HOW
I CAME TO YOGA by Joan
Stonehouse
(Published in Yoga and Health May 2003)
I came to yoga very uncertainly, very cautiously and with nervous
curiosity - many years ago. In 1969, there were not many yoga classes
in rural Norfolk where I was living. None of my friends or family
knew quite what yoga was and nor did I! The general supposition was
that yoga was some kind of martial art. However, I had seen an advertisement
for an Adult Education class which promised "learn to relax -
come to Yoga". And I needed to relax and find time for myself.
I was very young, with 2 small children and was feeling rather isolated
having moved to live some 250 miles away from my family and friends
in Tyneside. So I went along to try.
The calm, relaxed
and revitalised young woman who came home that evening bore little
resemblance to the weary, overtired girl who had set out. I was hooked.
I discovered each
week that I could replenish and restore myself completely in that
hour and a half and that my husband and children also benefited from
the knock-on effect. I was more energised, more tolerant and good
humoured in the days after my class and by the time I gradually became
depleted, it was time for the next class and I could renew myself
all over again.
We moved to Manchester
where the class I joined was an Iyengar Yoga class and in due course
I trained as an Iyengar teacher, gaining first the Introductory Certificate
and later the Intermediate Certificate. I taught a number of Adult
Education classes and discovered the only joy as great as one's own
practice, is teaching and helping other people.
I was invited
to teach 5th Formers preparing to take their GCE examinations at the
local girl's grammar school. The feed-back from the girls regarding
the reduction in exam stress, heightened my awareness of the mental
benefits of yoga practice and also made me aware that there were different
groups to whom yoga could be offered where it would be enormously
helpful.
This was reinforced
when we moved back to Norwich to live and I was asked to run a yoga
class at the Norwich Mens Prison. This was an interesting challenge
as the 20 or so men in the class were all on drug rehabilitation and
were most unwilling to try yoga but given no choice! Yoga was part
of their therapy and they must take part. These unwilling students
were noticeably tense physically. I gave them a challenging session
and most of them loved it. The strong physical stretches removed much
of the accumulated frustration and tension they were holding onto
and when they lay down for Savasana, they were amazed at the depth
of relaxation they achieved and the feelings of ease and inner peace
they experienced. They became a most willing and enthusiastic group
to work with.
Teaching these
men taught me so much. I learned how powerful the mind is. I introduced
visualisations into their Savasana. With me, they walked on a Northumbrian
beach, sailed around the Norfolk Broads, had an afternoon at the Pleasure
Beach in Blackpool etc etc. They learned the mind does not have to
be in prison!
I began teaching
at a Clinic for Eating Disorders, showing how through yoga the body
can be viewed not cosmetically, but rather, as a vehicle for living.
The young girls suffering from anorexia have a very poor self-image
and yet, they reported that after their practice, they had a sense
of peace and inner ease that they were unable to achieve normally.
Teaching these girls taught me how holistic yoga is - how it works
on the body, the mind, and the spirit. I now work at the clinic twice
a week.
More and more,
I was relating to yoga as an energy medicine - a self-administered
therapy. When we lose our sense of inner ease, it first becomes "unease"
and this is when we really need our practice. If we neglect this "unease"
it can become "DISease".
Now, in my classes,
workshops and Weekend Retreats, I encourage students to focus on how
mind and body reach a state of Yoga, coming into balance and harmony
in the present moment, feeling deeply at peace at the deepest level
of our being. Because this is the state in which our body heals and
restores and replenishes itself.
I try to impart
to my own students all I have gained though this wonderful practice
including the nurturing of the spirit - which shields us in the difficult
times of life. Over the years I have learnt how yoga creates strength
coupled with flexibility in all aspects of the self - physically,
mentally and spiritually.
So although I
came warily to yoga I have stayed a long time, very willingly.
