Healing A Back Injury - A transformational journey through the evolving practice of yoga.
“Words cannot convey the value of yoga - it has to be experienced” - B.K.S Iyengar.
Hello Everyone,
I hope this post finds you well and enjoying the shift to the sign of Libra today. Libra energy is light, peaceful, balanced and harmonious, and I always find it to be a welcome change from the highly productive, organizational drive of Virgo. The slightly more relaxed, playful feel to this time of year, is also reflected in warm days of Autumn sunshine and the cosy, comforting feeling of cooler evenings. The creation of a perfect balance between the polarities of summer and winter. It’s such a beautiful season. Today on The Be Well Blog I want to share an updated and slightly revised article that I wrote for the Iyengar Association of Canada. It is a short account of how I healed a chronic back injury through the practice of yoga, and the accompanying perspective shift of how a challenge can be transformed into a gift. If you have struggled with back pain, or have faced physical challenges of any nature, my hope is that you find this article uplifting and inspiring.
I came to Iyengar yoga in search of something more. Something deeper, stronger instruction, a spiritual connection to the physical practise of yoga. This was over ten years ago and at that time I was depleted in mind and body. I had moved continents, birthed two babies and was raising and homeschooling them with no family support. I was also trying to recover from two auto immune diseases and had chronic lower back pain, a side effect of an epidural with my first child. Finding a teacher who was invested in her students growth, a yoga community to meet with once or twice a week, and a practise to which I was deeply connected, became something I was extremely grateful for.
Within a few month of practising I slowly began to build strength in my body, and my mind felt more spacious; lighter somehow. My lower back pain eased and I started to set some time aside each day to practise just one or two asanas. I used a spare room to create a yoga and meditation space, I bought books and props, enrolled in an enrichment program with my teacher and gradually my home practise began to evolve.
During the next three and a half years my home practise weathered the ups and downs of everyday life as homeschooling mom with a never ending to do list. It shifted and changed and I tried to adapt it to the needs of my life. I had some moments of clarity, but often felt stuck. Time, or lack of it, was a constant challenge and the poor mobility of my lower back made progression in some asanas difficult, and sometimes impossible.
However, my relationship with yoga grew ever more profoundly rooted, and five years ago I made the decision to delve deeper and started working towards my application for Iyengar yoga teacher training. I increased my studio classes, workshops and my home practise. I started to look at what was holding me back in my body and in doing so, my previous injury flared up. Attempting to move forward had resulted in what felt like going backwards. Weeks passed by and my endeavours to work around my back issue failed. I tried to participate in class, I tried to practise at home, but I was in pain, a lot of the time. I had to surrender. My regular practise ceased and I worked privately with my teacher on a therapeutic back care plan of just six poses. Initially it seemed so restrictive and I longed for my usual varied practise, the feeling of well being that my favourite asanas provided and the challenge of working on those asanas that were more perplexing to my body. I didn't know at that moment how transformative this therapeutic practise would become.
Focusing on just six poses provided a steadiness that my body so desperately needed and brought stillness to my mind. Each pose created space in my lower back and the use of props (and the clever use of furniture to create props) gave me support to hold the poses for a therapeutic length of time and educated my body to feel the action from within. I had always used props in my practise, but repeating the same asana over and over again with more support than I would usually take, began to alert my body to very subtle changes. As B.K.S Iyengar said, "props help students of yoga in monitoring and directing the right way to do the asana." In surrendering to my back pain, I was allowing my body to take direction and to feel the pose from a new perspective.
Halasana has always been one of my favourite poses. The quietness of mind and the calm stability that this asana promotes, brings me to it most days. In the early days of my practice I used a chair to support my legs, as I found that bringing my feet to the floor strained my lower back and collapsed my chest, bringing a feeling of compression to my upper body. I tried using a lower bench for my feet in an attempt to bring them closer to the floor, but was never able to get a feeling of lift and lightness in my back that supports the full pose. During the days and weeks that followed my back injury, Ardha Halasana was one of my six poses. I used a piano bench to support my thighs, as it was just the correct height and the supported asana relaxed the muscles in my back, giving noticeable relief almost immediately. I worked on it twice daily and found that it gave wonderful pain relief. However, as the weeks passed and I no longer needed the pose for pain relief, I began to notice a different feeling in my back. It felt stronger, more aligned and the connection of my thighs to my hips felt deeper. I knew that my feet would now reach the floor in this asana. I removed the piano bench and brought my set up to the wall. I brought my feet to the wall and slowly lowered them down the wall to the floor. I no longer felt strain in my back, my chest did not collapse and I did not feel compression in my upper body. I felt the strength and the direction of the piano bench, even though it wasn't there.
Working towards Halasana.
This introspective aspect facilitated by props was a huge learning experience for me. The ability to feel a deeper relationship with areas of my body, dulled over time with lack of mobility and desensitized by medical procedure, was transformational at this time. My teacher said that this process of healing through yoga would reshape my practise and shift it to a deeper level. How right she was!
My journey with yoga is ever evolving. My lower back is still cranky sometimes, but I have the tools to work with it now. I am no longer held back my it: in fact on reflection, learning how to go deeper with my therapeutic practice was a gift during the three years I spent studying to become a certified Iyengar yoga teacher. During that time of intense study, I found the experience of working with an injury; the depth of knowledge gained, the pain, the challenges and sometimes the breakthroughs, allowed for surrender.
The personal journey of yoga reflects our path in life in so many ways. Sometimes the act of surrender, then taking time to pause and see the obstacle in a new and different way, allows for the unfolding of transformation.
The unfolding yoga journey.
Working on Salamba Sarvangasana.
I completed my Iyengar Yoga teacher training almost two years ago and my yoga path continues to unfold in new, interesting and exciting ways. It has taken me through the busyness of working in a large yoga studio, then a global pandemic, when practicing alone with a screen became the norm. It has brought me to my business Sacred North Yoga + Wellness, and continues to provide me with health, strength and infinite learning experiences. I came to yoga to relieve stress, gain more peace of mind and to heal a painful back injury. I received all of the above and so much more!
If you are interested in the transformational power of yoga to calm the mind, heal the body or just to optimize your health and well being, leave a comment below, contact me on the Connect with Me page of this website, or find me on Instagram, Facebook or YouTube. I would love to guide you on your journey. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_dMQQ_4dPD5BJ-J0RZDYrw
And as always if this post inspired you, share it with a friend, it might inspire them too!
Until next time...Be Well.
