​Tense shoulders?  Just had an Op for breast Cancer? You have come to the right place.
This Yoga video will not only release your shoulder tension but will shift AWS and Cording after surgery for Breast Cancer.
 
https://youtu.be/iI-rb7oFJWc
 
A Yoga teacher’s story.
 
Yoga teachers are not immune to cancer. I used to imagine I was.  I have now learnt that Cancer finds its way into anyone’s life, even people like me who are consciously attending to their inner balance.   Shocking and devastating though it may be, the Cancer journey has its gifts and one of those gifts is a heightened awareness of our mortality.  This is a big invitation to live more fully in the present.   I found that once I had found a way to calm my deep fears, life could re-emerge; renewed. 
 
Having come through a Mastectomy, Chemotherapy {at least some of it) and tiptoed through Radiotherapy, I feel like I have gone through a strange, parallel universe, separate from normality yet peopled with many others.  Gradually I came to feel that we are all in this together.   We are all challenged by cancer and all that any illness presents us with.  It’s a part of our life experience.
 
After a straightforward operation I healed fast, and I imagined that being a yoga expert, I would not get cording.  Wrong!  I did. It was under my armpit at first.  Then, once I had shifted that problem, it moved to my ribs and then later, to my belly.   
 
What is cording?  Put simply, it is scar tissue, but not necessarily over the scar.  It is the body’s response to the trauma of the operation.  The whole area from belly to wrist can be affected by the formation stringy cords of connective tissue that restrict your movement, hurt and are usually visible under the skin. So, if you have cording, your blood and lymph flow has got stuck and you can feel it.   However, movement, breathwork and massage are all effective ways to heal and prevent this condition. 
 
Once I had woken up to the fact that I too can have cording, I went back to the NHS exercises and they helped as they are effective.   However, they did not satisfy me.  I longed for something flowing and nurturing where I could feel my femininity as joy and sensation.  I wanted to feel that my very sore right chest really belonged to me again, healed and accepted in its new form.  I started to move experimentally, cautiously and tenderly allowing feelings to surface. I found the cording shifted very quickly and my chest and shoulder began to feel freer and less painful.   However, I completely forgot to continue my exercises when I started the Chemotherapy.
 
After a few months, thoroughly distracted by the Chemotherapy experience I started to get pain on my right rib cage.  I had an inspection in the mirror and found to my horror that I could see cords wrapped around my ribs.  Insult to Injury!  Yuck!  I went back to my movements, this time diligently every morning, with the focus on free movement and above all, pleasure.  I am very happy to say that my cording has completely disappeared, and I now have total freedom of movement through my shoulder and chest.
 
I want to offer something, as so much has been given to me.  I am creating three videos on YouTube which take you through the gentle flowing movements that I used to heal my cording and shoulder tension. They will be useful if you just have tense shoulders, even though the videos are focused for those who have had surgery.  I hope that you will find something of value here for body and soul.  Here is number one! More coming soon.   Please click the link below to watch and enjoy.
 
https://youtu.be/iI-rb7oFJWc
 

11 February 2015

What is the best way to nurture a sore shoulder?

This is an optimum healing and resting position.

   A sprain or tear in the rotator cuff can take ages to heal.  It is so easy to re-tear or re-pull a shoulder t that has just begun to feel better.  I can tell you from experience that pruning your garden with the shears up above your head can be risky!  I have a strained shoulder that appeared to be healing until I made one wrong move.  Now it hurts in a variety of ways.  

    So how to rest my shoulder to let my body self heal?  Yoga works on the basis that the body wants to heal itself and that through specifically tailored exercise the body will do just that. 

    In the picture you can see me resting with my sore right shoulder.  I have got my legs up the wall, relaxed and not locked, hips a little bit away from the wall, with my spine flat on the floor.   My right arm is folded with my hand lightly touching my shoulder. For me this is a pain free position.   I have the elbow elevated above my shoulder.  My head is also lifted above the shoulder.  In this way the head of my upper arm bone is sinking into its own socket, so there is no pull on any tendons and the shoulder is completely supported and relaxed. The inversion of my legs and elbow sends the blood down to the internal organs, spine and the shoulder joint.

   The position is relaxing and beneficial in itself.  However, I can maximize the healing potential of this position by bringing my attention to the breath.  Once I have connected to the continuum of my breathing then I can begin to direct my attention to my sore shoulder.  I can imagine that I breathe into it.  I can visualize light, warmth or circulation in and around the joint.  If you try this, it can take a little while to get used to doing this, as the pain or tension in the shoulder area can make it difficult to access. However, you will get results if you persist.  I experience warmth, tingling and a sense of ease while I am in the posture.   

   You can expand on this practice by letting your awareness include the lung and rib cage and then the belly and hip.  Include the other side too.  You may be surprised at what sensations arise as you investigate.  This position helps balance and rest the whole spine and musculature of the back.  The shoulder is attached to your torso, just as a branch grows out of a tree trunk.  You are nurturing the trunk in order to regenerate the branch.

