Sivananda, Day 14

It's a fine line between helping and hurting, and when you are ill or in a compromised state of health it is really important to know your body, know your current state, and know about the type of yoga you are about to practice.

I woke up yesterday feeling weak, dry, and uncharacteristically stiff. The stiff joints were the red flag, as I almost never have this problem. My knees didn't were heavy, my hips hurt, and my right foot was irritable. My shoulder, however, felt okay. I spent the majority of the day sleeping and hydrating. When it came time to head out to my usual sunday class, I took a long pause to consider whether that would be the best thing for me after doing 'damage control' all day.

Swami Sivananda was a medical doctor who, after receiving training in yoga, developed his own approach to yoga as a holistic way of living. Sivananda has a focus on relaxation and wellness, and was developed (as I understand it) so that anyone can practice yoga.

In my usual sunday class, we go through probably 12 postures, beginning and ending in savasana and also going back to savasana throughout the sequence. We spend several minutes in each pose, and the atmosphere is calm and relaxed. For this reason, I decided to go. Knowing that some of my health problems are tied in to the nervous system, one of the things that is most helpful in recovering is to use yoga to balance things back out. While I was low on energy through the class, I did feel more aligned afterwards.

I would not have practice astanga yoga feeling or being in the state that I was yesterday. I probably would not have practiced hatha either, at least not a full sequence or class. The more I study yoga, philosophy or physical tradition, the more solid I feel in my information and ability to practice appropriately. And in practicing appropriately, I am able to get to know my body and mind better, and unify my intellectual capacity with the more tangible aspects of practice.

It's all a lesson in the importance of practicing your yoga; we go to classes in studios with dozens of other people, or watch reknowned yogis practice on dvds or in books, and we are constantly approaching these from the perspective of 'oh, so that's what I should be doing.' The reality is, each of those practicioners, reknowned or unknown, is practicing his/her own yoga. We can observe this as an example of yoga, but we each have to decide what yoga is right for us individually in the present moment.