Phoebe Blog 3: Yoga with Scoliosis
Phoebe Ng. Follow my journey @Pianista_Phoebe @YogaWithPeachy Imagine your body was perfectly aligned in a pose, yet you don’t feel balanced. Or you feel well grounded, but your shape is in fact out of place. It is the daily struggle I experience as a scoliosis patient. I have an S curve of over 30 degrees in my spine. Like many, I turned to yoga only after health problems arose and body become almost broken. I got pain in lower back whenever I bend, and I began to wonder if I have become as frail as an old grandma. I knew through my first impression that yoga is something very “zen”, but back then I saw it more like an alternative therapy. Many exercises can help alleviate scoliosis complications. Swimming is probably the most commonly known one – it can lengthen your spine while being on water means your spine is less loaded. Yoga can also does the same with a number of asanas. But what I like is that yoga helps you to develop awareness about your body. You learn to feel whether your weight is equally distributed, you learn to check your alignment. And all these are applicable to your daily lives. Yoga is not only about “zen”, it is about your lifestyle as a whole, and about being mindful. No scoliosis patient is the same. A patient’s condition can also change everyday. That means your scoliosis yoga routine should also change with you. It is also better to work in conjunction with healthcare professionals. Poses that work for me may not work for you. I have focused on spine-lengthening postures, like Adho Mukha Svanasana or inversions. I also have one side of my rib cage less open than the other, so I brought awareness into expanding that side of the ribs when I breathe. The curvature at my lower back meant it was more vulnerable and I only approach backbends in moderation. Instead, I did an abundance of core postures, so I will have more muscles to protect my spine. I work more on my “weak” side of body. Is it going to heal my crooked spine? Probably not. Scoliosis is not curable, but at least you can make your life easier.
Phoebe Blog 2: Why I ditched cold food completely after learning yoga
Phoebe Ng. Follow my journey @Pianista_Phoebe @YogaWithPeachy For many years, my parents, my Chinese traditional medicine doctor kept telling me stay away from cold food, I didn’t believe it. I grew up binging sashimi, ice cream and cold drinks. Since puberty, I began to develop stomach problems from time to time, yet I thought these were only isolated incidents. As an adult, I continued eating salads, poke bowl, like many other weight-conscious women in the world. It was not until recently I began to feel alarmed. Few months ago I was hospitalised for over a week just because of a very bad stomach flu – while most people can recover from viral gastroenteritis just by resting for several days. As I got more into yoga training, I started learning about Ayurveda, an ancient Indian medical system. In Ayurveda, the five elements that are found in all living things – space, air, fire, water, and earth – are the building blocks of life. It also divides man into 3 different body types or doshas, Vata is associated with air and space, Pitta is associated with fire and water, and Kapha with earth and water. I am petite and tend to have cold hands, stomach issues and cracky joints, a typical Vata. I have also hit other signs of an imbalanced Vata: – Feeling worried or overwhelmed – Insomnia despite feeling tired – Digestive issues – Indecisive – Difficulty to concentrate – Dry throat, lips, scalp or skin – Poor circulation To balance out Vata, Ayurveda suggests eating more warm food and avoid cold food or raw vegetables. Pretty much the same advice my Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor gave me for my “Qi deficiency”. Vata somewhat corresponds with the Chinese concept of qi, yang, and internal wind. I started to believe it’s time to stop being stubborn and actually take their advice. It was actually not so bad to embrace Vata-calming lifestyle, most of the suggested food – rice, wheat, papayas, sweet potatoes, black pepper – are all things I really enjoy. Now fast forward to a question you probably have – does it work? Well, I am only 3 weeks in so it would be hard to say for certain. But I did see great improvements. I no longer have bowel problems (except on the cheat day when I had sashimi). Yoga, especially the more static style of Hatha, made me more grounded and helped me to concentrate. But cracky joint and cold hands remained an issue.
