"I have three children. It’s much worse when your chronic illness & suffering is making OTHER people suffer...
I started a dedicated yoga asana practice in May 2018, when I was coming out of an extremely severe autoimmune flare that almost killed me (literally). I had lost nearly all my muscle & could hardly walk
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When I could finally move around a bit, I started rehabbing myself. It occurred to me to try yoga. I could do much of it on the floor, so there was a low risk of falling from being too weak. I followed a video on YouTube, with my kids crawling around me. That was it. I’ve practiced every single day since .
I wasn’t flexible, & because of my flare, had no strength. I could barely hold a plank for 10 seconds. BUT, something was different this time, something that wasn’t there all the other times I’d dabbled in asana over the previous 15 years .
In 2016, after losing our third baby, my grief led to a very severe flare. During this time I began a meditation & pranayama practice
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I had these things as part of my life. So when I tried yoga asana again, it suddenly made SO MUCH SENSE. I was finally connecting my breath, mind, & body .
Yoga has changed my life in such a profound way. It has helped me change the way I internally & therefore externally) react to life. I wish I had started this practice earlier, but at the same time, was I really ready for it earlier? A lot of the time I think something has to drive you there. For me, it was my autoimmune disease
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Chronic illness was/is hard for me to come to terms with, even after a decade with it. Accepting that I go through life like this, with these long periods where my immune system can’t stop attacking my own organs, & as a side effect almost killing ME... it’s been hard: even harder because of the suffering it inflicts on my family .
Yoga & its philosophy has helped me greatly with acceptance. We all suffer to varying degrees. This is my life. I have a disease that affects me daily. Wishing it was different is pointless. I have WAY more things in my life that are awesome & amazing 💚
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