"Severe trauma to the lumbar spine from a fall meant I was resigned to a life of pain: until I found

Meet @meredithevangelisti sharing her #yogasavedmylife story with us. These are her words 📷

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"From the age of 8 I was a competitive athlete. 

I roller skated competitively until aged, 33 collecting local, regional and national titles as well as being a member of the world team in precision skating

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Even though I skated into my 30's my skating career somewhat ended at the age of 17 when my partner dropped me from an overhead lift.  The fall left me with severe trauma to my lumbar spine eventually resulting in the deterioration of the disc between my 5th lumbar vertebra and my sacrum.  The two bones sat on top of one another with my sciatic nerve entrapped between

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I spent most of my 20's not being able to bend forward without supporting myself.  I was resigned to the fact that I was going to be one of those people with back pain for the rest of my life.  Until I found yoga at age 28

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 It was not immediate relief since I let this injury define who I was for over a decade with "I can't do that because of my back"

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I even went to my 9 week Bikram teacher training in '09 with pain.  It wasn't until after teaching for a few years that things started to change.  I started to let go of this attachment to this injury and started to just trust the process of the yoga....something I had been teaching yet not really practicing myself

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Here I am after 15 years of practice, 8 of them completely pain free, able to do more with my body and my mind than I could when I was 17 📷 Meredith"

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You can join Meredith in Boston for a #fiercecalm108 charity event on 23rd June DM her or us for details 📷 .