By Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast, Yogaratna

Adventurous and enthusiastic at 81 years of age, Bette sought Svaroopa^® yoga therapy after ziplining and white water rafting in Costa Rica last winter.   Her neighbor — a Svaroopa^®  yoga student — noticed Bette walking “strangely,” clearly in pain.  Her neighbor suggested yoga therapy. Bette replied with a resounding “yes.” 

After a series of 10 Overlap Healing Embodyment^® sessions, Bette’s back pain was gone.  Her shoulder pain was gone too. But that can’t be attributed entirely to yoga therapy.  Midway through her Overlap Healing, her painful shoulder got an anesthetic injection from her physician.

Bette began yoga therapy with level 10 pain in her sacrum and 7 in her right shoulder. Her physician had diagnosed a fracture of the left side of her sacrum.  Years before, she’d had two surgeries to repair torn ligaments and tendons in the shoulder.  At age 9, she incurred a serious tailbone injury.

Per protocols for a high-risk client, I began her pain treatment by teaching her Ujjayi Pranayama.  She took to it immediately. Afterward, she felt “much more relaxed.” She was “only slightly aware of” the sacrum pain with which she’d arrived.  Her shoulder was also “feeling much better.”  During the six weeks of her Overlap Embodyment^® sessions, Bette faithfully practiced daily Ujjayi breathing.

After four sessions in a row, she reported feeling “straighter without trying or straining, taller and just calmer up and down my back.”  Her pain steadily lessened through the six sessions at wider intervals.  In her final session, Bette arrived with no pain in her shoulder and just a level 1 in her sacrum.  At the end, she had zero pain and told me, “I don’t understand it.  It’s sort of mystical.  The pain is gone.”

I moved 2,000 miles away a few weeks later. So Bette has continued weekly sessions with another Embodyment^® Therapist near her.  She wrote me a note saying that her “sacrum fracture has become less painful.” She feels that with continued daily Ujjayi breathing it “has a better chance to heal.”

Yes, Embodyment^® plus Ujjayi opens us to the healing power of Consciousness.