MAKES ME HAPPY!

Lately due to recovery reasons I had to take a short break in my daily yoga practice. More exactly dealing with the asanas was being stopped. According to the doctor’s instructions. I rested three more weeks to start with it again, but what happened until then…”

First it was allowed for me to train my lower bodyparts and after six week I could ‘turn on’ my abdominal muscles and afterwards the upper body parts. Interesting experience…after 10 years practicing yoga asanas on a daily basis – even during pregnancies and after giving birth – felt strange that instead of doing a headstand, I was determined to do a longer stillstand. But lucky me, I was not entirely giving up. Fortunately there are chances to avoid numbness. Gergő and Manju Jois, whom I just happily met before the OP, both advised me to stick with pranayama for a better recovery. Iyengar says at a place: ”Different asanas are helpful in different situations for ease sicknesses and create harmony in the body.” I understood, pranayama practice is developed for a sadhaka’s (practicant’s) emotional, rational and mental demands for adjusting better to changing circumstances. Actually I felt lucky that I was forced to get more involved in yoga breathing techniques, AKA pranayama in a higher level – now I feel I made the most out of it! Instead of practicing intense, I took two, two-and-a half hour walks meanwhile trying to conduct me, in other words my physical body, step-by-step to my walking pranayama exercises. These are the followings:

Since movements felt too painful, in between – approximetely in the first two weeks – I started my pranayama practice with low (abdominal) breathing and finished the session with them too. Kapalabhati was impossible due to prohibited abdominal movement, and so was alternate nostril breathing. A very intense energy flow was indicated which didn’t really supported the recovery. Instead of being energized I just felt a horrible fatigue. Too many focus points might be the main cause.

In walking pranayama I did middle abdominal breathing very carefully, driving my intention to pull my navel in for gently support the spine. All I wanted, was a slow and complete inhalation (puraka) and maybe a slower complete exhalation (rechaka). At this point I didn’t hold my breath (kumbaka), not to trouble abdominal muscles.

Sometimes it’s a bit painful when muscles under the lowest ribs are tightened but slowly there’ll be more space for movement. I started with alternate nostril breathing at the end of the third week, partly because it is stable, I could keep my arm without pain, on the other hand I am capable of deep concentration which goes to my body too – this exercise does not increase the pain as much as in the previous period.

Now I see pranayama as an independent practice. I hope I can fit more soon, but frankly (yet) I do not feel the ‘other’s’ absence. By which I mean that firm mind, sound judgment and will power can be strenghtened by breathing exercises so sanjama (Dharana/Concentration – Dhyana/Meditation – Samadhi/Union,  the last three limbs of yoga due to Patanjali) is well-prepared. Yet it is still true that without physical asanas I might never have found the strength and substance of pranayama…