By Agnes (Aikya) Hetherington

Driving along, I realized that an oblivious driver was pulling out into my path.

To avoid the collision, I stomped on the brake and wrenched the steering wheel sideways. The fright and violent movements put my SI joints into spasm. My sacrum caught fire.

A month later the pain had not abated, even with my regular home yoga practice. Exhausted by relentless pain, I said to my sister, “I just want to go back to normal, or is this my new normal?” What a depressing prospect!

So I decided to get help from the experts. Five Svaroopa^® Yoga Therapy sessions online with Swami Shrutananda brought temporary relief. Still, the activities of daily life continued to fire up the pain. Shrutananda observed that I was doing everything with my back muscles. I needed to strengthen my abdominals and legs to give my back a rest.

Evidently, my regular practice was no longer enough to combat the effects of time and gravity. At age 72, I had become weaker with every passing year, but without noticing.

Over the next three months, Shrutananda patiently guided me through a delicate balancing act. We worked simultaneously on strength building and pain management. This took us into April, and in May I put it to the test.

After my back seized up in December, I was dubious about attempting anything strenuous.  But my siblings and I had arranged our May hill-climbing vacation a year in advance. Shrutananda’s advice was to spend at least as much time doing yoga as I spent hiking.

So I  brought my yoga props along and continued with the therapeutic poses Shrutananda had taught me. On non-walking days I did lots of strength poses.

During one uphill walk, I realized I was flagging, leaning heavily on my walking poles. I told myself, “You’ve been working on strengthening your legs and abs. Use those muscles!” I straightened up and engaged my abs and hamstrings.

I picked up the poles and carried them. Instantly I felt better, more energized. I used this reminder multiple times during the trip.

Now back home, I continue with my twice-daily practice incorporating the therapeutic poses. The sacrum pain has dissolved and I have a spring in my step. Better yet, my new practices are also improving my mind and mood. Someone recently told me I was glowing.

This is my new normal! It’s even much better than the old version before the driving incident. I am deeply grateful for the gift of Svaroopa^® Yoga Therapy.

By Carolyn (Karuna) Beaver

Vicky has been taking Svaroopa^® yoga classes for nearly 20 years.

Even though she doesn’t teach, she has taken Foundations and Embodyment^® Yoga Therapy training. This spring, she took a bigger leap. At Lokananda, she took Embodyment^® Plus; she took the Magic of Ujjayi course online.

Preparation for Embodyment^® Plus required her to give a large number of Embodyment^® sessions. We happily embarked on an Overlap Healing Series with one another. I also gave Vicky some yoga therapy sessions, targeting specific physical issues.

She says, “I always stand up straighter, feel lighter, and more easily experience joy after a class or a session. This happens every time. That’s why Svaroopa^® Yoga is so attractive to me.”

Now Vicky finds that this experience is ongoing, especially after Overlap Healing and yoga therapy as well as Embodyment^® Plus training and the Magic of Ujjayi course. She says, “My experiences last longer and are more sustained. It’s pretty profound. Things are going deeper.”

She has noticed subtle, yet profound, changes in her body mechanics as well. In college, she sustained a bad ankle sprain. Although she had a cast, she had no therapy for her injury. That, in combination with some mild scoliosis, has caused 45 years of lower leg, ankle and foot pain. One leg is slightly misaligned and shorter than the other.

In her “do more yoga” mode this spring and summer, things changed. “As my sacrum would relax, my leg would literally unwind. It didn’t feel ‘screwed in’ any more. I felt muscles in my glutes, thigh, hip, calf and foot that wanted to unwind and be on point — just like a ballerina. That release in my spine was releasing the tension in my leg and unwinding all the way down to my foot.”

Because of travels, she has not been doing as much yoga practice or therapy recently. Yet she is still noticing the benefits. “I can tap into it more easily. It’s just waiting to be acknowledged again. I pick up more readily.”

“And, my feet are not hurting. At the end of the day, my feet would be yelling at me. Now they are not.”

Vicky also has a much better understanding of how all the practices work together. “I used to think that Embodyment^® or asana or Ujjayi were just replacements for one another. But they’re not. You get so many more benefits when you work with all three together. They don’t merely complement one another. They build upon each other.”

As a student. Vicky has always asked lots of questions. She wants to know how to get precise alignments and how things work. “In the past, when the releases have happened,” she recalls, “I’ve felt the benefits, and I’ve wanted to know why. But now, I don’t have to. I know my body is doing what it needs to do. That’s the biggest take away for me.”