it helps to address a number of aspects:
** life force: Prana. Vitality.
I would say to do the appropriate pranayama techniques. The effects are always immediate. There are so many different and old pranayamas, most of which are not widely known, and they all have specific effects. So what I do for me, is of course, specific to my own needs.
As mentioned in my previous post, at the moment, I've been doing an alternate breathing bhastrika technique most mornings, the link is here. I do three rounds only as maintenance to keep my sinuses clear. I follow this with kapalabhati, link is here for how to do bhastrika and kapalabhati. I'm doing kapalabhati either jogging or fast walking on the spot. To restore my brain after covid.
But if I had low blood pressure I would do this using fast bhastrika instead. I do anywhere from thirty to one hundred breaths depending on my capability at the time. Both of these are done before any other yoga, first thing each morning.
If you haven't been well, you could do 10 at a time, throughout the day, and just build up the number.
stress has it's own needs
If stress is your thing that you are working to overcome, we can look at this another time, but in the meantime - don't do what I've just prescribed. Instead do this gently relaxing style of abdominal breathing here. It's quite profound.
** moving energy around the body. And resurrecting our suppleness.
Surya Namaskara (sun salutes) done fast, about ten rounds would be superb. But in this instance - just ridiculous. Having said that, slowly working up to doing a few rounds of sun salutes is always beneficial. What I would suggest, instead, is this lovely little set of flexibilities here. I am always surprised that people don't want to do easy things like joint movements. I use them almost every morning after the above breathing to keep my body moving, and keeping me able to have a good range of movement. I usually only do each movement three times, but you can do more of course, and I do not do them mega slow either. I just want to get them done. I was trained to do these sort of movements slowly, with deep breathing. However, one of my first teachers from India, did them very fast. So - take your pick.
I came across a photo of a dance routine from an LP record, from the 1980s. Aside from a squat variation, and something for the abdomen - all of the other moves, done to music at a medium speed, ten times each, were flexibility movements. I think that this is great. If you've had an accident, a bad illness, are as stiff as a board, have a limited range of body motion, haven't exercised for quite a while and are really out of condition - why not do flexibilities in this way? It's really nice, even without music.
About eight years ago, I was training yoga teachers in Bali, and one of the students had an amazing story. Moe was from Spain, had worked, practised strong, dynamic yoga, and for her hobby she did the circus "silks". The silks are long pieces of silk which are attached to parts of the tent, up very high off the ground. So, all very aerial. The performers spin around and do amazing acrobatic poses holding onto the silk. Up very high, of course. Moe was spinning doing the silks, thinking that she was still holding onto them. She wasn't and had a very bad fall, from a big height. She was flat on her back for many months, in acute pain. One day, she decided to try and move something, some part of her body. It was intensely painful to move any part of her body, but she moved one tiny part. Just a little. Moe slowly built up from there. Over a period of time, and through incredible pain, Moe restored her body. The movements that she used to restore her body involved a lot of joint mobility moves. The same moves that she had always done for an hour each time before going up onto the silks.
Honestly, remembering what Moe did and how she was when I met her - you couldn't tell what she had been through. And really - if you want your body to be able to move - do joint movements!!! There are heaps more than what I've given. As an aside - I was training people how to be vinyasa/power yoga teachers. And that's much more difficult than flexibilities. Moe was amazing at the yoga, she had come so far since that terrible accident. She totally inspired me. Especially as, when it was her turn to teach a class, she started it with joint movements, and other simple moves before moving into an amazing session with really interesting moves. Considering that she barely spoke English - it was all very challenging for her.
If you have been really unwell, very out of condition, had some sort of accident, have joint problems, a painful back - I suggest simple poses, using a chair or wall for support if necessary.
Then move into very easy poses as you are able
When you get into doing simple yoga poses, as separate from the wall poses, resting after each pose is 100% amazing for gaining energy in the form of prana. Not to forget increased fluid movement into the cells. So, I'm not recommending power yoga or hard poses here.
In 2000, I got The Virus From Hell from my flatmate. I got adult-onset asthma during it, followed by shingles, and found it so hard to get better. I was so sick. As soon as I was able, I started doing only a couple of cat poses each day, followed by rest in the child pose. Cats to repair my damaged lungs, and to benefit all of my nervous systems via the actions of the spine in this moving pose. I very slowly added extra cat poses, until I was doing a lot (about twenty) each day. When I was able, I slowly added some asanas, and eventually sun salutes and changed to just a few cat poses. (A nice preparatory routine for sun salutes is here.) I never got rid of the asthma, but I can manage it with the yoga. I also now get asthma walking up steep slopes (thank you former flatmate). Sadly, after that virus, my immune system was so badly compromised that afterwards I was susceptible to every virus that was going around, and I had massive breathing problems with each one. Despite being a long time yoga teacher. I am always amazed when people are cavalier about viruses, as I've heard, first hand, so many bad stories about them, over the years.
Some great simple poses for asthma are here. They are very doable and very effective. If you can't sit on your knees, sit in a chair, and for the last pose, also put a chair in front of you, or do it standing against a bench.
relaxation
Once you know what true relaxation feels like, honestly - you can restore yourself in five minutes or less. But until then, a guided relaxation is perfect. If you don't want to listen to someone's voice telling you what to do, you can try alpha or healing brain wave patterns via youtube. This is just me - try for one with no subliminals. You would think that as a yoga teacher, I would only recommend yoga nidra for relaxation, but I do believe that we each use what suits us best. For healing poses, though, I do use healing techniques in relaxation and also in yoga nidra.
** a simple restorative routine for when you are ready to do poses here
** lovely little flowing sequence, beginners and intermediate, for when you're getting more ease of movement here
Link to chakra meditation and my talks and other meditations on Earth Elders: here. Click "join" if you haven't already, then click the search icon, and enter "Ratnamurti Saraswati".
Link to Global Unity Festivals on you tube, here. I'm in the Wave 1, Asia/Pacific episodes.
You can also find me:
I have not been able to teach in a couple of months due to an injury and I am missing practicing with my students so much!
ReplyDeleteI understand. I damaged my knee and was shocked at how little I could do physically. Hope you repair soon xx
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