Healing

HEALING WITH YOGA

Since the beginning of the year, I've embarked on a mission to improve my health, wealth and happiness for a more focussed approach to living in 2015 and beyond. Now three months in to the year, I've firmly established a new, more positive routine, removed some harmful habits - forming more health-enhancing ones in their place - and over this relatively short time frame, already noticed marked improvements in many aspects of my life.

I took a Yoga class yesterday and was talking to one of the attendees about the class afterwards and we discussed how great it makes us feel and how everyone should do it. It's benefits are beyond just the physical. Not only does it help us to move better - giving us more flexibility and core strength, but also, just by the very nature of taking the time to focus on our body and it's movements, makes us more mindful, calms the thoughts away from the stresses of the day and brings us into the moment.

Yoga has saved my sanity
This is true. Working in a high-stress environment for so long has been having an effect on the way I respond/deal with stress. I, hadn't really noticed it until very recently, whilst on holiday last year. I'd had a tough year at work - as had everyone I work with, and the office was taking on a toxic energy that had depleted my reserves to the point of exhaustion. Luckily, I'd saved back enough holiday to take a last minute week-long break to the sun and for the first few days, I just switched off (literally and metaphorically) from the stresses of home. On the third day, I turned on my iPhone and a barrage of emails poured in from work which incensed me so much, that it instantly triggered a state of rage. I was filled with adrenalin, pumped and primed for war to the point where even our holiday neighbours had to come over and say something as my anger was affecting them too - how embarrassing.

What was really amazing to me, was my mood's change from serenity to anger. From the moment it was triggered, to it's intense peak took no time at all, but, calming back down took all day long. I went to bed exhausted that night and took the rest of the week to recover myself back to a serene state of mind. My partner pointed out that I'd been like this before, and suggested I do something about it as it was not good for me or anyone else around me who it also impacted.

It was on my return, when my happiness was tested again. The first day back to work, I made a decision to focus on how best to deal with this issue. I removed anything that could create negative emotion or hinder me from controlling my thoughts. So, I restricted alcohol for the next few weeks, got off to bed early every night and limped through the last few days of work to the Christmas period where I knew I'd have more time away to try and re-capture the serenity in my again. It was over this festive period, with time for reflection that I made a decision to change - and Yoga was first up on my list.

MRI Update

So back in Jan I wrote about my neck and weak bicep. Fixing this ailment has been one of my key motivators for change in 2015. The January post on MRI scans taken 2 years ago, showed a compressed disk and chipped vertebrae in my neck, with some compression on the nerve possibly affecting strength in my right arm. The symptoms have affected my work, sleep and ability to do the hobbies I love, like climbing and cycling. These hobbies have been an outlet to combat the stress at work and without them, I'm unable to properly switch off. So I've been on a mission to rectify the problem to enable a healthier life where I can enjoy these activities again. I've been actively monitoring and healing through doing my own rehabilitation and exercise sever since. 

From the beginning of Jan, I've stuck to a steady routine of 2-3 yoga sessions a week, some Pilates, core conditioning and a bit of light weight training. I had another positive comment from my yoga teacher yesterday who's noticed improvements in my flexibility and overall yoga practice. One of the class commented on how well and peaceful I look too.

Yoga is working miracles and all the feedback I'm getting is evidence of it's many healing benefits! I can see there's much more movement in my joints and my posture is straighter, lower back strength and neck mobility have definitely all gotten a lot better. Compared to before Christmas - I now feel tip-top!

Here's the scan with no significant changes indicated from what I see in the images. But what do these scans really show anyway? It's how WE feel that matters and, the consultant could immediately see more movement and better physical condition as proof. Something else is at work here - maybe he yoga has some part to play? I know I've been able to do more of the activities I love doing, so my self-healing programme is working for me. At the end of the day, we can't rely on MRI scans and a doctor to tell us when we're healthy/recovered. We have to take the initiative for improving recovery success ourselves.

It's only been a few months focussing on improvements and I'm confident that a continued, mindful approach to wellbeing, which includes my new yoga lifestyle, will reverse the damage done by the various stresses in life, promote even more healing over time and keep me youthful for longer. According to yoga philosophy, it's the flexibility of the spine, not the number of years, that determines a person's age.

Another thing I'm looking at and possibly why we feel better on some days rather than on others. Bio-rhythms. Reading up on the body's natural rhythms, I can there may be something in this and according to my generator results, there's confirmation that I'm on my game today!