By Lynn (Gurupremananda) Cattafi

I recently completed a Teacher Training — Yoga Classroom Therapeutics 1 (YCT1).  I learned how to help students with their own healing.  I now can use more advanced propping and adjustments for many poses.  This helps me tailor the poses to really help people get the pain relief that Svaroopa^® yoga provides.

I have experienced this in my own body. Even more amazing is what it’s doing for one of my students.  I am getting to see first-hand the profound improvements she is enjoying. 

Part of our YCT1 homework is to track a student with a diagnosed medical condition. Before each class they document their current pain level.  We use the traditional scale of 1–10, with 10 being equivalent to childbirth or a broken bone.  After class, they document their current pain level, which shows if they have any improvement. 

This student suffers from psoriatic arthritis.  It causes intense pain and sometimes immobility in her hands and her hips.  Before class recently, she reported her hands were at pain level 9 with her hips at level 6.  I led a 90-minute Svaroopa^® yoga class.  During class, I included a couple of the therapeutic adjustments I knew would help her. 

At the end of class, she documented her results.  Her hands had gone from a 9 on the pain scale to a 1.  Her hips went from pain level 6 down to 3.  She was amazed!  So was I. 

Over the next few days, I followed up with her often.  I made sure she was continuing her yogic breathing practice as well as poses to keep her opening.  She was still feeling great. 

She knows it’s a process.  She recognizes that living without pain all the time will take consistent practice — but it’s worth it!  What a great blessing it is for me to have these tools to help people in pain.  Svaroopa^® yoga teachers can change the world one ache and pain at a time.