What a year this has been. I started it out with my beautiful, beloved old dog, Rudi, and I’m finishing it with my dear little rescue girl, Lilla. In between there has been a lot of heartache and patient training, but it’s enough to know that Rudi had a great life and is now safe, and that Lilla is becoming more settled and confident every day.
Woven throughout this year has been the ongoing issue of my painful hip. I have been teaching yoga for 48 years, and I’m accustomed to healing any injuries with sensible, well-thought-out, yoga practice. However, this problem is going in the wrong direction. I have seen a healer and a cranial osteopath but, on the recommendation of a friend, I have now been to see an excellent chiropractor. He has given me a dose of reality and told me that I will never return to how I was in August 2022. The two injuries on my left hip, combined with the injury to me left knee from the labrador and the severely twisted left ankle has taken it’s toll. The chiropractor said that this problem would have shown up much earlier with anyone else. All the yoga that I have done has kept me fit and supple, and my body persevered through the traumas. But now it’s caught up on me. The left side, that has always been the most supple, is now in trouble. No more butterfly knees with my knees drumming on the floor! No more sitting cross-legged to meditate! No more half-lotus and full-lotus! There is a sense of loss. I have loved my yoga career, and always felt that my body came packaged for yoga practice. And I’ve had a good run, and a vibrant journey with my yoga. I will always be grateful, and I will always continue with my modified practice. I’m so fortunate to have a beautiful yoga teacher who attends my Friday class and is very happy to demonstrate for me, so I shall teach a little longer, hopefully.
My chiropractor says that I must manage this condition. He’s a big fan of dog-walking and gardening…phew! And he likes what I do standing on the bottom step of the stairs and hanging my left leg down. He approves of gentle bridges and side lifts for the legs. These will help to keep the muscles strong. And he’s loosened off the glutes, (which were working overtime to support my hip), and realigned my pelvis. Apparently 20% more weight was being taken by my right foot than normally. Don’t want to wear out that hip! I will go back to him whenever necessary.
So on we go…processing, learning, adjusting, accepting. It’s been a year of loss and struggle, but I remember seeing a wonderful slogan on a tee-shirt: ‘I want to be all used up when I die!’ Amen.
Merry Christmas to you all. Immerse yourself in this tricky world at this tricky time in any way that feels right for you.
OM Shanti Shanti Shanti
Yoga Prescribed 