Breath…Balance…Strength…Flexibility

I began my yoga practice over twenty years ago when Pam, a sister graduate student at The College of William & Mary, started coming to my counseling office once a week to help us alleviate the stress of our profession. Since that time, I’ve practiced under a number of teachers, with their styles, ages, sizes, genders, races, and spiritual backgrounds changing about as much as my hairstyles. Thankfully yoga itself has remained a constant, and I have continued my practice over the years, though a bit sporadically at times. Even though there were short periods when you could take the girl out of the yoga studio, you could not take the yoga out of the girl. I have often seen many of my coping tools mirrored in my practice of yoga, most specifically breath, balance, strength, and flexibility.

Breath

One of the first basics we learn in yoga was to breathe. Though we all breathe without thinking, it is the conscious act of using our breath that is so powerful. I have learned to breathe into the asana to deepen it and connect to my body. The same is true when I want a deeper connection with the Divine—I breathe and feel the Presence moving throughout me. Even when strong emotions take over, I breathe into the feelings and find my connection to Source.

Balance

Born under the Zodiac sign of Libra, represented by the scales, I always strive to balance yin and yang, work and play, right brain and left brain, discipline and indulgence, tradition and innovation. In yoga, I am okay that my tree pose today is sometimes wobbly on the left leg, because yoga helped me recover my balance following two low back surgeries only nine months apart. Prior to the surgeries, I struggled to walk, much less balance, due to the foot drop resulting from lumbar disc herniations.

Strength

Being the youngest of six children, it took years for me to find my own voice.  I spoke shyly, indirectly, and changed my position with the wind in order to please others. Years of yoga helped develop my physical strength—holding poses like plank with limbs that no longer shake, for longer periods of time. Now my strength transcends the physical, and I’m firm in holding my position even in the face of strong opposition.

Flexibility

My upper body is quite hyper-flexive, probably a function of heredity and years of yoga practice. However, years of sports injuries and car accidents, coupled with “country girl legs” have left both knees in weakened positions, limiting my flexibility in those joints—pigeon pose is not an option! Yoga has helped me to surpass the predictions of a former orthopedist who stated I would have another knee surgery long before now, with a knee replacement shortly on its heels. Beyond the physical, I’ve also learned it pays to be flexible on other fronts, as well.  Strength is a wonderful quality, but Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution showed that it really wasn’t the fittest that survived, but the most adaptable, or flexible. Being open to Spirit’s guidance as our circumstances shift around us has helped me surmount what seemed like the insurmountable over the years.

Thankfully, I’ve successfully negotiated various health challenges, career and geographic moves, relationship changes, and financial upheavals. My good friend, yoga, has been present along the way, offering a gentle yet persistent reminder to breathe, balance, be strong, and be flexible.

FYI, if you’d like to learn more about my yoga journey and that of several other curvy yoginis, including gorgeous pictures of us in different asanas, check out Dana Smith’s inspiring new book, Yes, Yoga Has Curves at www.yesyogahascurves.com.