My Scoliosis Story
By Theresa Shay
Over the past few months, I have moved my personal scoliosis journey into the professional realm. As a yoga student, I have been working with the principles of Yoga for Scoliosis for years, but as a yoga teacher, I have presented the flow without speaking about this condition. As June is Scoliosis Awareness Month, I am sharing more about my personal journey, especially to encourage others - young and old - on their scoliosis journey. If you know someone with scoliosis please forward this to them.
I found out I had scoliosis at a school screening when I was 10 years old. For the next few years, my doctors took regular x rays and watched my bones to see if the curve would progress. They also had me wear a lift in my shoe for a short leg as an attempt to slow the scoliosis progression. This was, in my opinion, an awful idea. Because of the lift, I could not wear sandals or flip flops, which everyone wore most of the year in Austin, Texas, where I grew up. I remember looking at my feet during 8th grade science class and feeling sorry that my toes were not out to see the light of day.
As I headed into 9th grade, my growth spurt accelerated and the curve increased. Doctors gave my parents two choices: surgery to insert a rod into my spine, or wear a back brace. My mother was adamant it would be a back brace for Theresa. Along with teaching me to be a musician and bringing me into the world in the first place, this has been her biggest gift to my life.
Between ages 14-17, I wore my Boston brace 23 hours a day, 7 days a week. The hope was this would keep my curve from getting worse. It progressed in the brace, but not enough to cause the doctor concern. The experience of wearing a brace through those formative years was significant. In short, it was a painful and difficult transition into the brace. I wore clothes three sizes too big to hide every edge of the brace. I learned how to navigate life without ever bending at the waist. Eventually I buckled it on after my shower and didn’t even think about it.
When I completed my treatment and shed the brace as a senior in high school, I had to reacquaint myself to the feeling of air on my skin. I felt very light and flimsy and had to learn to hold myself up as I weaned off the brace. I went off to college and graduate school and entered the field of education as a middle and high school teacher.
At age 26, living in Pennsylvania, I fell in love with TriYoga®. For thirty years I have been immersed in the practice. I attribute my health, happiness, and wisdom to this system. Because TriYoga works with the energetic flow behind the body and the mind, I have learned how to go beyond this physical reality and touch something deeper, more profound, more lasting, and completely inspiring. This connection gives my life meaning and purpose.
In 2018 I attended my first Yoga for Scoliosis class with a local yoga teacher in State College, Pennsylvania. After a 60 minute class, I could feel how the approach supported my unique structure. I began taking weekly classes with Mandy Sergent, who led me to Allison West and Elise Browning Miller.
The sideways curves and associated spinal rotation of scoliosis that I’ve lived with all my life began to reveal themselves through these Yoga for Scoliosis classes. I started to understand how I was put together and what I needed to do to support my vastly asymmetrical body. In fact, though I knew I had scoliosis, and though I paid a lot of attention to my body through yoga, I could not locate the exact place of my curve or say what type it was. I also did not know my lateral curve had created significant rotation in my spine. I had always known I could not breathe into the back of my lower left lung, enjoy Cobra, or roll into Plow without listing, but I didn’t know how to address any of these experiences.
As menopause approached, I sensed that my back was not as happy as it had been in previous decades. I consider it divine flow that Mandy had traveled the Yoga for Scoliosis path ahead of me, pursued in-depth training with exceptional teachers, and could show me what she had found helped her scoliosis. How amazing to find just the person I needed to know in my not-so-big central Pennsylvania town.
I feel called to create a new bridge now, connecting the knowledge of supporting a body with scoliosis to the practice of TriYoga. The system of TriYoga addresses the body, as well as what is beyond our form, to awaken consciousness. We are temporarily here in these bodies. When the time comes for this layer (kosha) surrounding the soul to fall away, the “I” will continue. For now, while this “I” travels through life on earth where gravity looms large, I want to share the tools I have gathered for making this physical journey as joyful and pain-free as possible.
Whether you have scoliosis, you are a teacher who has students with the condition, or you just want to come along for the ride to be inspired to meet your own challenges with grace, your presence here is welcome. Everyone is dealing with something, and traveling together makes the journey so sweet.
Here’s to the twisting, turning way hOMe. I am happy to be leading the way.
Theresa Shay is the founding director of TriYoga of Central Pennsylvania, where she teaches weekly yoga and meditation online and trains others to teach TriYoga®. Each week, she shares wisdom cultivated from decades of TriYoga study and practice.
Learn more about her here. Theresa can be reached at Theresa@PennsylvaniaYoga.com. Find her on Instagram @theresa_of_triyoga for more inspiration and light.