At 1pm today, I decided to lie on my bed and open the current book I’m reading. Whilst not quite ‘voraciously’ (oh how long it has been), this book – The Body Keeps The Score – was recommended by my psych who felt many of the perspectives I shared were mirrored in many of the learnings of this study. In opening the pages today at this chapter, it is evident why she thought that.
Long have I attested to the reason I kept attending multiple classes of yoga each week for nearly 20 years.
The words of this chapter title are familiar as they have passed through my lips many times. Yoga taught me to inhabit my body again.
Those first years at Next Generation Gym in Adelaide saw more time spent on the classroom floor than upright as that is where I landed whenever trying to attempt standing postures. Starting again from the beginning, required me learning where my body was in space – proprioception – before the years it took before I could balance for any more than a few seconds. With self belief, dedication and the TAC sponsoring my attendance at gyms since my head injury, yoga saw me progress to the point where now riding a bike is achievable. You may have seen I am even beginning my journey back to rollerblades lately!
Yes, it has taken a bloody long time but Yoga helped irrevocably. Thank you Bessel Van Der Kolk for putting your academic authority behind what I have known for all this time.
