By Karen (Kumuda) Schaub

Interviewed by Agnes (Aikya) Hetherington

Last November, I had intense knee pain.  

I finally was able to move from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania, to be in person with Gurudevi more often.  

I had longed to move there years before, but my mother had passed away unexpectedly.  It took several years to come to terms with the loss.  Only then could I begin the process of clearing out her home to put it on the market.  

This physically and emotionally strenuous work re-activated an old knee injury.  I was limping through life, doing daily activities very gingerly.  Once the house was ready, it sold quickly. I had 30 days to pack and move to PA. Within two weeks of arriving, I decided to begin Embodyment^® Yoga Therapy to help relieve the pain. It did that and so much more!  

I needed lots of tailbone opening to relieve the knee pain, which certainly happened. But the therapy also radically changed things on the inside. It was a profound experience of deepening into my Self. I began to develop trust around working with my body in a different way. 

As my fear of the pain receded, I no longer lived in a state of desperation. Throughout my life, I had felt a constant internal shakiness. Yoga therapy and multiple daily practice sessions of Ujjayi Pranayama filled my reservoir of prana. This brought me to a state of being more settled in my life, having less fear. 

Now I’m learning how to keep my mind on a short leash. I set a 90-minute timer when starting a physical task such as unpacking. When my mind wants me to do “just one more thing,” I tell it “no.”  If we allow the mind to rule, it’s a very painful process.