Build Body Awareness with Yoga
Yoga has the power to heal what seems to be broken, restore lost sensation and expand our physical capacity to move with ease and freedom. It’s an incredibly powerful practice. Yoga is popular, too. Everywhere you turn there seems to be a new studio popping up.
It’s inspiring to see so many spaces opening their doors to house this practice, but I wonder: is the therapeutic side of yoga getting lost on the masses? Are the physically transformative or aesthetic benefits being promoted over the healing and restorative powers of yoga as a whole? That’s not for me to decide, but it’s something to consider in a time when countless people are leading increasingly sedentary lifestyles, in a disconnected body, because of some sort of injury or pain.
In a yoga class, whether you want to or not, you’re going to connect with your body. Even if your ego is doing its best to disconnect you from body awareness, it’s still there. Your hamstrings will scream if you go too far in a forward fold for your body. You’ll be short of breath and maybe a bit dizzy when you haven’t been inhaling and exhaling fully. I can’t count the number of times a student has come up to me after class and said, “I had no idea I was that stiff!” It’s not a time to be in judgment, but a time to be aware. Yoga is a tool for measuring where our bodies are at, whether we’re physically active in other ways or not. This practice shines light on areas of your body that could become strained or injured if you don’t tend to them.
I got in a car accident last summer and it wasn’t until two months ago, when I was on my yoga mat looking up at the ceiling in Triangle Pose, that I realized my neck was not doing so well. I’d been going to the chiropractor’s for months, exercised in a variety of ways since my accident, and yet I didn’t connect with the severity of my injury until I was on my mat. I backed off from cranking my neck and doing any kind of head-heavy inversions for a few weeks. The pain subsided, thankfully!
I am privileged to occasionally work at a clinic called Kinetic Physiotherapy in Burlington, Ontario. This community-focused clinic has done incredible things for individuals with chronic and acute pain by bringing yoga and pilates into the therapeutic picture. I work with the owner, Christina Drew, as the Studio Manager of the clinic’s sister space, Kinetic Yoga & Pilates. She says she created the Kinetic Physio-Yoga Therapy and Physio-Pilates Therapy programs “to extend our therapy services beyond manual therapy, modalities and exercise therapy”. Her passion for bringing yoga and pilates into the injury prevention scene has translated into hundreds of people feeling more free in their bodies and empowered to conquer pain.
To me, it doesn’t matter WHY you do yoga as long as you do it. Just remember that it’s another powerful NATURAL tool in your toolkit for combating pain and healing and preventing injury. With patience and dedication anything is possible!
Eryl McCaffrey