I remember those desperate, hopeless, years.
So sick, so defeated by life. So broken.
No friends or family for support. Alone, tired, broke, and in constant pain.
I was getting flu-like-symptoms every month. 2-3 weeks of being sick, 1-2 weeks of recovering and trying to play catch up. I could no longer hold down a paying job. Just taking care of my two little ones was a hard task for me and I was not handling it very well. My children were suffering with me.
I would try everything I heard that would help. But nothing did. I would get desperate and finally visit my doctor. I am so sick and tired of being sick and tired, I would say. He would just get frustrated with me. He could not find anything wrong. It wasn’t the flu. He simply did not know what to do.
“If you would just exercise - you would feel better,” he would say. I would respond back: “HELP me feel better so that I am physically ABLE to exercise.” At that point in my life, (late 30’s) just a 20-minute neighborhood walk would put me in bed for 3 days.
It’s not that I didn’t want to take care of myself, it was that I did not have the energy to get out the door, the stamina to walk even the slightest of inclines. Sometimes I would get out and try, I really did, but my muscles would rebel, my nerves would go crazy, and I would literally be in so much pain for 2-3 days that I could barely move around the house.
I knew that if I did not find a way to keep moving my body, and start healing my body, I would soon end up 400 pounds and in a wheelchair.
And that is when SOFT-GENTLE YOGA found me.
Are YOU desperate enough yet to try something new?
I have heard it said that in order to change, the pain that you are enduring must be so bad that you are willing to substitute it (temporarily) for the pain of living, or moving in a new way.
Many of us have lived in pain bodies for so long that even though it hurts, and reeks havoc on our lives, it is still familiar, what we are used to, or conditioned to, so we will always go back to our “norm” even if it is not serving us, until something else really clicks. This is true with body pain, relationships, and even careers.
But master yoga teacher Dr. Swami Sivananda said that our natural state is a state of relaxation, not of discomfort. Sivananda Yoga teaches us that, unlike a lot of traditional exercise and yoga styles, we do not “suffer” through rebuilding the body and balancing the mind, but we first learn how to deeply relax, and be willing to “let go.”
This is why SOFT-GENTLE YOGA begins to work so quickly for folks like me and you.
If all you can do is come into class, lie down in the comfort of our safe cozy room, and rest, you are welcome, and you will begin to feel positive results.
I hear your mind thinking - why would I pay to go to a Yoga Center to do this when I can do this at home?
~ First, because you probably won’t.
~ Second, because the experience will be entirely different.
At home - we come from work exhausted and tend to plop in front of the TV (going semi-unconscious) as we get obsessed either by the terrible tragedies of the day (because fear and violence SELL), or by fake stories told by actors living TV fake lives.
We are tempted by mouth watering commercials for foods that have no life energy, that only create disease, or other commercials telling us we are not good enough in some way, or that we need synthetic medication for pain and depression, or maybe a facelift or tummy tuck.
At a dedicated Therapeutic Yoga Center, our yoga rooms are filled with healing energy - energy that builds as like minded people continue to practice together. We are very respectful of these rooms, like you would be of your beautiful, well-tended gardens that you dedicate so much time and energy to.
The minute you step into our Center there is a place to sit down, turn your phone off, take your shoes off, and even own wash your feet. Yes, we are the only Yoga Center I know of that asks you to not only take off your shoes, and never wear shoes in our healing yoga rooms, but to also wash your feet before entering the room, even if they are already clean. (Baby wipes provided).
This slows you down, and you bestow the first act of yoga (union) or loving kindness on yourselves, by honoring and washing your own feet. This symbolizes leaving the world outside behind for the next hour or so, so that you can replenish your life force energy.
Then you enter our healing Yoga room, you select blankets and bolsters to pamper your body, to make it feel very supported as you lie down on a carpeted floor in a dimly lit room. You practice the art of letting go and becoming one with your breath moving through the body.
SOFT YOGA will teach you than there is a pharmaceutical company within you - of feel good, and disease fighting drugs - but you must learn natural methods of tapping into them.
A Yoga Center is a place where you begin to be exposed to those healing methods.
You need to start somewhere where you will not be judged, or forced to do something you are not physically or emotionally ready to do.
You need to let your body know it is safe. It can rest.
For many of us who have been beaten down by life, or broken in some way, no form of dieting or exercising will ever “stick,” until we feel safe, and until we are able to let go of the judgments we hold against our physical selves.
As your body begins to realize that this room is a “safe place,” something wonderful begins to happen: The body begin to release tension, to physically and even emotionally let go to the years of physical tightness and emotional pain locked inside. For some students, as they are guided through relaxation techniques, they fall asleep. Some yoga teachers would not approve of this, but SOFT YOGA says that is ok, for it uses this soft, feminine side of yoga to get you “hooked” on those natural feel good drugs your body is just waiting to bring forward that already within you. Although the goal in a yoga class is to stay present IN your body (not to loose consciousness), and present with each inhale and each exhale, It is actually quite a compliment that our Yoga Center is safe enough for you to fall asleep in.
Many of you will get a better rest one hour on the floor in my Center than you do a full night in your own bed. If your body is extremely over-fatigued, you need sleep first so movement will be safe for you.
I will bring you back into your body with a gentle tickling of your foot only if your snoring disturbs the room.
No, this is not exercise.
It is practicing a new language - the language of letting go. It is about learning to love your body deeply enough to gently take care of it everyday.
As your body begins to rest, relax, and unwind, it will begin to renew itself. Your body will WANT to move at some point. It will start playing with the movements offered, knowing it can stop and rest at anytime.
As I stated in the beginning of this article, I know what it is like to have a body that hates to move, or lives with constant pain, but I lovingly ask you to consider: Where will you be five years from now, if you don’t do something different today?
If you are new to, or returning to taking care of yourself, I am here to support you.
Please reach out for a new student consultation or help signing up for a class today!
With loving support,
Lanita Varshell
Founder of A Gentle Way
Written in 2018
NOTE: May 17, 2021 - Lanita has been a full-time yoga teacher and therapist since 1996. She had a physical studio in La Mesa, CA for over 20 years. Her physical studio was closed in 2020 due to Covid-19, and she is still uncertain about where she will be teaching LIVE - in person in the future. Until then, she still teaches weekly healing MIMSY-Meditation in Movement Soft Yoga classes LIVE ON ZOOM, and mentors students and yoga teachers privately in group trainings and annual retreats. Lanita has found that her students still get that wonderful group energy when they meet together over the internet. She misses her physical space, and the hugs, but is thrilled that now students from anywhere in the world can join her classes!
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