I’m very excited to introduce our new guest blogger, Audrey Brashich. Audrey is a writer, blogger, mother, and now a yogini. For the entire year, she’s challenged herself to a daily yoga practice”whatever that may look like”and will be documenting her experience and transformation for HL&S readers here. Look for Audrey’s posts every other week, and be sure to comment, or join in the experiment too. Time to roll out the yoga mat…
I do yoga everyday.
I’m not a yoga instructor or a fitness fanatic who’s trying to drop a few dress sizes (although yeah, a flatter tummy would be nice), and I don’t live in an Ashram. I’m a crazy busy (or make that crazy and busy) mom of two small boys (ages 3 and 1), a writer, a blogger and former runner. Why is that last bit”the part about how I used to run”important? Well, let me explain.
Before I had kids, I ran a lot. I started in my early 30s with 10k races, worked up to half marathons and finally completed my first marathon a few weeks before my wedding in 2003. My time was 4:30, which made me not slow or fast”just average. Which was fine by me. I just loved getting out there and getting in the zone.
Then I had trouble getting and staying pregnant, so I stopped running. Not because running was the problem (lots of runners continue safely into their third trimester) but because I wanted to weed out every little thing that might have been causing my body stress. After a few years of early intervention fertility treatments (meaning acupuncture, herbs etc) I got pregnant with my first child. And he was delivered after sixty hours of labor (yes, you read that right. From early labor to delivery was sixty hours) via high forceps. I was overjoyed about my son of course, until they took the catheter out three days later and I learned that I had no (I mean ZERO) bladder control. The pregnancy and delivery had done me in.
So instead of spending my free moments running, I headed to the physical therapist. And there I did more internal exams and souped-up kegels than I thought possible. And I kept doing them, until I got pregnant with my second child fifteen months later, that is. Fast forward through my planned C-section (to minimize any further possible stretching, tearing and nerve damage) and my recovery”and I’m still not running. Things just aren’t the same down there. Plus I’ve got some back issues (oh, you know, scoliosis and a leg length discrepancy) and I’ve spent countless hours and dollars on everything from chiropractic and acupuncture to physical therapy and massages, all to no avail. Then there’s the (I’ll admit it) intense negativity and resentment that I harbor because of the changes having kids has wrought on my body”¦all of which of which left me wondering if there was anything out there that could get me mentally and physically back on track.
And somehow I came to yoga. Not totally out of the blue, I admit. In fact, I’d dabbled in it over the years (a 4 session intro course to Hatha course; a “Yoga for Athletes” class here and there where I discovered the joy of Happy Baby pose), but never really delved into it. Yet for some reason, things were pointing me to it now, right at this stage in my life, with this baggage. And I started to wonder if spending time on my body everyday in this way would”could“help rehabilitate me in all the ways I need. I wondered if yoga actually has the power to strengthen my body all over in a holistic and gentle way. And if I’d become a calmer, saner, happier mother if I had 75 minutes a day to myself on the mat. And if my stomach would start to look the way it once did.
So now I’m on day 140 of my own personal yoga challenge. In other words, I’ve done some form of yoga (a class or home practice) every single day since January 1, 2010. I’m working on building awareness in all parts of my body, exploring different disciplines and seeing what works for me where I am right now. So far, I’ve learned that I can do High Plank pose (my arms are strong enough to hold me!) and that I just do.not.get. Eagle Pose. I also know that it’s taken me almost 40 years to get where I am with my body, and that I’ve got to give it some time as we embark on this journey together.
In truth, I have no idea where I’ll end up with this yoga experiment, but it’s pretty exciting to know that everyday is a new chapter”and that’s what I’ll be guest posting about here.
You can find out more about Audrey and her yoga journey at www.audreybrashich.com
With her love of health and writing, Melissa has written for such publications as Shape, Natural Solutions, Yoga Journal, Self and Pilates Style, and has created recipes and food-oriented stories for such publications as Delicious Living and Cooking Light.
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