A few weeks ago one of my longtime students announced at the end of the Chair Yoga class that her osteoarthritis has almost completely disappeared since she first joined the class years ago.
I was shocked – not that it was helping her, but that she hasn’t said anything before to me. She would rarely miss a class ever unless her children and their families were visiting from out of town.
I asked her why she never shared this before and she said that she “didn’t want to jinx it”.
So I’m going to share it on her behalf with her permission a beautiful email she wrote about her struggles with symptoms of osteoarthritis, aging and how a regular weekly Chair Yoga class has helped her tremendously.
It would be inaccurate to say it has completely disappeared. What happened was the severe attack that I suffered last year (to the day almost) has lessened greatly so that I now rarely need pain killers, or arthritis medicine.
What also happened was the Yoga chair (yoga) classes and the meditation period at the end of class brought such relief and an awareness that I was actually feeling no pain anywhere, so I equated this as something I could use to keep up this feeling.
The meditation period, learned over the years of being with you, is becoming easier to do, the separating the busy day outside to the quiet inside where breathing is calming. I think that is what truly helps me when I do feel stressed but know that I can stop and be calmed – has given me a confidence that I can have more pain free days.
I try to keep positive and look to my practice at Yoga as one of the tools I use to keep me mobile and pain-free.
I still get a thrill some mornings that I can walk all day with strong strides at the pace I did before and get up and down stairs without any trouble – those are the moments I thank my body like we do in class – it works.
If you want to learn more about the Chair Yoga classes I run in Oakville or virtually over Zoom, you can find more information here.