Taking Control of Your Pain and Your Body
Yoga has become a buzz word, there is now yoga for everything: goat yoga, disco yoga, paddle board yoga and so on. Nothing wrong with that but its essence can somewhat diminish and get lost in the quest of ever adapting it to our lifestyles.
Yoga is often recommended by physios when they see patients with back and alignment problems, but can it go further? Can it be the cure and a preventative solution to misalignment and pain?
When I started yoga, I could hardly move, my body was in acute pain due to a skiing accident where I broke my spine, it healed badly. I was seeing doctors to realign my suffering body on a regular basis, as I believed there was no other way. However, without failing, the accuse pain would always come back.
Years later, I have the resources to realign myself and I no longer suffer the debilitating headaches nor the extreme pain in my spine, nor my shoulders. Yoga empowered me and I believe that should be the case for every practitioner.
Effortless effort, Wuwei
One of the first key principles is to listen to the body. As a society, we have been conditioned to be constantly on the go and give 110%. But how good it is for us humans? How can we shift this state of mind when on the mat?
It is indeed hard to start listening to the body especially when not used to it. However, in a class, it is important to listen to the body and not go further than it can deliver. In Qigong, when you recover from an illness or an injury, we say you should give a third of your effort and not more. That way, you give a chance to the body to replenish itself while still enjoying the practice. Qi means energy, Gong, means practice, so Qigong is an energy practice where we unclear blockages of energy.
There is also another Qigong principle called Wuwei, effortless effort. It means we only give the right amount of energy, nothing more.
The breath, Prana
The other principle I would stress for pain management is the importance of the breath. In yoga, the breath is called Prana, it means life force energy. The breath is part of the autonomic nervous system and the only function we can influence. We cannot do anything about our digestion or heart for instance, but we can slow down our breath. Why does it matter when it comes to the body being in pain or misaligned? Because when the breath is short, quick or shallow, it activates our sympathetic nervous system, which puts us into fight or flight mode. One of the outcomes is muscle tensions.
When one slows down the breath through a Pranayama or breathing exercise, it activates the parasympathetic nervous system or rest and digest. It relaxes our mind and our muscles, making the tensions easier to dissolve.
The pace of the practice
Last, moving slowly when practicing yoga will support the body in balancing the nervous system and will loosen tensions. When moving quickly, we are less aware of the body, therefore it is easier to ignore the limits of what the body can give. It can be very hard at first to move at a slower pace, that is why it is so important to stay tuned with your inner teacher and adapt the rhythm to your own pace. Otherwise, if the practitioner is forcing him/herself to follow the same tempo as the teacher, it can create the reverse effect, more tensions, more pain.
Hence why I think teaching yoga should be less by imposing the movements or a pace but more by inviting the students to discover and find their inner teacher. It is helpful to invite the students rather than prescribe and to offer alternatives to the movements, making it accessible for all. It is also important to always remind the students that their own voice is more important than the one coming from the teacher. Teaching and practicing this way will empower the students.
Begin taking control of back pain
I am a Yoga Alliance Professionals accredited yoga teacher. I graduated from Triyoga London Daoist Flow Teacher Training. I specialise in teaching yoga to release tensions in the body, in particular the back, neck, shoulders. I teach weekly yoga & Qigong classes in Tonbridge on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, for more details Candice Machtus Yoga | Kids yoga | Tonbridge, UK.
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