Born Yogis

    "I wish I had a photograph of this classroom." It is Tuesday at 9 a.m. and Evalena has just taught her therapeutic yoga class at YogaSole. "The great thing about this class, is that there are so many different people who come for so many different reasons." It's true. Looking around the studio on any Tuesday or Thursday morning there are a rainbow of students. Some students are seniors and are just starting to move their bodies again. Other students are young athletes who have suffered injuries. Some are students who don't feel comfortable in a fast-paced or even a beginner level yoga class and the therapeutic yoga class works at a more comfortable slower pace.
     Therapeutic comes from the Greek word "therapeutikos" which is derived from "therapeuein" meaning "to attend" or "to treat". In 1893, Swami Vivekananda spoke in Chicago about therapeutic yoga and it as introduced through the parliament of religions to the United States. In the early 1980's it started to gain popularity again. Books began to be published about how yoga therapy could be an intervention on heart disease. By the 1990's most insurance companies were approving coverage and making yoga therapy part of medical procedures.
     What does this all mean?It means that yoga is a way for us to do what is usually difficult for most of us: care for ourselves. How can we attend to ourselves? How can we be our own caretakers? Yoga teaches us to treat ourselves with kindness. Kindness is a strange word, because we usually use this word while speaking about other people. "Treat people with kindness" "be kind" "Kill 'em with kindness" are just a few sayings our society uses frequently. True kindness must first come from inside.
     At YogaSole during the therapeutic yoga classes an interesting thing happens. People who haven't moved their bodies in years, or people who are learning different ways to use their bodies, become kind. They turn their kindness inwards and focus on first being kind to themselves. This takes breath and patience. We were born yogis, we just need to attend to ourselves as if we were attending to a small child who needs us. Often we don't realize that we are the small child as well as the caretaker.