My Yoga Experience

Image via Wikipedia

Last fall I pulled some some muscles in my right arm.  Instead of getting better, it had gotten where I could barely lift it shoulder height.   By December I would wake up with it curled & locked tight against my body.    My left wrist was now strained from doing the work of both arms.  And if that wasn’t enough, I wacked the inside of my right ankle.  It was so swollen and had built up so much fluid that I was constantly limping, couldn’t put a sock on & couldn’t put it under the bedcovers –it was that tender.  

Just knew going to the doctor would mean being prescribed muscle relaxers, draining fluid off my ankle, maybe steroid shots and talk about physical therapy.  Decided I needed to try something -anything before going that route.   

Several years ago I had been given the AM/PM yoga tape with Rodney Yee and Patricia Walden.   At that time the gentle stretches didn’t seem much of a challenge, so it went into a drawer forgotten until 8 weeks ago.     I set a goal; would do the AM tape every morning before going outside for 21 days straight and do the PM tape a minimum of 3 times a week.  Doing something 21 times consistently is the average time it takes to build a habit.

By the third morning I was no longer waking up with my arm in a tight curl and I could lift my arm a little bit beyond shoulder height.   At the end of that first week I could lift my arm up straight up in the air.  The swelling in my ankle would be noticeably less each morning and it didn’t wake me up in the middle of the night anymore.  When I did the PM tape I notice the most relief with the ankle, so that was enough to keep me making time for the PM session.

By the end of the second week my pants were getting longer on me…had toned up my thighs and bottom enough that my clothes were hanging nicer on me. Was rarely out of breath, my posture was better, and I only noticed a slight tenderness in my ankle in the evening.  Now after 8 weeks my tummy is much flatter-rolls are gone & midriff is shrinking, and the only thing I’m doing different is a few minutes of Yoga every morning.    

The AM tape takes about 18 to complete.  This particular tape is meant for folks who are not into exercise, he not a stickler with getting the pose just so-that will come the more you do it.   About 5 minutes of the tape is spent doing a conscious relaxation –which proved to be a bit difficult for me to get the hang of really relaxing.   But it has made me realize what sort of chatter was going on in my head.   Most of my thoughts were going over the day before or jumping to tomorrow-hardly any time being spent in the here and now.  

So now not only is my body feeling & looking better; but have noticed a difference in my mental state.  There is no long an over abundance of useless chatter going on in my head from the day before.   No more flitting from one thing to another, am more focused, and by the end of the day instead of feeling exhausted, it’s a good tired  and feel happy with what I have accomplished during the day .