Recovering: Healing with Yoga!

Hello kind krafters!

           I hope you’re all doing well, feeling good, and settling into the new fall season. I’m happy to report that, despite doctors still being uncertain as to exactly what caused my symptoms, I am feeling much better and am back to work and outdoor adventures. I thought for this post I would share one of the key tools that I’ve been using to felt me recover and feel better, and what I feel has been the most significant influencing factor in my progress. And that is yoga!
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Yoga is a lot of different things, and has also been described as everything. Most of know yoga as a trendy practice of stretching and moving in pretzel-like shapes and poses while breathing and standing on a squishy mat. It can be done outside, inside, in a super-hot room with sweat dripping off of you, or in a regulated temperature with sweaters and poses held for long periods of time. You can do intense and strengthening power yoga, relaxing and restorative yin yoga, gentle flowing hatha yoga, smooth flowing vinyasa yoga, and many more in just about every combination you can think of. But the key ingredient is the breath and the mind, something often forgotten in the modern image of yoga as a trendy exercise regime. Yoga is used to calm and centre the mind in preparation for meditation, and all movement, whether intensive, quick, slow, or static, follows the flow of the breathe naturally moving in and out. 

Yoga can be practiced anywhere!
​Here I am at a sunset yoga class held on the yard of a yacht club!

After my third and final trip to the ER at the end of September, I was told that the doctors still didn’t know what was wrong with me, would send me to some more specialists and run more blood tests, but that it was nothing life threatening. While this was extremely frustrating, it was also a kind of liberation. Not knowing what was wrong, but knowing it was not life threatening, meant I was free to explore some alternative therapies on my own. For a number of years I have practiced yoga on an off using youtube videos and occasional studio classes. With swelling and pain in both legs from my knees down, and a mind burning with anxiety over what was happening and the pain of not knowing what was wrong, I turned quickly to yoga and meditation.

At first I started out with simple stretches, held to the best of my ability for ten loooooonnnnngggg, and deep breathes, for 10 minutes a day, alongside a 10 minute gentle stretching yoga routine. I found these stretches by reading through a book called “Yoga Cures” by famous yoga teacher Tara Stiles. In the book I focused on three sequences. The first designed to help “couchstination”, focusing on stretching my legs after being on the couch for so long. The second was designed for fibromyalgia and chronic pain, designed to stretch the lower body and focus the mind with poses held for 10 breathes. Lastly, the third was designed for shin splints, designed to help with the bulk of my pain, which was concentrated in my shins and the tops of my ankles and feet. This book is truly incredible. It has over a hundred pages of short sequences and poses combinations designs to help with a kinds of daily or sudden pains such as headaches, lower back pain, dizziness etc. I cannot recommend it enough to anyone suffering from aches and pains, illnesses, and honestly to have on hand as a resource to improved wellbeing. The 10 minute gentle sequence was also from Tara Stiles, and can be found her excellent yoga channel, where she posts 8-15 minute sequences for all levels.

​After a few days of practicing these stretching sequences and gentle practice video, I also added in a daily 20-30 minute leg pain focused yoga video. These videos were all sourced from the youtube channel “Yoga with Adrienne”. If you haven’t found Adrienne on youtube I 5000% recommend taking a look. I use Adrienne’s videos daily, picking from her vast selection of 10-50 minute videos to suit my mood and my body’s needs on any given day. Adrienne is funny, kind, and her videos, even the harder more intense ones, are always open to all levels of practice, as she guides you through each move clearly and with a welcome sense of fun and openness. Below is a list of links to the handful of Yoga with Adrienne videos I rotated through for 2.5 weeks to help with my pain, they all focus mostly on lower body stretching and are all gentle and suitable for all levels.

• Yoga for Manual Labour- stretches the lower body at a calm and gentle pace
• Yoga for Tired Legs- designed for anytime your legs are a bit sore and need some care; after a hike, a run, travel, or at times of pain
• Yoga for the Feet- I used this practice regularly over the summer while I was hiking constantly, and I also used it multiple times a week while ill, especially as my legs went back to normal size but my ankles and feet remained swollen and pained
• Yoga for the Service Industry- a great practice for lower body pain, incorporating some moves for all of the above practices, especially good when you’re short for time but have some pain
  
  

Yoga was my main tool in feeling better and healing. When I started stretching daily my legs started to feel better, and my whole body began to feel like it was getting back to normal. Equally as important, my mind started to relax and take a breather, and focus on getting better and taking it slow, instead of worrying about what was wrong and if I would get better. This was absolutely needed. In addition to yoga, I course had a number of other tools that helped me get back to where I am today; able to work, able to hike, and taking it easy to make sure I never push it too hard. Everyday I would ice my legs, knees, ankles and feet for two hours, to help reduce inflammation, and every morning I would meditate for 10 minutes to calm my mind. I cut out gluten, most sugars and most dairy, all foods which tend to cause me some mild irritation and trigger inflammation in my body. I also added in some vitamins designed to get my immune systems back in shape, these were Omega-3, B12, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and Probiotics. I also tried to spend at least a hour outside everyday getting some sun, enjoying the fresh air, and stepping away from the TV and computer screens. In addition, I relied on Naproxen to help with pain, and antibiotics to fight off infection in my throat.
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There is no one size fits all solution when you’re ill or in pain and there is no one course of treatment that will work for everyone. Sometimes it can be very difficult to find a cure and a treatment plan, especially when you’re not really sure what it is that needs to be treated. Yoga and the others tools I used worked for me, and have gotten me to the point when I only have a small bit of pain in my ankles if I move an odd way or too quickly squat down, and a lingering sore throat on it’s way out. As with anything and everything health related, you should always consult you're a healthcare professional before undergoing or trying out any course of treatment or medication. But yoga is one solution you can explore or your own, while paying very close attention to your own boundaries. It’s a tool that can help you feel better, as a step you can take for yourself towards healing, it can also give you power, particularly valuable when you are feeling powerless in your pain.

Try out some of the videos above if you need some extra care below the knees or something gentle for your body. And share with me your tips and tricks for combatting illness and pain.

Stay kind,
Niki