By Anna Ranish

I’m starting to feel grateful that I live with chronic muscle pain.

Saying this has taken years. It’s not because I’m a masochist! I feel grateful because the pain has caused me to search really deep inside. Thus, I have done many practices that helped to transform me into a more compassionate person.

One of those practices is Supported Fish (Salambha Matsyasana). I have probably done it in yoga classes only twice. However, I often don’t learn things when I do them in class. I need a lot of repetition.

I got plenty of repetition when I went through excruciating back pain in 2023. Physical therapy couldn’t help me. That’s when I signed up for a long series of Overlap Healing yoga therapy. I had 35 sessions over 3 months.

My therapist had me do Supported Fish often during that time. I really came to love and enjoy the feeling of my body spread across two Svaroopa^® blanket rolls.

I continued doing the pose at home daily. After a while, I felt a powerful shift in my heart. It felt as if someone reached in, took my old heart out and put a new one in. This was a much gentler and more compassionate heart!

I no longer do Supported Fish pose daily. However, I monitor myself to recognize when my heart is feeling a bit rough, not as compassionate as I would like. Then I self-prescribe myself for a week or more of Supported Fish poses. What bliss!