With a combination of rheumatoid
arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome, I've been on a lot of
drugs for a lot of years. While I still have to take drugs
that fight the arthritis, I've been able to stop taking any
pain killers since I started taking your classes. The main
problem was in my hands and wrists. I still have problems at
the end of a work day, but on days when I have class I go home
feeling great - pain free. I've started doing the magic four
in the evenings on the days I don't have class, and am able
to dissolve the pain through that. I frequently do some of
the magic four positions at work when I'm feeling stiff, or
when I'm feeling tired. They definitely help wake you up -
and sit taller and breath easier.
In addition to the physical benefits,
I enjoy the hour and a half devoted to yoga. It's very peaceful
and no matter how frazzled I feel after my work day, I feel
calm and relaxed when I leave class. I've never stuck with
any kind of yoga or exercise class before, but I've been attending
your classes for almost a year, and still look forward to them.
I feel I've found something that is beneficial for me in every
way - physical, mental, spiritual. -K. M.
I have really grown to rely on my daily yoga practice to
start of my day. If I am rushed in the morning, my body notices
it. I feel tighter, more constricted. The twenty to fifty minutes
that I spend every day centers me. I find myself less reactive
at work and with other people, and constantly recommend Svaroopa
classes to people in my life. I enjoy becoming more aware of
where I hold tension in my body and granting myself permission
to let it go. What a blessed gift of connection to my own body
and self! - G.M.
Though I have taken different styles of yoga classes off
and on since the 70's, the emphasis on support and release
in Clair's Svaroopa Yoga classes has allowed my for the first
time to experience the non-competitive nature of yoga in my
body. Prior to this it was no more than an intellectual concept.
As a chiropractor, I recognized immediately the potential Svaroopa
Yoga holds for some of my more chronic patients. -P.S.
My Svaroopa yoga practice has
greatly enhanced my body awareness. I can feel my limits better
and am more responsive to them. As a consequence I don't overdo
it as much as I used to when gardening or shoveling snow for
example, often to the point of inducing a day or two of back
pain. This increased awareness also gives me moments of enjoyment
in inhabiting my body that I didn't used to have, like noticing
that my lower back muscles feel good and get a nice stretch
when I bend over to tie my shoes instead of feeling tender
or precarious.
Since I started
my yoga practice I've seen a marked improvement in my posture
and stance. I often feel more solidly "grounded" than
I used to feel and at the same time more upward-aligned, my
head more elevated.
I have fewer incidents
of back pain -- in particular, muscle spasms, which I've had
regularly all my life, now happen rarely. I'm very pleased
that I now have an effective (drug-free) means of dealing with
back pain when it arises, namely, the "magic four" (or
five or
six) of my home yoga practice. Forty-five minutes to an hour
of yoga is also amazingly effective in getting rid of the occasional
headache or bout with insomnia.
Soon after I started
classes with Clair, my yoga practice and several one-on-one "Embodyment" sessions
were instrumental in ending a 14-month episode of chronic neck
pain, which had been completely resistant to a number of other
approaches.
Clair is an outstanding instructor.
I love her enthusiasm, which is undiminished even when the
class occasionally seems to come in afflicted by a collective
sluggishness. Her patience seems to be unlimited in guiding
us through many of the same postures over and over, but always
step-by-step, at a relaxed pace, and with all of the
adjustments we need. Sometimes I think she has something close
to x-ray vision -- it must be a deeply intuitive recognition
of exactly where a student is holding and not letting go. -R.L.
The practice of Svaroopa Yoga has
improved my flexibility which helps me athletically, leisurely
and at work. Yoga has changed my life both mentally and physically.
It gave me an inner calmness and helps me to handle everyday
challenges with more confidence. Spiritually, it has broadened
my mind as far as different religions and cultures, but most
of all having two herniated discs, Svaroopa Yoga has helped
my back far beyond any traditional medical practice or medications
that I have received. - B.S.
"Svaroopa yoga and embodyment sessions with Clair prepared
me for a non-medicated birth in a hospital setting." -
K. R.
"I have learned through this practice that I can have
a greater effect on my arthritis than I ever thought. Mobility
and pain control have both been improved." - L.H.
"Among the many benefits of yoga, I have found that
it has given me a much clearer sense of my own body, its proportions,
its weight distributions, the way it works. So, for example,
during the course of a day I now often find myself pushing
my chin back so that the weight of my head will travel right
down my spine to my sit-bones. My body feels better when I
do that! An unexpected bonus of doing yoga!" - M.F.
