"I live & teach with chronic illness. I often wonder, what would my life have become without all yoga taught me, starting when I was a child?
I started yoga aged about 10. Then in 1993, at 13 I got a virus, the post viral symptoms never left
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I was quickly on the diagnostic path to ME/CFS.
(Take heed, we see the same occur for Covid patients, the long haulers)
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Life for me has never been the same
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Energy vanished, a cacophony of symptoms in it's place. Hours and hours each day, little possible but to rest
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Yoga provides a cushioned space to rest, gentle approaches, softening muscles, carefully positioning this body, being still with thoughts. A starting point to cope. Such a heavy load for young shoulders. And now, still heavy, but stronger, 40 year old shoulders
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Yoga helps me care for this tired body, taming thoughts and breathe
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Seeking solace in the present moment, in the natural world around me
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Return to the present, again, again, again
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Calming and soothing the nervous system
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Moving weary bones and aching muscles
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Coaxing sluggish circulation, and overloaded lymph
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Because even sick bodies need to move 🙏
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Like an inanimate machine, we seize up, become restricted when our movements shrink to barely there
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Feeling for, and some days finding balance between not enough, and too much.
Trying hard to honour the messages from my body
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Gently moving, squeezing, twisting, stretching, strengthening, assisting complex, damaged machinery in its work. All the while hoping that better treatments become available to repair the failings in this body I call home
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Whatever the future holds, yoga helps me stay the course 🙏
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I am grateful to be able to teach gentle yoga classes. I show up and hold space for my students. We move and breathe and meditate and try to remember how to soften and let it all go. Then afterwards we gather our belongings, and step back out into reality, hopefully stronger and surer that we can keep on going with whatever heavy load is on our shoulders" 💚 Claire
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