Since this is my first foray into writing a column about yoga, I think I should start with a confession!  I’ve been happily married for over 35 years but for the last 20 odd of those years, I’ve been having a love affair!  And the odd thing is that my husband is OK with this state of ‘ affairs’ !  Let me explain.  My love affair with YOGA began harmlessly enough as a ‘ lunch time diversion’ from work in Los Angeles in the ‘ 70s.  Over the ensuing years, it has grown in both stature and passion until now it’ s just short of an obsession, I’ ll be honest about that.  I went from simply practicing to teaching yoga about 16 years ago and here things start to get really interesting.

If you listen to the many proponents of yoga, it can ease your passage through almost all stages of life from early childhood onwards.  There are legendary people who have done and are doing full backbends well into their late 80′ s and 90′ s whilst the average person can barely touch their toes in their 20′ s.  You might be surprised to learn that a regular (at least 3 times weekly) yoga practice can offer the following benefits: strength, stamina, flexibility, joint mobility, overall calmness of mind and body while at the same time it has been shown to ease you through childbirth and menopause, depression, chronic headaches and back pain, stress (probably the leading cause of heart ‘ attacks’ in our modern society) and the list goes on and on but you get the picture. I should also add that – due to a childhood accident, I had to have my right hip replaced two years ago.  There were a couple of complications and it took longer than I expected to rehabilitate.  I was horrified at how stiff and painful my hip was when I restarted my ‘practice’ and balance was out of the question.  I contacted a fellow yogi who I knew had had not one but two hip surgeries and he was amazingly encouraging – particularly about swimming and since I live in Hawaii that was easy!  Slowly – and I do mean slowly – I started making progress with the help of a wonderful physical therapist and now – admittedly two years later, I am back to pretty much full strength although doing a full backbend is still challenging – but then it always was!  That may be more information than you need about me but I thought it might be encouraging to anyone out there who wants to perhaps start or resume a practice after surgery. So by now you may be asking ‘ what is yoga’ and ‘ what can it do for me?’   I will hope to offer some guidelines and a great deal of encouragement in getting you started.

First the word itself!  It literally translates as ‘ union’ and is derived from the Sanskrit ancestor of the English word ‘ yoke’ .  In this sense, it means a spiritual union — a union of mind, breath and body — in other words, a state of wholeness!  Simply put, it is a system of self-nurturing that encompasses all systems of the body: muscular, skeletal, glandular, respiratory, digestive, energetic, and nervous.  Its roots are ancient — some 3-5,000 years old, though not in its present form of course.  Those ancient yogis or Rishis believed that the physical movement of the body made the inner stillness of meditation more attainable and that is the ultimate goal of this practice.

All this is well and good but how does one go about finding a class that is suitable?  Yoga has ‘ evolved’ along with just about everything else in our fast-paced modern world and there is a quite bewildering variety of classes available and the choice can be overwhelming for a beginning student.  Of course everyone begins with a different degree of strength and flexibility but, trust me, there is something out there, perhaps even in your neighborhood, for every one.  Whether its an intense practice like Ashtanga or a gentle practice like Svaroopa, a pre-heated room such as Bikram, a detail-oriented Iyengar class or even a restorative class or the deep joint-opening stretches in yin yoga – there will be something for you.  For now, I encourage you to start your research.  Check out where your local teachers are, what style of yoga they teach, whether mats and other helpful props are provided, how long and how much the class is and whatever questions come to mind. You might want to ask about the teacher’ s training and certification.  Ask questions, ask whether you might be able to sit in or audit a class to see whether it is suitable for you.  Don’ t rush this stage, it is important to find the right class and the right teacher for you because a relationship is going to develop here.  However, it is important to remember that everyone was once in your shoes — the beginner’ s shoes — and they need to fit!  By all means, talk to the prospective teacher about any physical (or other) issues you might be dealing with and also whether they make physical adjustments.  This could be important as some people love being touched and others do not.

I’ ll leave you now to ponder all this and decide how you want to proceed and as they say here in Hawaii: ‘ A hui hou, Malama Pono’ (‘ Til we meet again, take care of yourself’ )