   Myself and my shoulder feel better when I get up (carefully!) from this posture and I have the added satisfaction of having done something for myself for free.   If you try this exercise, you may need to modify it to suit your needs.  If your shoulder is very bad, getting your legs up the wall may hurt too much. Knees bent with feet on the floor would do fine.  Alternatively, place your calves up on a sofa or chair, knees above your hips.  Also, you may find that the position for your arm that is pain free for me, is not so for you.  Apply the principle of elevating the elbow ensuring that it does not hurt and see if you can place your arm in a pain free position.  Experiment!

Maintaining healthy and happy knees.

Today I had yet another interesting conversation with a friend about sore knees. I have had so many conversations with yoga students and friends who have pain in their knees, feet or hips.  I felt it was time to share my thoughts.  On closer observation everyone I have spoken with misuse their knees by locking them back.  If you think you do this, stop right now!

Our knee joint is a hinged joint, designed to bend the knee so that we can climb and move forward, and sit down. The knee joint allows us to move.  Unfortunately, for various reasons we treat our knees as weight bearing joints by locking the knees back so that the ligaments take the body weight and the front of the knee is compressed.  This is illustrated below in the left hand image. In addition, we often torque the knee joint so that the weight comes down in one place, rather than being evenly distributed.  This leads to 'wear and tear'; cartilage and ligaments are all vulnerable to damage.  If you look at the image below you can see a knee locked back and a knee correctly aligned. The latter shows how the skeleton takes the weight of the body straight through the bones. The muscles are thus able to hold the bones in alignment and also to move the bones when you wish to walk.

An exercise to balance your knees.
Have you noticed yourself pressing your knees back into a locked position?  Do you do this as you stand, or also when you walk?  Sometimes it is hard to recognise a habit that is deeply ingrained.  However, if you stand side on to a mirror, place your feet parallel and consciously press the knees back and see what that looks like, then slowly creep your knees forward until your knee caps automatically lift and you can see your thigh is above your shin. This can be a tiny but transformative distance.  Carry on going after that point and your knees will bend and you can feel that extreme. So return slowly, feeling for the balance point. It's a bit like climbing a hill to the summit; going from bent knees to legs straight, then just going a little way down the other side; locking the knees back.  Then slowly back to the summit and then a long way back down the hill as you bend your knees again. Finish with your knees aligned, with the thigh bone balanced directly above the lower leg bone and directly above the ankle.  Pay attention to how your lower back feels.

Twisting the knee joint.
If you combine locking your knees back and twisting the knee joint you are even more likely to be brewing problems for your whole lower body and particularly your knees.

How do you know if you are doing this?  Look down at your feet as you stand.  Do your feet rotate out a little?  Perhaps a lot.  Perhaps one does, one doesn't. When the feet habitually turn out there is uneven pressure on the knee joint. This is also true if you have flat arches, cramped toes or are pigeon toed.  There are many variations on how to apply uneven pressure to a knee joint.

Try bringing the feet parallel so that the first little toe points straight forward from the middle of your ankle, not the big toe.  Allow the big toe and joint to be very slightly in.  If you torque your knee joints to any extent then this is going to feel odd. You may find you suddenly become knock-kneed!  Correct alignment feels very strange if it is not your habit. You will find it difficult to maintain this position unless you give it your full concentration. It takes practice both on the mat and off.

This issue is harder to remedy and so I suggest you come along to a class for some attention!



Knees as a vital link - the wobble point for strength.
I would like to say some more about our knees.  We tend to neglect our knees unless they hurt.  Yesterday, I decided to give mine some particular attention as I practised the standing postures, and something interesting happened.  I felt an energetic release down my body that felt a little wobbly but very good. I felt more grounded.  When I am focusing on the sensations of my knees I am feeling for their position.  I am seeking an alignment where I can feel a direct connection directly up and down through the bones of my legs, through the knee from foot to pelvis.  It feels like a wobbly balance in the knee joint that I have to hold lightly but firmly with my knee muscles.

In Yoga we are reorganising our bodies into a healthy relationship with the ground and the sky.  Our bodies are like conduits between the polarity of earth and sky and this only truly happens when our bones are positioned in a healthy relationship to each other.  When the bones are aligned, life force moves through us like a row of dominos.  The parts of our body which are concerned with this rebounding life force are the structures of our feet and pelvis.  The feet are designed to take our body weight and ground it into the earth. They are also able to rebound that force back up through the balls and arches of the feet, through the legs and into the sacrum and pelvic floor.  If the knees lock back, or are habitually bent, we lose the ability to transfer that  movement through the knee joint and we block off this domino like flow through the body that sustains us.  We cut ourselves off from the earth and our sense of standing in the power of our life force.  So, when we lock the knees or get tight in the knees we have a false sense of security.  Often we are resisting life in some way.  In order to reconnect to a deeper sense of security and personal power, try exploring this area of uncertainty in the positioning if your knees.

So as you stand, or do yoga postures, feel your knees and notice what they are doing.  It may be impossible for you to lock your knees or it may be a very old habit. You do not have to get it right.  The act of tuning into your knee joints will have an effect, even if you are not sure what is alignment and what isn't.  See what happens.