Another Reason I Love What I Do!
What a gas!
Therapeutic Yoga & Bowenwork opened doors I had thought closed due to injuries and aging. Moving more, in novel ways, yet in strain-free range of movement - these lead to doing more with ease!
In August, just days before my 62nd birthday, I slalom waterskied for the first time in 12 years. It was a gas! Exhilarating! Liberating!
10 years ago MRI’s showed I was bone-on-bone in my right knee and my ACL was partly shredded. (old snow skiing fall and 2 ‘scopes later) Surgeons told me I was “too old” to re-grow cartilage, and to avoid a knee replacement if I want to keep doing yoga, “do less,” and tough it out as long as possible.
I have since been supporting my knee with Therapeutic Yoga and Bowenwork. I feel steadier and stronger each year. I have not had bone-on-bone knee pain for several years now. But I have been afraid to go back to things I used to love like downhill skiing, water skiing, big hikes, etc.
This summer I was both curious and cautious – what if I messed up bad enough to jeopardize my “day job?” Would trying to ski be stupid? One day when the lake was glass, my cousin-sister called over and said “let’s go skiing!” She showed me my old faithful O’Brien slalom ski I bought with babysitting money in middle school. “We’ll see” I thought.
Watching her glide, cut, spray, jump the wake, … I couldn’t NOT try! I did make it easier on myself getting up on 2 and immediately dropping the extra ski. (Ok full disclosure: I fell the first try – too many new sensations and a super powerful boat all at once! But even that was fun!) My “injured knee” fortunately was my front leg, so as soon as I slipped that back foot in the pocket I could settle in. Finding my balance in a totally different body than when last time I skied was fun. And I too got to glide, cut, spray … I felt great!
Afterward, back on the dock, I had had so much fun I actually did a little happy dance!
My arms used to ache quickly – but not now. Even the next day, while I had muscle awareness of intense use, I was neither sore nor stiff; in fact I realized BOTH my legs and knees felt stronger and more aligned after skiing – whether walking the dogs or doing sun salutations! A perfect example of having learned to distribute load functionally, use core (and no that’s not abs!), and do more with less!
Another yoga lesson I applied was “the back foot is the brain of the pose” (Thanks Arthur!) I finally understood why in water skiing you were supposed to have your stronger leg in back. I never had the patience to do that since its harder to learn to drop a ski. Fortunately my stronger leg was now my back leg after all those surgeries. I felt how the back leg drives the ski.
But most importantly – I realize not only did I have a ton of fun – I released some deeply held fear about how my body is aging, and what I can and cannot do. I have much more confidence in my body – based on a deep awareness and respect for my body that permeates all the yoga, Bowenwork, exercise and movement that I do. I truly have learned to LISTEN to my body, heed its whispers, and move more. And to move in NOVEL ways – thus “nourishing” not only my tissues, but my DNA and my spirit. Reading Move Your DNA by Katey Bowman is helping me understand that too. (More on that next time!)
Yoga and Bowenwork (and all I am learning about body, fascia, breath, and more) inform nearly everything I do. Aging can be exciting and fun, not a “sentence” of less.
If you are curious and want more of this for yourself – come work with me! Options from group classes on-line, to Personalized Therapeutics, to Privates. (Note: privates can be on-line or in person.)