06 :: Little Changes
In the tail end of 2019 the pain decided that it wasn’t quite done with me and by the new year I was an invalid on an ever increasing amount of medication to manage the pain. Thankfully, a discectomy in March had confirmed that a herniated disc was the source of my dysfunction and its removal immediately improved my situation. Returning to the hot room, my atrophied body unsurprisingly moved with less depth and grace however the way in which my body moved felt more functional. As I was reacquainting myself with my muscular and skeletal systems in the hot room, Found City yoga had to close its doors in November and with other studios and gyms closed as well, I now find myself practicing at home. As you can imagine, my yoga practice has been in a state of flux.
It would be easy to list off the many things I miss from practicing in a dedicated yoga studio however I feel that it is more important to focus on how practicing at home has given me some new insight on how my body moves. From the inception of my 26 and 2 practice, I have been practicing on a hard surface; in my home, the floors are carpeted. This one change has got me thinking a lot about my feet and all of the points of articulation that they posses. The squishier surface provided me with different feedback on how I was distributing my weight. It is not even. This insignificant change allowed me to realize that I really don’t like to use my pinky toes, likely from many years of wearing shoes that were too small for me. Looking at my little piggies, I can see that they turn inwards and that they rest on their sides resulting in improper use of my fifth metatarsals. With the feet being the first point of contact with the floor in many postures, it felt as if I have been developing my postures on an improper foundation.
I’m not dismayed by any means, this is part of the process. Often these insights don’t make themselves known until the mind and body is ready for them. It is impressive how small changes can have a major effect on how one performs a posture making it feel completely different. Over the years I have experienced similar small revelations, none of which seemed worth mentioning at the time as they frequently led my attention to other alterations I needed to address. It is only in hindsight that I have realized that the sum of these changes has added up to something very profound. To embrace and apply these changes is to reprogram the mind body connection resulting in a body that moves functionally.