My first impression of yoga was thinking that I had to be as bendy and flexible as a contortionist in Cirque du Soleil. Only after years of long study under qualified teachers did I learn that isn’t what yoga is about. Yoga means union with a higher energy field than the one your mind and body is generating at this moment. My first impressions of yoga lead me to a conclusion that it was all about proper posture, first mistake. Due to this assumption, I thought I had to look like those pictures in Yoga Journal to be a good yogi. I saw people bending their bodies in all sorts of difficult and almost impossible positions. Most people aren’t built to stretch like Mr. Fantastic. Our bodies are not made of rubber but of bones and muscles that may be strained and injured if pushed beyond their capacity to support your weight in relation to your anatomical position in space. This simply means don’t be a copy cat. Your body is as unique as a snowflake, no two bodies are ever the same. So when yoga students and teachers try to imitate their gurus without proper training and instruction, as Russel Peters would say, ” somebody is going to get hurt.”
Archive for October, 2009
Yoga Injury 1
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009Neck and Back Pain are RSIs
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
When I looked more closely at my surroundings I noticed that my the placement of the computer may have something to do with the way I round my posture. Then I began to look more closely to the way people carry their frame when in motion. Gravity does take a toll on the skeletal system, but remember, your muscles hold up your skeleton and the muscles are contracted by thought impulses created by a neural network that connects to the CNS, central nervous system. These pathways are created by years of conditioning and bad postural habits. Most chronic aches and pains happen over time, a build up of added pressures and the heavy burden of grasping for more material happiness may cause a stress related injury such as neck and back pain. Movement is medicine, learn to use the wall in your house to support a posture that extends the spine. Use the floor and do bow pose or cobra. These movements help stretch the body in the opposite direction of the cause of dis-ease. The more you move your body, the better it oxygenates the blood circulation. Circulation heals aches and pains simply by the logic of if your toilet is clog, its gonna stink up your bathroom and the same goes for the human body.
Exhaustion
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009So many days go by without getting enough rest can take a toll on my mental clarity. My body feels tired and listless, a heavy feeling in my head. No rest is bad for my health and any animal that lives on this planet as well. The fact is that we have so much information available to fix our problems, but we don’t. I continue to get my regular 5 to 6 hours sleep without rejuvenating my soul battery. My advice to myself would be to get plenty of rest so that I build up my immune system.