8 yoga tools for thriving with chronic illness...i’ve been diagnosed with four auto immune...
TRANSCRIPT
8 Yoga Tools for Thriving with Chronic Illness
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Welcome…
I'm Christa and I want to be your yoga advocate. I want to help you
improve your life with chronic illness through yoga. I want you to thrive
and bee content.
I know what it's like to struggle with the symptoms of a chronic illness such
as pain and fatigue. I’ve been diagnosed with four auto immune diseases.
Yoga has been a huge part of my self-care journey for the past 25 years.
Yoga has given me a path to walk I can journey on my entire life. Because
of my diagnoses, I’ve had to stop multiple activities that brought me joy – blacksmithing,
horseback riding, lounging in the sun at the beach all day. Yoga is something I could do before my
health challenges were an issue, it’s something I can enjoy now, and I will be able to adjust my
practice in the future to stay with it. As we walk the chronic health path, it can be a challenge to
find things that are constants in our lives. We rightly have to give some things up, and I’m grateful
for the things I can still do in spite of my health. I believe yoga can fill that void for you as well
since it’s infinitely customazible. You can always practice yoga and this guide is about providing
you support in your yoga journey.
First - Involve your health care team
Always check in with your health care team before starting an exercise program. Since they’re
aware of your full medical needs, they will have the safest advice for your condition. Also,
involving your health care team will help you keep your practice evidence based. They want to
know the science behind what you’re doing, not the suggestions from Auntie’s Essential Oil
website.
Second – Gear up
Yoga requires very little gear but you’ll be more comfortable in relaxed stretchy clothes and your
own mat. Both can be had at discount stores or upscale boutiques. It’s more important to have
what works for you than where you get it. If you’re taking your practice into the pool, all you need
is your suit and the shallow end.
Third – Commit
If yoga is a new activity in your life, commit to it just as a trial. It doesn’t have to be forever, but
give it your best go for a month. That will see you through the initial newness phase, potentially
some changes in your health, and some practice challenges to see if it’s right for you. At the end
of the month, assess, and set a plan for moving forward based on what you learned. If you
currently have a yoga practice, use this guide as an opportunity to evaluate and reconnect with
your practice.
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Concentration
The original purpose of the postures in yoga
was to prepare your body to sit comfortably in
meditation. Meditation is essentially the ability
to concentrate on one thing at a time.
Meditation is not thinking of nothing, that’s
impossible. Meditation is about attaching less
to your busy thought stream to become better
able to reduce your reactivity. Meditation helps
you rewire your brain (see resources below).
Connect with your breath
The beauty of learning the power of your breath
is it’s always with you. Using your breath to
help you calm down and relax on the yoga mat builds skills you can take off the mat into your life.
Pranayama is the Sanskrit word for breath control. The simplest form of pranayama is just
witnessing your breath, noticing how you breathe. Where in your body do you feel your breath,
how long is your breath, how does it sound, what do you smell, etc.? Once you’ve built the skill of
witnessing your breath, you’ll be able to notice how your breath changes when you’re stressed or
overexerting yourself. It’s one more tool you can use in taking better care of yourself. This
witnessing your breath practice, would be considered a single pointed focus meditation.
Everything about yoga is designed to increase your ability to concentrate. Total focus on the state
of your body, mind, and breath as you practice brings you closer to a state of moksha (the Hindu
concept of being freed from the cycle of your unuseful patterns). Western researchers have used
yoga as an example of “flow”, “…a joyous, self-forgetful involvement through concentration, which
in turn is made possible by a discipline of the body.”1 It is a universally available way to immerse
yourself fully in bringing all aspects of yourself together.
“People look for retreats for themselves, in the country, by the coast, or in the hills. There is
nowhere that a person can find a more peaceful and trouble-free retreat than in his own mind. . . .
So constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself.” – Marcus Aurelius
Use your password: BEECONTENT in the members area to access a free gratitude meditation from
me.
Resources:
Meditation: In Depth
Medical Yoga Therapy
1 Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
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Practice Self Compassion
When was the last time you gave yourself a hug
and a hive five?
When was the last time your internal dialogue
was all about how amazing, wonderful, and
beautiful you are?
For most of us, it doesn’t come naturally. If we
see a suffering puppy, we are filled with
compassion and motivated to take action to
improve its state of being. Is it as easy to do the
same for yourself?
Practicing self compassion is a radical act of
bravery. It involves showing up for yourself and squelching your fears. First responders and
military personnel get training in facing their fears and doing their jobs despite those fears. Aren’t
we all born to take care of ourselves and love ourselves? Did you get any training in how to do
that? How about after your diagnosis? Did anyone sit down and help you learn how to be more
compassionate and kind to yourself since managing your health is going to be a 24/7 job on top of
everything else you do?
What’s keeping your from being compassionate with yourself? How can you transform thoughts
about what you deserve to always be kind and considerate? Do you really have anything to lose
by transforming your relationship with yourself to one of kindness?
