Disability, Body Image & Yoga: Part 1

How has your yoga practice changed your perception of your body?

SEPTEMBER PROMPT:

Perception of one’s body must change as yoga is practiced. This is especially true of adaptive yoga students. How has your yoga practice changed your perception of your body?

Below are the first three (of ten) submissions we received from the Mind Body Solutions community of adaptive yoga students.

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I used to believe my body was The Way. Look good, speak well, act even better. Be and do whatever it took to gain attention, a job, friends, love. 

What then, when the flesh fails? 

My adaptive yoga practice has taught me acceptance of the passing luxury of wearing this human skin. 

Breathing in, I am alive. 

Breathing out, I accept that my life is a fragile miracle. 

Same pose on a different day yields varying results. The only constant is the opportunity to begin again. With practices grounded in The Now, it becomes easier to release the pressures of the outside world. 

Each day that I am blessed with another awakening is a chance for me to open my eyes and heart to the abundance within me. It is not through temporary success of worldly gains. Rather, it’s the grandstand achievement of becoming one with this transient mortal vehicle. 

Breathing in, I lift the veil. 

Breathing out, I embrace the one and only Me. 

~ Rebecca Anné

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~ Karen Way

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Today, I strolled to the lake on my own for two hours and enjoyed the breeze, watching sailboats, canoers, paddle boarders, ducks, hawks, people swimming and sunning, walking; jogging, biking and strolling in wheelchairs like me! 

My power wheelchair is flexible. A simple tilt and recline and I am ready to do my range of motion exercises or yoga stretches with the assistance of my friend, family or caregiver. Also, I can plug into an online guided meditation, and I am ready to focus on my breathing, while relaxing my mind and body.

After living with ALS, a terminal motor neuron disease for more than 23 years, (most people die of respiratory failure within 2 to 5 years of ALS diagnosis), my muscles are incredibly spastic and stiff. Daily adaptive yoga practice and my muscle relaxant medications help me to retain strength and flexibility. I really do appreciate all that I am still able to do with adaptations, rather than wallow in self-pity for all of the abilities which I have lost over all of this time.

Mind Body Solutions weekly meditation sessions online are very insightful for me to reflect on daily attitudes, attachments which I can now let go of, and to have a better outlook on my life and purpose day by day. The programming from Mind Body Solutions Adaptive Yoga and guided meditation programs, and Team Adaptables Circle and Huddle gatherings offer me access to a fabulous and supportive disability community who inspire me to try new actions and be more comfortable in my mind and body.

- Gae Skager

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