Nope, Not Teaching About Scoliosis
By Theresa Shay
This is the first part in a series honoring Scoliosis Awareness Month.
I have been studying the principles of Yoga for Scoliosis since early 2019. At my first class with Mandy Glitzer, I realized the approach offered a profound education that could help me address my scoliosis curve pattern. I went to weekly classes with Mandy. I ventured to New York City and Rochester to study with two esteemed teachers. I applied all the knowledge I was gathering to my personal practice every time I flowed.
But I did not speak about how I was doing things differently at the yoga classes I taught.
At Kaliji’s encouragement, I began to share within the TriYoga community what I was learning about supporting my body. The presentations, online and in person, were rich, satisfying, well received. I’d finish presenting and find a huge smile on my face.
Nevertheless, I did not speak about how I was working my own body differently at the yoga classes I taught.
At my monthly spiritual direction sessions, it became hard to ignore that I was resistant to teaching TriYoga with a focus on scoliosis. My director lovingly and steadily held this with me each time I bumped into it. Why wouldn’t I teach more about scoliosis? I have decades of experience living with the condition, and now I have useful knowledge. Each time I explored the question, a new resistance would declare itself.
I don’t want to just teach people who have scoliosis. I don’t want to be known for that. I like the students I already teach.
Some of the principles of Yoga for Scoliosis don’t fit with what we care about in TriYoga, a conundrum I do not know how to address.
If I go deeper into this work and bring my scoliosis to the surface…what if my scoliosis gets worse?
On this breezy, sunny afternoon, the Telling Lump forms in my throat as I type out the third reason. The underlying fear has again come the surface: what if my scoliosis gets worse? Telling Lumps always point out where to look for the next juicy matter of the inner work. I see the uneasy vibration: my mind is afraid scoliosis will derail my life. My avoidance strategy is not to look in that direction.
This is how the mind works. Based on past experience, we project future realities that we want to avoid. In this world, separated from Universal Mind, we make faulty connections and forget what is real.
Now begins the teaching of yoga.
Desires and attachments, likes and dislikes, attraction and aversion – were I to follow the thoughts that produce the Telling Lump, I would be unfaithful to my Self.
I call on Witness Mind. I see my fear. I understand where it comes from. I observe it simply as a thought vibration. Just as it rises it can also fall away, like the cloud that just dissolved into nothing.
First of all, the idea that my scoliosis will disable me down the road is highly unlikely. I take good care of my body, and in fact, have been learning exactly what I need to know to support my body more consciously.
Secondly, what if my scoliosis did some day interrupt my capacity to live the way I want to? Well, actually, it already has, more than once.
Each time I’ve found my way through, adjusted, become wiser, gained experience. If this were to happen again, I have the knowledge, will, and capacity to meet the situation. I can let go of the worry.
Finally, from clear mind, I know that sharing with others what I know about doing yoga in a body with scoliosis has no correlation to the likelihood that my scoliosis will worsen. Resistance point number three is simply wrong thinking.
Instead, I choose to trust the Flow and live into the affirmation that has been guiding me since I crafted it in 2002, “I am cared for and guided by God in all ways for all time.”
I surrender my worry. What is meant for me in the future will be there to greet me then. Thoughts about what’s coming diminish the Now I want to experience - meeting the moment with vibrant energy, offering loving service, connecting with the gifts in front of me, supporting my body, staying quiet in my mind, honoring Source. We know from yoga wisdom that this approach actually encourages a healthy, happy, blissful future that we hope will be ours, for we are in the stream of alignment with the soul’s journey.
I look out on the bright flowers in the garden. I listen to the chattering wrens. I drop my breath to make it lower, slower, smoother. I relax the gripping, beginning with my right hip. I drink water.
There are principles of movement that help a body with a wandering spine. Just as important are the principles of being that help the wandering mind. As it is, I need them both.
Tune in for Part 2 next week.
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.