We all have them: one could call them issues, problem areas or even diseases. Yoga, on the other hand, teaches us that they all are simply are aspects of our health and life and that we should care for them a bit more tenderly.
My path with asana practice has been guided a great deal by my scoliotic spine. With its two extra lateral curves and rotations it causes an intricate asymmetrical pattern throughout my muscles and tissues. Even my inner organs and breath are affected by its riverlike flow.
My spine has taught me to listen. There’re asanas which are counterproductive or even harmful for me, while other asanas do help me to create the midline that I lack naturally. My spine has taught me that balance is created through integration of your whole body sense organs: from your feet to your ears, eyes and mind. It has taught me to wait, to notice and allow, to accept the imperfections within me and love them for all the insight they bring me. Without the scoliosis I doubt I would have had the same depth of subtlety in my yoga practice I have today.
One study indicates that something as simple as practicing Vashistasana – side plank, for 1-3 min/day – might reduce lateral scoliotic curvature by a mean of 30% in adults, and even more in adolescents. From my experience this is a pose that is truly helpful in remapping the muscle activation along the spinal column; frankly, it makes me feel straighter and taller. But aside managing curvature progression yoga offers increased body and breath awareness. These gifts help me to keep finding the lost midline and get centered, physically and mentally, as I sit, stand, walk, practice yoga and dance my days away. After 15 years of yoga practice my spine still teaches me, still challenges me to grow in depth of patience and consideration. My crooked spine keeps guiding me and helping me to show myself compassion, during yoga practice and in life.
We all have them – the things we consider weaknesses within ourselves – and we need to learn to accept them, to listen to, and even to love them. Here is where yoga’s way of helping you inhabit your body to the fullest becomes therapeutic and healing.
HAR DU SKOLIOS & ÄR INTRESSERAD AV HUR YOGA & RÖRELSETERAPI KAN HJÄLPA DIG?
Petra erbjuder privatlektioner i Järna & Stockholmsområdet. Över 15 års yogaerfarenhet för att förstå & ta hand om sin skolios samt att hon tagit del av kunskap från internationella skoliosyogalärare som Narelle Carter-Quinlan, Elise Browning Miller, Dr. Loren Fishman & Ellen Saltonstall, Doug Keller mfl. ger henne en unik insikt i upplevelsen av dess komplexa vindlande landskap, vilken hon delar med glöd & entusiasm!
