I've been into yoga for a couple years now. I can force myself to run or swim for exercise but yoga is really the only exercise that I can honestly say I enjoy. It helped me get through a lot of stress and anxiety in high school, it's helped me with my IBS and GI symptoms, and when I first started having syncope it was one of the only things that made me feel normal. But as my symptoms and condition got worse and worse, I wasn't able to keep up with it.
Today, my mom and I went to my first chair yoga class. We went to Sol Yoga in Frederick. (http://www.solyoga.org/) Mom had been there a few times for drop in classes and she used to go to the Sol Yoga in New Market for Happy Hour Yoga (yeah, that's a thing, it's also one of the things I can't wait to do when I turn 21). I was a little nervous cause it had been weeks since I had done any yoga and I had never tried Chair Yoga. I had no idea what to expect.
There were about 10 of us in the class. We each had a chair, mat, band, and block. The teacher, Linda, gave me a second chair once we described my level of mobility and limitation. Most of the other students had clear physical limitations too: a man with a knee replacement, a woman with muscular dystrophy, a young woman post-chemo, and several women over 60.
While I don't know the stories behind these other students, there was a different energy in the room than other classes. We were all there with some sort of physical and emotion baggage from illness. Some of us talked openly about our illnesses and you could tell that we all had a silent mutual agreement of trust and non-judgement. When we moved to altered warrior poses, you could here some of us get short of breath. Many of us stopped and rested during the class. At some level, you could feel all of us on this journey to better health, like we had all reached a point on our different roads where we needed something medicine couldn't give us.
The general gist of Chair Yoga is to make variations and accommodations to yoga poses using a chair. Some poses we all sat firmly in our chairs while in others we used the chair as a structure for support. Linda, who has MS, went around and worked with each of us to find variations of the poses that worked best for our limitations and ailments.
It was very different from any yoga class I had ever taken; there were no vinyasas and there was much more talking. We had to stop and go a lot since we were all moving our chairs for every pose and much of the work was trial and error to find the best pose. However, I learned a lot about what I can do with yoga while still keeping my BP up and my HR low.
It was really exciting to start finding ways to get back to doing some of my favorite things. Yes, I was limited to my chair and I still can't do what I would like with my yoga, but I was doing it. Knowing that dysautonomia and Voldemort (did I mention that I named the tumor Voldemort?) can't completely take away my control of my body felt great. It's been a while since I've felt so in control and I can't wait from next week!
Today, my mom and I went to my first chair yoga class. We went to Sol Yoga in Frederick. (http://www.solyoga.org/) Mom had been there a few times for drop in classes and she used to go to the Sol Yoga in New Market for Happy Hour Yoga (yeah, that's a thing, it's also one of the things I can't wait to do when I turn 21). I was a little nervous cause it had been weeks since I had done any yoga and I had never tried Chair Yoga. I had no idea what to expect.
There were about 10 of us in the class. We each had a chair, mat, band, and block. The teacher, Linda, gave me a second chair once we described my level of mobility and limitation. Most of the other students had clear physical limitations too: a man with a knee replacement, a woman with muscular dystrophy, a young woman post-chemo, and several women over 60.
While I don't know the stories behind these other students, there was a different energy in the room than other classes. We were all there with some sort of physical and emotion baggage from illness. Some of us talked openly about our illnesses and you could tell that we all had a silent mutual agreement of trust and non-judgement. When we moved to altered warrior poses, you could here some of us get short of breath. Many of us stopped and rested during the class. At some level, you could feel all of us on this journey to better health, like we had all reached a point on our different roads where we needed something medicine couldn't give us.
The general gist of Chair Yoga is to make variations and accommodations to yoga poses using a chair. Some poses we all sat firmly in our chairs while in others we used the chair as a structure for support. Linda, who has MS, went around and worked with each of us to find variations of the poses that worked best for our limitations and ailments.
It was very different from any yoga class I had ever taken; there were no vinyasas and there was much more talking. We had to stop and go a lot since we were all moving our chairs for every pose and much of the work was trial and error to find the best pose. However, I learned a lot about what I can do with yoga while still keeping my BP up and my HR low.
It was really exciting to start finding ways to get back to doing some of my favorite things. Yes, I was limited to my chair and I still can't do what I would like with my yoga, but I was doing it. Knowing that dysautonomia and Voldemort (did I mention that I named the tumor Voldemort?) can't completely take away my control of my body felt great. It's been a while since I've felt so in control and I can't wait from next week!
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