Use your time on your mat to practice self compassion. Always focus on what you can do, not
what you can’t. Your practice should nourish, enrich and sustain you. Your practice is for you,
directed by you, to meet your needs.
“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else
- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.” - e. e.
cummings
For more help on practicing self compassion, check out the work of Kristin Neff. She has books,
meditations and resources on her website on how to increase self compassion.
Research on self compassion:
The Impact of Compassion-Focused Self-Help on Well-Being
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Keep yoga accessible
A big barrier to practicing yoga is our
perceptions about what yoga is. It’s perceived
by many to be physical exercise for young,
flexible, white women who have the time and
money. As a yoga teacher, I hear variations of
that description all the time when people tell
me why they can’t practice yoga. Advertisers
reinforce those perceptions, but the reality of
yoga is far from that.
Yoga is for EVERY body.
“If you have a body and a mind, you can do yoga”.
– Jivana Heyman
Yoga is for everyone including those with health challenges. The biggest change people with
health challenges need to their yoga practice is their attitude.
You need to make your practice available to you right here and right now. Your practice should
always be a place of support, solace, and comfort. It shouldn’t increase your pain levels, cause you
stress, or be somewhere you encounter body shaming.
One way to keep yoga accessible is to find the right instructor.
Read my tips on how to keep yoga accessible. Find an Accessible Yoga Ambassador in your area
by visiting their website. Read my post on how to find a class for your health needs on my website
HERE.
If applicable, search out a trauma informed yoga specialist. This would be relevant if you have a
high ACE’s score along with your health challenges. If you haven’t read about the connections
between Adverse Childhood Events and chronic health, explore the ACE’s Too High website.
The only style of yoga you should really avoid under almost all circumstances would be Bikram
yoga. The super-heated room is designed to stress your physiology. If you’re trying to practice
yoga with a chronic disease, your physiology is already under duress, don’t make it worse.
Using yoga props is a great way to keep your practice accessible. When an instructor offers
suggestions for props, give it a try. An aversion to props is usually more about your ego than your
body.
Another way to keep your yoga accessible is to practice in the pool…
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Aqua yoga
Aqua yoga has some huge benefits for people
with chronic illness compared to other styles of
yoga.
It’s no impact. You’re not bouncing around like
an aquatics aerobics class, nor are you doing
jump-throughs like in a flow yoga class. It’s soft
on your joints, which really matters if you’re
practicing with arthritic conditions,
hypermobility situations, or spinal problems.
You stay on your feet. If you now have bionic
joints, they may not bend like your original
ones. Sitting on the floor may no longer be an
option, or you might have enough challenges with your hands and wrists that regular yoga is out.
Your weight doesn’t matter. If you have a chronic illness it’s hard to exercise with chronic pain,
some people self medicate with poor food choices and develop weight challenges or you might be
self conscious about your appearance. The buoyancy of the water is friendly for those joint
problems that are aggravated when you have an abundant body. Also, working out in the water,
no one can see you so there’s no reason to be self-conscious.
If you’re new to yoga, you’re more likely to stay with it. Research has shown for people with no
exercise regimen, if they start with an aquatics program, they report enjoying it more and sticking
with it longer, than a land based program2.
The hydrostatic pressure (the force of the water pushing in on you everywhere) of the water
reduces swelling and contributes to kidney health.
It’s extremely low risk. Yoga overall is no more dangerous than being alive, however3, as more
people turn to yoga, injury rates have gone up, especially for seniors. Since water removes most
of the risks associated with gravity, you’re less likely to hurt yourself in an aqua yoga class
compared to land.
Men like it. I have no research for this but I have men come to my aqua classes more consistently
than my land classes. I’ve heard similar reports from other aqua yoga teachers. If you’re looking
for yoga to do with a man, take him to aqua yoga.
If you’re looking for aqua yoga resources, check out my aqua yoga page.
2 Hydrotherapy versus conventional land-based exercise for the management of patients with osteoarthritis of the knee: a randomized
clinical trial, Silva et al. 3 Yoga-Related Injuries in the United States From 2001 to 2014, Swain et al.
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Use yoga philosophy
Yoga has endured for centuries not because it
has five great poses that build sculpted abs, but
because it’s a philosophy that helps you build a
better life.
One of the most powerful ideas for people
struggling with chronic illness is the idea that
you are perfect as you are.
“Yoga subscribes to the notion that deep within us
there is something that is also very real but, unlike
everything else, is not subject to change.” TKV
Desikachar The Heart of Yoga
You are not defined by your diagnoses. You would never introduce yourself to someone else
saying, “Hi! I’m osteoarthritis in my left knee, mixed with pre-diabetes and a dash of Sjogren’s
thrown in.” Yoga helps you rediscover everything that’s inside you that was there before your
diagnoses, and will continue to be there no matter how your health changes.
