Some people who know me might find it surprising to find out that I used to work in the luxury travel industry. I gave up my job to become a yoga teacher when my second child was born back in 2014.
I can assure you it’s not something I’ve just decided when I woke up one morning – it’s something I wanted to do for a very long time. It all really began when I discovered yoga to manage the back pain I was experiencing due to my scoliosis…
I was introduced to yoga when I first came to London back in 2004. My friend and I went to Salsa classes at Dance Attic in London where they also offer all sorts of other classes such as Pilates and yoga. Because of my scoliosis (and generally bad posture) I’ve always had back aches since I was a teenager so knew that I had to so exercise to keep my back strong and healthy.
Scoliosis is a curvature of the spine to the side and I have a noticeable “left lumbar” curve which means it’s in my lower back (you can see it in the photo below when you compare the sides of my waist). It’s not so severe that I had any operations or braces but at the time I was wearing a heel lift in all my left shoes to bring my spine into alignment. I had already seen lots of doctors who basically all said the only thing to do was to exercise the back muscles.
The first ever yoga class I went to was a Sivananda Yoga class (there was a lot of om, shanti, shanti etc) and in the beginning I thought yoga was too slow and too “airy fairy” for me but once I tried different styles I soon got into it mainly because I could see the benefits for my back.
When I moved to North London I started Ashtanga yoga classes which I loved but after a couple of years practising it, I found that it built up even more tension in my back. I know now, that I was using the muscles that were already strong but didn’t pay attention to the muscles that maybe needed a bit more help. My neck and shoulders felt really stiff and when I went to my Ashtanga teacher to tell her about my scoliosis and back aches and asked what I should do, she gave me, what I now think was one of the best pieces of advice.
At the time, however, I thought it was completely useless. She simply said
“You have to take responsibility for your own body!“
I was a bit lost as to what she meant and what I should do and I went to get help from physiotherapists, osteopaths and chiropractors. Osteopathy was probably the most useful out of the three but it only helped me temporarily and not really for longer than a day or two.
Yoga and Scoliosis
In 2008, I then came across Adelene Cheong, a yoga teacher who specialises in teaching people with back problems and especially scoliosis. She has scoliosis herself and I connected with her immediately. Her teaching was a complete contrast to the Ashtanga classes I had been taking. It was all about releasing tension and then building up strength in the muscles that should actually be working, rather than tensing up around the neck and shoulders.
I went to her workshops and took private yoga sessions with her and she helped me understand my imbalance and how to adjust my yoga practice accordingly. I found, what she was teaching me absolutely fascinating and started to practice at home a lot more. Here I could really concentrate on doing the poses in the way she taught me rather than trying to keep up with the class and of course stay in poses as long as I wanted to…. And it really helped!!
I remember when I was on a business trip once, I did my ten minute morning yoga practice which sometimes just consisted of sitting cross-legged and relaxing the shoulders. There was a moment, when I could actually feel the deep muscles on the tops of my shoulders relax for the first time ever. This is when I thought “wow this is really working!”. I became more and more confident with my new personalised practice and eventually even took out the heel lift from my shoes, which is a big deal if you’ve been wearing it for a long time!
Finding a way to help myself
With yoga and especially Adelene’s teachings, I had found a way to help myself and that is something which I decided I wanted to share with the world – especially people who have similar problems. I really wanted to learn more about yoga in general, its therapeutic applications and anatomy.
By 2010 it was clear in my mind that I wanted to become a yoga teacher but our wedding and two pregnancies delayed the start date of the training by four years in the end!
There are so many different styles of yoga but I believe in each of them you can find something that is useful for you at any given moment. It might for example be losing weight and toning the body, it might be stress relief or recovering from injury or it might be getting through pregnancy…
Whatever it is, yoga is very personal and only you know what you need and only you can make the decision how to manage your health and well being. That’s what I believe ‘taking responsibility for your own body’ means. I am very excited to have started this journey and even more excited to share it with people around me and people who read my blog!
Found this really interesting, I had surgery on my spine to help correct my scoliosis a few years ago and have just taken up yoga to help with the back ache I still get 🙂 Great to hear that it helps you! x
that’s great to hear! I really hope it helps you as much as it helped me! x
interesting and the advice take responsibility for your own body spot on!
Good luck