What a lesson that past week and a half has been! Being sick isn’t very fun and it doesn’t bring out the best in me (Can you say WHINE?!?!? Suffice to say my purple Complaint Free World bracelet has seen a lot of action that past week and a half.) — despite my attempts to look on the bright side of things and use feeling ill as an excuse to take a break.

The hardest thing about being sick for me is that it seems to sap me of motivation to do anything (like write blog posts, for example). There came a point at the end of last week when I realized that the best thing I could do was let go. When I did, I became less focused on the misery and I ended up with a positive aftermath in a new Web venture (yes, I don’t know what possessed me but I decided to work on a new Web site design while being sick — my poor, poor Web designer!). There’s a lot to be said for letting go.

One of the things I let go of a few years ago was the thought that a yoga practice meant unfurling a mat and executing upward and downward dog and a string of other postures. I remember sitting in a Gary Kraftsow workshop where he spoke about how his yoga got him through his brain surgery and subsequent recovery (of which 6 months had to be in the supine position). He spoke about pranayama techniques and chanting in his head (he couldn’t speak at first). I saw first-hand that past week and a half how when your body has a mind of its own, you have to work with what you can. For me, that was the breath. It felt like the one tool (which was much more appealing than medication) that I could use to change my state.

There came a instance when the whole thing seemed like one big Vipassana meditation. I was noticing the sensations in my body but rather than notice and let them go, I was attaching a good/bad label to the sensations. My mind was making my physical condition worse by creating drama. When I finally let go I was able to sit with myself letting the sensations arise as they did. So rather than say that I’ve been sick that past week and a half I prefer to say that I was on a meditation retreat.

As for my yoga practice — there were very few upward and downward dogs for me. Instead there was pranayama and a routine that I often

use for bed-ridden folks. When I first started studying yoga therapy I learned a great routine for someone confined to a bed and the difference amoung my former definition of a yoga practice and that routine really struck me. And it stuck with me. It was a good lesson in the many faces of yoga. Again we go back to the Vipassana model — we observe something without ascribing a good/bad meaning to it. I tried the new routine myself and it certainly wasn’t “bad.” It was just different from how I had been narrowly defining yoga.

So for those few rough days when I couldn’t seem to muster abundant energy to get off the couch/bed, I used a few of the movements from that routine:

• While lying on back, take a few deep sighing breaths. next touch the thumb tips to each finger tip. Repeat a few times. Now touch the thumb tip to the second joint of each finger. Repeat a few times.
• Flex and extend the feet to breath (flex in inhale, extend on exhale).
• Bend knees and raise the feet off the ground. Lie for a few breaths with your hands on your knees. On the exhale, bring the knees to the chest (keep your hands on your knees, but don’t use your hands to pull your knees to your chest — use your core) and on inhale let your knees go back to the original raised position.
• Bring your legs down so you’re once again lying flat on your back. On inhale one arm up and on exhale bring it back down to your side. On inhale raise one leg a few inches off the bed and bring it down on the exhale. Now do the same with the other arm and leg. Repeat alternating arms and legs.
• Bridge — raise alternate arms (3x on each arm) when coming up into the pose and next raise both arms when coming into the pose.
• Savasana

By the end of my simple lying down practice I could feel the energy moving a bit more freely through my body. No mat was involved. I wasn’t wearing any fancy yoga clothes. But I was practicing yoga. Heck, I was even lying (as opposed to sitting) Vipassana. Years ago being sick meant no yoga practice. Now it means yoga only modified.

Namaste!

Original post by insideoutweightloss