My Yoga Journey to Healing
My story begins at 13 years old. I began having back pain and knee pain. I was taken to my primary doctor, was given a few physical therapy exercises for my knees, instructed to wear a soft knee brace and try to lighten the load of my school backpack. I carried this chronic pain with me all the way to 20 years old until my knees started giving away when I would try to climb stairs. I was 20 years old and could not climb stairs without falling down. I had x-rays done on my back and knees and because I couldn’t pinpoint a point of time in my young life where injuries could have occurred I was given pain meds and sent off to physical therapy with little information to go on. I could not do physical therapy without the pain meds and just didn’t feel like this was the answer. Something was missing.
Out of desperation I decided to join a restorative yoga class. The teacher Natalie had a passion for healing and to answer the question why. She encouraged me to have a one on one session with her so we can find the root of my problem as I continued to struggle to do a few poses in her class. After listening to me explain my pain in my knees and my whole back she told me I had been living with chronic pain for most of my life. I had never heard anyone tell me this. It was a relief as I had always thought from 13 years of age I was lazy or not capable of athletic ability or to even enjoy a work out at the gym. For the first time I was able to give myself grace!
Natalie immediately started reworking my posture. She analyzed the way I walked the way I stood. She then taught me all over again how to walk. Her instruction changed my life! After three months of continued yoga classes and using her therapy exercises at home for the first time in my life I was nearly pain-free!
What Natalie taught me stayed with me through the following years. I fell out of doing yoga and was busy starting a family, but even during that time those practices she taught stuck with me. It carried me through the physical weight of 3 pregnancies.
Nine years after being with Natalie I reconnected with her. She was advertising for yoga teacher training. I remembered what she had done for me, what she had taught me and I wanted to learn more to become stronger. During those 9 years I had learned that I had a torn meniscus in one maybe both knees maybe ever since I was 13 and with my understanding of what Natalie taught me I knew what I needed to do to continue to protect my knees and avoid surgery. I wanted to give others the same hope and peace so I joined Natalie‘s yoga teacher training. After seven years of being a yoga teacher I am now able to provide the same posture therapy that Natalie provided me. There are many more details left out of my journey with my chronic pain. But Natalie taught me and my own life experience has taught me that it’s never too late. Whether you get surgery or not for anything from your hips, your knees, your feet, your toes we always have to be ready to take care of our posture from the feet up. If you would like to learn more about my story or what you can receive through posture therapy with me please reach out and email me. I would love to listen to your story and see what I can do to help!
