Prepping for Yoga Teacher Training / Dealing with a back issue.

Because I am a total geek,  I have already bought all my required books for my Yoga teacher training.  (actually a total geek would have probably read them all but I digress) We have a total of six books to purchase and read and they are now piled up on my dining room table.  I found one at a local used book store and bought the rest on line so they came in piecemeal.     The books are a mix of anatomy, Yoga poses,  breathing, and Yoga philosophy and they are all somewhat intimidating.      Holding a full time job and training will be somewhat of a challenge.   February 25 is coming up fast.   

To get ahead of the game, I was able to find some musculoskeletal anatomy classes on www.edx.org.  This is a great website where universities all over the world post on line classes for free.   The list of  universities include such  places as Michigan, MIT, and Harvard.   Free is good and the content is generally as well.   I would highly recommend using the site for general knowledge as there is a wide variety of classes.   I find complexity of the human body is just fascinating so it was a pleasure to take the courses.    This pre-studying has alleviated some of my trepidation about what we will be learning from the anatomy side. 

Over the past few weeks,  I have been dealing with an odd back pain.   I am not certain where it came from,  but it has curtailed my Yoga practice.  If I sit in a certain position and move suddenly, I have a sharp pain in my left lower back.   It is not chronic pain (meaning that it is not there all the time),  and I am able to do all of my daily activities.  I have even taken a 10+ mile hike with no difficulty or pain each of the last two weekends.    As a result of this pain and wanting to give what ever is injured time to heal,  I had not done a flow practice in nearly three weeks.   I have been limiting myself to restorative, stretching and Yin sessions.    I am only now beginning to add some flow back into my practice but I have been fighting the urge to overdo it.    I have not gone to a class during this time either.    I feel it getting better but it has taken some time to get there.

This injury has made me realize a few things.   The first thing is that I have acquired the patience to work with my injury and not fight through it.   Sitting in restorative poses for ten minutes can be somewhat boring and there was a time when I probably could not do it for two minutes.  Secondly, is that Yoga can be practiced in many ways , and just because you have pain or limitations,  does not mean that you cannot practice.    It is possible to work around your limitations and injuries and to also work on healing them through your practice.    The difficult part is to know when to say this is enough for today.  

12 days to go until I start on my teaching journey.   It will take time away from hiking (especially)  and my other non-Yoga activities but I am up for the challenge.   I am looking forward to all that I will learn both about myself , my practice and Yoga.  

Namaste.

My Book Pile