Practicing yoga helps you find your own inner landscape – wants, needs, passions, faults, fears.
You get to decide what to do about all those. You can drop the things that aren’t serving you. You
can strengthen your strengths by flexing the muscles of your talents. You can release your fears
about the future, and stop dwelling in the past.
If you don’t have a copy of the yoga sutras, check one out from your local library or buy one. Two I
like are Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by BKS Iyengar or The Secret Power of Yoga by Nischala
Joy Devi.
Read my book, There’s no P in our OOL, for more tips on how to apply the first two limbs of yoga,
the yamas and niyamas in your daily life.
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Keep a practice journal
A practice journal can help you in multiple
ways. It can help you track your practice, goals,
and development as a yogi.
That can mean your progress in asana for
example. If you want to be able to get to a
certain point in an asana it can show your
progress over time.
If you have a goal such as practicing 3X per
week for a month, it can help hold you
accountable to that goal.
If you want to study yoga philosophy, it can
provide you with a space to record your thoughts and observations.
If your yoga practice is bringing up emotional issues you need to deal with, it provides you a space
to hash those out.
If you have questions for your yoga instructor or health care professional that you think of while
practicing, it gives you a place to jot them down so you don’t forget, or have the struggle to
remember, be a distraction.
It can also serve as a symptom tracker you can share with your health care team. If suddenly one
hip consistently bothers your over the course of the month, or inversions are making you light
headed out of the blue, you have the documentation you can share with your health care team.
Exercise is important to everyone with a chronic illness, but it’s important to keep it safe and
appropriate, and this documentation can help.
You can journal with anything; scraps of paper, a recycled school notebook, or a fancy leather
bound book. The act of writing is what’s therapeutic, not what it’s in, so don’t let that be an
obstacle.
Use your password: BEECONTENT in the members area of the website for journaling resources
from me.
If you’re ready to go and just need some prompts, the next page will get you started.
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What inspires you about practicing yoga?
What have been the obstacles in your yoga practice?
Can you identify 3 resources you can use to get past these obstacles?
Next time your health is giving you trouble, what are three things can you do to still be
able to practice?
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Stay flexible
I don’t mean your ability to bring your head to
your knees in an asana here. I mean your
willingness to change your perception of what
your practice needs to look like in any given
day. You need to flex the muscle of self-
permission to meet your needs in the
moment.
Are you serving your yoga practice or is it
serving you?
“With humility (an open heart and mind), we
embrace the sacred study of yoga.” - Nischala Joy
Devi
That’s the first yoga sutra translated by Joy Devi who calls on us to practice with an open heart and
mind. This requires us to be open to change and humble enough to recognize our strengths and
limitations.
Having a substitution plan in place is an example of keeping your practice responsive to your
needs.
Here’s some ideas:
Instead of a land class Practice in the pool
Instead of a full 1:20 minute class Go to the 45 minute tune up class
Instead of a flow class Go to a gentle class
Instead of practicing 5 days a week Take a day off
Instead of a physical practice Just sit on your mat and read a book
Instead of sticking with a teacher who pushes you Try a restorative class somewhere new
You get the idea…
Write down three ideas right now below, to have a substitution plan for yourself on file, for the
next time you need it.
1.
2.
3.
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Find a practice buddy
Yoga is considered a solitary practice but
involving others can have its benefits. Do you
need accountability to make it to class? Setting
a date with another person to help get you
there, gets you there. Before you go together,
check in with your buddy and let them know
how you’re doing that day. If it’s a day you need
to back off, when you’re in class together and
they see you pushing yourself, they can give you
that little clue to help you keep your practice
right for you, instead of being pushed by your
ego.
Practicing with a buddy keeps you focused on what you can do. Any disease will require you to
make some changes in your life. Bringing others into the parts of your life that engage you keeps
you focused on what you can do, not dwelling on what you can’t. No friend says, “Hey come on
over and let’s bake some gluten filled sugar death bombs and then go lay in the sun on the deck
and work on some skin cancer.” A friend wants to be with you and support you in ways that work
for you. We need support in our lives.
Use community support also:
Reach out to others in your yoga studio
Post a notice for a workout buddy in your doctor’s office
Find a meditation community in your area
Find a local support group for your condition. Here’s a government run directory of over 1,100
support groups.
Take a CDC class on disease management – resources and provider link HERE.
Use online communities. I run a Facebook group on Yoga for Auto Immune Diseases. Join us
HERE.
In case you need some research to back this up:
Social and Emotional Support and its Implication for Health
Yoga will help you be the healthiest person you can be. Health is a journey not a destination. It’s
not the absence of disease. Your doctor is trying to keep you out of disability and premature
death, obviously important, but there’s more to life than not dying. We need coping tools to
thrive. Yoga can be one of those tools. I look forward to connecting with you on your yoga
journey and helping you find wellness, hope, and contentment.