Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Using the Breath for Painfree Practice

This evening I went to my first yoga class for 2011. I have not been doing any yoga since last Friday after I started the acupuncture treatment for my tennis elbow. After going for the 2nd treatment yesterday, I decided to attend the Hatha class as I know there are no arm-balancing poses which might put pressure on the elbow.

At the start of the class when Azmi asked us to set our intention for the class, I set my intention to use my breath to take me through the practice. By focusing on my breath, I did not feel the pain at my right elbow as I did the poses. Overall, I had a good practice as the only time I felt some pain at the elbow was when I had to bind my hands in the Binding Triangle pose. After the mild discomfort, I find myself putting more awareness on how I should place my hands. Instead of doing inverted prayer in Warrior 3, I clasped my elbows to avoid twisting my hand.

Having attended today’s class, I know which poses I should avoid so as not to aggravate the pain in the elbow. I will not be going to any more classes for the rest of this week as I will be continuing the acupuncture treatment but will be doing a self-practice of restorative poses at home.

I would like to share this wonderful article from my teacher, Azmi Samdjaga on The Breath; A Discovery Of Who You Really Are. Please click the link to read. Namaste.

No comments: