By Swami Samvidaananda

My client came in limping, actually limping.

She had come for an Embodyment^® Yoga Therapy session. A friend, seeing her in pain, had recommended it to her. So she signed up for a series of sessions even though she had never done Svaroopa^® yoga before. She was willing to try anything. She was normally a very physically active person. The pain was really limiting her.

At the end of the hour, her pain was gone. She felt great! She was not limping as she left. She practically skipped out. However, when she arrived for her Overlap Healing session the next day she was limping again.

What happened? She felt so good, she went for a 14-mile bike ride!

I get it. The pain she had been struggling with was gone. With the pain gone, she had the energy and ability to do something she has really missed being able to do. So she went for it. And it felt great. Until, those 14 miles on a bike re-installed all those muscular tensions we had released in the Embodyment^® therapy session. Then, of course, the pain returned.

What she didn’t understand after her first session is that the deep muscular tensions creating her pain had been accumulating for a long time. She loved long bike rides as well as workouts and hikes. These had laid in patterns of muscular tension in the deep muscles connected to her spine.

Those tensions built and built, until one day there was a tipping point. Her tight spinal muscles compressed a disc in her spine enough to put pressure on her nerves. Then, unfortunately, “Hello, pain.”

The good news is that Svaroopa^® yoga therapy releases the tensions in those deep spinal muscles. You are freed from your pain! We excel at releasing the tensions in order to decompress your spine. We call this core-opening.

But it is a gradual process. Tight muscles have a tendency to spring back into their pattern of tension. Thus, they need time to get used to a new pattern of a long, relaxed openness. A series of yoga therapy sessions is best, to get you going.

We also encourage you to do yoga poses and yogic breathing at home. That way, every day you reinforce the new patterns and speed your progress to a whole new you. Plus you save money by needing fewer sessions.

Not only will you have less pain, you will have greater flexibility. You will literally be standing taller. And you will feel renewed, relaxed and revived, from the inside out.

Yoga therapy clients and students feel lighter, calmer, more optimistic, more cheerful and energized. That’s because, as you release deep tensions at the core of your body, you deepen into the core of your Being, which Svaroopa^® yoga calls your own Self.

And it all begins with a yoga therapy session. Are you ready to give it a try?