Here’s where it all started in 1977. I had graduated nursing school and started working in the Real World and found the Lutheran thing just wasn’t holding. I bought this book at the Franklin Avenue Salvation Army store in the middle of the Minneapolis Native American ghetto where I lived. During those hippie years we taught ourselves things like meditation and microbiotic cooking from books; there weren’t yoga classes or–heaven forbid–yoga PANTS. Just sitar music and incense and Indian bedspreads and beaded door hangings. But I digress.
SO–I followed the directions for focusing on a candle flame and felt an immediate change in my life. Prior to that, meditation had been what you did after somebody read a Bible passage. The notion of emptying one’s mind was truly novel back then, as difficult as that is to imagine now. I moved up to a few simple poses, though in the early edition of the book the word “pose” was never used. The photos in the book are clinical-looking shots of a man and a woman demonstrating how to (very, very seriously) align yourself into a yoga position. We were still in the thrall of the little dark Yogis from India who could curl into pretzel shapes and live on pure air for decades at a time. Yoga was still exotic.
Then came Ali and Erich Schiffman. Things started getting serious. This was the first video tape I used to shape my practice. You can’t imagine how the world of yoga opened up when you could actually SEE how it was done by someone actually DOING it. I still think this series of poses is a classic and that Erich Schiffman is a great teacher. I’ve always wanted to get to the point of doing this set every day, but I’ve never managed it. The poses take an hour and are well worth it. An hour. I need not say more.
Eventually I knew I needed to study with a live teacher. By this time (the 90s) there were even yoga classes in my little Vermont backwater. So I took several sessions of basic Hatha Yoga with a low-key instructor who helped me refine my poses but didn’t stress me out. Even in those days we just practiced in sweat pants or gym shorts and tee shirts. There weren’t any yoga mats or water bottles or matching headbands or anything. Nobody took yoga classes to be hip, but neither did we think of yoga only as the domain of enlightened Indian seers. I’m grateful that I got my basic “hands-on” during such a low-key moment.
Because now, of course, yoga is very stylish and hip and even competitive. I have a lot to say about all of that. Maybe some other time. Let’s just leave it this way: my own practice is still pretty old school.
Right now, and for the past three years, this little workout has been my daily fare. Immediately after my injury I had a lot of physical therapy, including many sessions every week in the therapy pool. No doubt those efforts are the basis for my mobility today. It became obvious to me, and to the physical therapists who were hip to yoga, that many of the exercises were very similar and sometimes identical to yoga poses. Since I had a background in yoga we worked together to translate my routines into yoga terms. When the course of physical therapy came to an end, I had a clear idea what I needed to do. This dvd has helped me keep as much balance, strength, and flexibility as possible. I use it as the bottom line and add other routines as I’m able.
In the category of yoga miracles comes this tape. I bought it in a thrift store for a dollar (see the story coming full circle? –I never had this awareness until now!), not knowing anything about Svaroopa Yoga. After I’d been injured I finally opened the wrapper and tried the routine. In a nutshell, the Svaroopa poses are very subtle core openers. They have given me amazing results I go to them as often as I can, but they take a long time and produce a lot of soreness. I persist in little spurts. I hope to do this series as part of a daily practice…someday.
Yoga has, with no exaggeration, saved my life–or at least made my life worth living. Yoga, like music, has been a consistent thread for me, a personal discipline offering personal rewards deepening over time. I am not distressed at the way yoga has become part of popular culture. Any time, any way you can sincerely and thoughtfully practice yoga, you will be strengthening your life. I hope to continue to find yoga treasures and strengthen my practice for years to come. I wish the same for you. Namaste.
