The Yoga Doctor is IN

When I decided to take yoga teacher training, my intention was to develop more expertise in teaching therapeutic poses to my patients. There’s more to it than that, but that’s the essence.

Well, I was in for a surprise. Marinating in the yoga vibe for 6-10 hours every day, six days a week, for four weeks, was, to say it in a pretty way, transformative. To put it bluntly, it was like throwing myself into a blender–body, mind and spirit.

First big change,which surprised me but was probably to be expected, was that my feet and ankles became far more flexible. This from being barefoot all day. Because in a yoga studio, where the floors are clean enough to eat off of, you leave your shoes at the door. This change in my feet has led to better balance/coordination, leading to all kinds of physical improvement.

Secondly, all that movement, often slow, but always mindful and deliberate, really stirs up one’s emotional baggage. My best metaphor is cleaning paintbrushes: you squish the bristles around and there’s all this paint(pain/paint, see?) deeply embedded in the brush, and it gets washed out. Now, having that emotional baggage–like the paintbrush detritus–floating around freely in one’s body, is not very fun. It kind of brought up stuff I didn’t necessarily want to deal with. But, deal with it I did,(no choice, really) and it led to the next phenomenon..

Thirdly, amazing peace of mind! Freedom from angst! My current way of explaining this is that the movement stirs up the emotional crap, then the conscious breathing gets you through the ordeal of processing it. And presto, you are a human being who actually enjoys being at home with herself.

Now, yoga is what you call a “practice”. You do it every day. Maybe just a little bit, some days. But if life is like painting, then your body is the brush, and you’ve got to clean that brush to keep it supple, so it can make beautiful art.

Next: I’ll describe the benefit of the simple Yin pose in the picture. Because all yoga is therapeutic.