Phoebe Blog 1: Look into your own soul
Phoebe Ng. Follow my journey @Pianista_Phoebe @YogaWithPeachy One of the most challenging parts of my YTT has been the morning meditation. I am not necessarily a morning person, so getting up for 8am class on a daily basis can be a pain. For the first few days, I either fell asleep or felt restless. As the training goes on, I start to pick up the dynamics and become more comfortable. Then something strange happened. I began to see colours. It started off as rainbows, then it revolves into royal blue patches that appears and disappears along with my breaths. The colour danced like what I always refer to as “screensavers”. As soon as I started paying attention to the colours, they disappeared. For the next few days, I focused on my meditation practice on “searching for colours”. It doesn’t work. Only when I finally listened to my teacher Jess’s instruction – which is to focus on the breathing – I can see my “screensavers” again. The colours remained predominantly royal blue, which comes and goes in different shapes. After several recurrences of the “screensaver”, I have been told it is probably a sign that royal blue could be my “aura”. Everything has an aura, an energy field that surrounds it. Aura exists scientifically, yet the interpretations varies among different philosophies. In yoga, it’s believed that aura can say a lot about your current state of mind, as well as your purest essence as a human being. The colour originates from one of the seven chakras in your spirit. For instance, my blue colour represents the Vishuddha Chakra, or the throat chakra. As your mood and perspective changes over time, so does the nature of your aura. It also reflects your current progress. After a restorative yoga session, green colour emerges during my meditation, which is a sign of healing. You don’t need to be psychic to be able to see your own aura. Some people can see it by softening and slightly squinting their eyes and looking in a mirror. Some people can see it during meditation like I do. Although it needs some practice. An easier way is to have your aura photographed using a specialised camera. There are also online quizzes that test your aura, although it’s not the most precise method. If you have a clairvoyant friend, you can get him or her to read your aura too. So what is your aura? Tell me about your story. Ref: https://www.buzzfeed.com/sarahaspler/this-15-question-test-will-reveal-what-color-your-aura -is?utm_term=.ntb4l6YK8z#.yk52kYJ1Er https://www.auracolors.com/aura-colors/aura-colors-questionnaire/
Anita – WEEK 5 PART II
The past five weeks really flew by in the blink of an eye. I cannot believe, we’re down to the last few days of the programme. I am so incredibly grateful for the knowledge, time and energy both Jess & Alexis have shared with me. I will forever be indebted to them for being such an important part of my yoga journey. I sought out to deepen my practice and I really felt that was something I have achieved in these very short five weeks. I have never been pushed this hard physically and I am glad I gave it my all. I never thought I would be able to do inversions or practice five straight days a week without whining & wincing at the aches & pains but here I am! Not to mention, my ability to ground my thoughts and clarity/awareness of my own being has improved tremendously – all thanks to the daily meditation sessions, which I will be adopting even when this is all over. Even more than just deepening my practice, this entire experience has made me realise how much I need yoga in my life and how I really want to share this beautiful practice with everyone who is open to learning it. The patience, kindness & genuine care shown to me by my instructors are things I would love to pass on to others. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for me as a legit yoga instructor & a practitioner!
Anita – WEEK 5 PART I
I taught my first community class today and it went relatively smooth. Ever since the first week of YTT, I was exposed to teaching sequences and postures that was part of our curriculum. Although this material was given to us, I still struggled with not just memorizing but also adding my own touch to these teaching sessions. When we were tasked with finally coming up with our own sequence and leading the class independently, I was really excited. It was finally time to put what I had learnt to the test. I had so much fun planning my sequence, swapping out asanas and making sure they flowed smoothly. What I found difficult was maintaining a strong, calm presence in class because I am usually a bag of nerves when it comes to facing a crowd or people in general. I practiced my sequence on my classmates and even tested it out on my friends to get their feedback before the real thing. Everyone had similar feedback that I needed to be more confident and have more faith in myself because somehow my insecurities manifested through my voice. Today’s class went relatively smooth although I was slightly disappointed I let my nerves get to me in some moments of the class. Nevertheless I am really proud of myself and I am so excited to keep teaching and improving.
Anita – WEEK 4
This week we delved into physical adjustments. This was something I had been looking forward to learning from the beginning of YTT. I have always been interested in learning about alignments and how to go deeper into postures, so I was really excited to learn to help my future students. Little did I realise that these adjustments did not come as instinctively to me as I had expected them to. The adjustments are more than just literally adjusting people; there are so many things to consider. The placement of my hands, the amount of force used, the motion, the verbal communication accompanying each adjustment – it was a lot for me to take in but I am slowly getting there. Apart from that, I feel myself getting stronger in my personal practice, which is fantastic. I cannot remember the last time I felt this physically fit. All the aches and pains from the weeks leading up to this really paid of and I hope I can still maintain this level & regularity of self-practice even when YTT is over. Another improvement I’ve gotten many benefits from is the visualization techniques for meditation. Ever since Jess used them during our daily meditation sessions, especially the visualizations for the chakras, meditation and focus has come easier to me. Blocking out my senses or ignoring external stimuli has always been pretty alright to me but the mental noise from my thoughts really hindered me from being able to have a singular focus. Now when I employ the visualization of the chakras and each colour activating, it’s become much simpler to calm myself because I’m too busy remembering the order and seeing what speaks to me – rather than my worries or thoughts about the day ahead.
