So, today, I thought I'd catch up on a few comments. First, thanks for them! I love comments - I love the interaction that a blog allows with people who have common interests. I do moderate comments not out of fear of people disagreeing with me, but rather to avoid SPAM and also mean-spirited comments. Those don't come often, thankfully. If you do post, think about putting your name in there - I don't mind Anonymous comments really, but it's fun to know who you're talking to, and frankly, all the Anonymous comments blend together and it's hard to relate past comments from the same poster, etc. Consider it!
The first topic: Sciatica - joy! Sciatica can be caused by various problems but the result is the same issue: Nerves in the spine get crushed by your vertebrae, causing a shooting pain down one leg, and often resulting in problems on that whole side of the body. My best description of the pain follows: It's like someone jammed an ice-pick deep into my right hip, and out it's end, battery acid cascades down my leg causing my thigh to burn, shin to ache, and foot to be somewhat numb. The hip joint itself becomes sensitive. Compensation results in low back tightness on the right side, and often difficulty turning my neck. My right arm sometimes hurts too, aches in my hand, wrist and forearm, with a more burning type of sensation in my upper arm. Good times!
My only solution to it is...to rest. And it's hard to do, but when it's really bad, I reduce the number of classes I take. At it's worst in my first 'outbreak' for lack of a better word, I went down to 2x/week. After a month, it was SO MUCH better. This last time, it wasn't as severe and I went to class and took it very easy on each and every backbend (reducing the compression on the 'pinched nerve'), 1-legged postures putting extra pressure on my right leg, not always 'sitting down' far enough in triangle to reduce pressure on the hip, and did not 'pigeon-toe my feet' in Standing Separate Leg Stretching Pose. There did not seem to be any good in pushing it - I had a teacher push me to "work harder" and I got to where I couldn't even grasp my knee in the separate leg portion of wind-removing! Bad advice, IMHO. Advil reduces inflammation, and I'm not adverse to taking it for that reason. There are my thoughts on sciatica!
Next, I got the following comment from Anonymous: "Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up! " At first read, of course, I thought: So, how bad was it before?? But of course, I appreciate the comment a lot. God-willing, my writing gets better as I work harder at it. And, like anything you do regularly and work hard at, phases happen...sometimes I'm inspired and have lots of time to think and write. Other times, my life feels sucky and I'm just not that into it...but mostly, I try. So thanks. And I'll keep trying to be creative and original :)
Do I get bored teaching the same 26 postures? Well, it's like asking, "Do you get bored practicing the same 26 postures?" My answer is actually the same: No. After so long, there's still so much to learn in both teaching and practicing. As a teacher, every batch of students is so different. For example, recently I taught a small class of 'regulars' - my approach to them is to help them grow in their postures, to push and push and push. My focus there as a teacher is very different than it was in another recent class that was huge and more than half of the students were in their first 5 classes. There, the job is to encourage listening, stillness, focus - the postures will come later for those folks. While the dialogue is the same, the emphasis, energy, encouraging words - they vary so much with every class, it keeps it very interesting to me. Keep in mind, though, that with working full-time I only teach 2-3x/week, and it uses since a different part of my brain than my day job, I'm pretty much always excited and enthusiastic to teach!
Special to Anthony: I'm teaching Sunday 8 a.m. the last two Sundays in February at SB Shoreline! :)
1 comment:
I hear ya girl. I have sacreal dysfunction, which is very similar pain-wise (I am still convinced I might have sciatica because of the tremendous pain sometimes). When that area becomes weak, tender, and shooting pain begins from overactivity in yoga, I just gotta say enough is enough. I always feel better for taking a few days off. On the bright side, it is very helpful and motivating to see how teachers with injuries or any ailments adapt to class. It makes you more human.
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