Anita – WEEK 3
Midway through YTT and I thought things would get easier based off the previous weeks’ progress but road to progress is not always easy or painless. Where my meditation became easier, my asanas were getting more challenging – not because I was getting worse but because I paying more attention to my alignment & form and being aware. Also, I was confronted again with going upside down – forearm stand, handstands and tripod headstands. I really freaked out and went on flight mode. Instead of keeping calm in uncomfortable asanas (and life situations more generally speaking), I ignored Jess’ reassurances and cues – choosing to focus on my own fears and eventually I came out of an inversion in a not-so ideal way and strained my lower back. It was frustrating to have to sit out of physical practice for a day and take things easy but it was good because it forced me to review my thoughts and actions. What was I afraid of? Why did I keep trying to come out of the poses even though I was doing perfectly fine? Why was I psyching myself out? All these questions once again made me realise that this wasn’t just about yoga but it was more about my perspective on the challenges I have in life and my not-so ideal ways of handling them (ie. avoiding them, filling myself with negative thoughts & putting fear before everything else, including help from others). This revelation is something that I know I need to meditate on if I ever want to improve not only in my practice, and being a teacher but also about personal growth in life. Every day is a new opportunity to reset and try to fix the things that need fixing.
Anita – WEEK 2
Week 2 of YTT was great and I felt as though I had several breakthroughs throughout the course of the week. There were so many highlights: Teaching & Awareness We had a taste of teaching sequences, which I actually enjoyed more than I expected! Mentally reciting the instructions and then practicing this verbal script to myself & applying it to my own practice really helped me memorise and understand things better. The struggle I faced with this however was the fact that I am not always present in the moment. I had episodes where I spaced out and forgot the next pose or even forgetting to complete another side made me realise I needed to be more aware. Aware of my own body, each movement and breath, each moment that passes and the people around me who are inevitably affected by my awareness/lack thereof. Chakras Learning about the chakras also ignited my enthusiasm after I was a little discouraged by the limitations of my physical practice. I absolutely loved how Jess made learning about the chakras so relatable and accessible with her own personal anecdotes. It wasn’t just some theory or unrelatable technical thing we had to just chew up, but learning about the chakras and the importance of balancing them just made it feel like an important life skill – like tying your shoelaces or eating right. Asanas We also learnt how to get safely into a headstand, side crow & astavakrasana. I have always had a deep-rooted fear about inversions for several years now. Although I did struggle with getting up there, I was proud that I tried and made it happen (with a whole lot of assistance!). What was more important was identifying the reasons why I was apprehensive about going up and why I had so much difficulty doing so. The biggest takeaway I had from the week was identifying those challenges – calming down my mind, talking myself out of what I was able to achieve due to self-doubt & fear of the unknown, and how these things were parallels to my actual life & not just about going upside down.
Anita – WEEK 1
When I first began my YTT journey, I had so many doubts about my abilities and fears of failing. My whole purpose for embarking on this YTT was more than what I had been telling everyone – it was beyond just “deepening my practice” or opening myself up to teaching opportunities. It was a challenge for myself, to push myself physically, mentally & emotionally. It was always about growth of the mind, body & spirit, and a time I set aside to “find myself”. The first week of YTT at TYM really tested & challenged me on each of those aspects. I was not used to waking up so early and having such a consistent practice. On average I used to practice twice or thrice a week so adjusting to five-day schedule was huge shock to my body, I even fell asleep at 8pm for the first few days! Each day I gained new aches – legs, core, arms and essentially my body was broken by Friday. Apart from breaking down the postures for Surya Namaskar and getting into the details, we learnt about meditation & Yoga Nidra. Although I had dabbled in having a daily meditation habit a few years ago, getting my mind to quieten down and organise my thoughts / focus solely on my breath was so difficult. Yoga Nidra also made me reflect on karmic patterns and bad habits I had learned over the years. I never thought much about Yoga Nidra’s benefits apart from just relaxation but after really taking Yogacharya Arunkumar’s guided Yoga Nidra seriously, I felt like it could really be a huge tool in helping me have an emotional breakthrough.
Renee – The journey just starts (6/6)
Received email from Alexis regarding the assignment and exam, means our YTT really coming to the end, but my Yoga journey is just start. I feel so grateful that I can be learning & practising with Jess at TYM, I can see the significant improvement of myself within these 3 months compared to my past 2 years practice in studio outside. With the proper knowledge I have learnt and the solid foundation I have built at TYM, I believe that I will continue the journey without fear and enjoy it a lot! Good luck to all of us for the upcoming exam on Sunday! Cheers!
