The problem with being a Yoga teacher is that I expect the Yoga to be a somewhat cure all and when it doesn’t, I’m at a loss to choose another method or therapy for relief. I have little confidence in the medical system and after a recent injection of cortisone to my right elbow, although initially helping with intense pain, has not alleviated all. Before I digress let me tell you about Belinda and B.E.S.T and what she did for my back.
I arrived back in Australia on 31 Jan and like a frothing grommet went straight to the beach. The swell was up, I was out of practice and got nailed by some reasonably sized waves over the next two days. On the third day I attended Rajashree’s Gold Coast Seminar and while doing Standing Bow Pulling Pose, my back came out of the backbend but not the twist! I was completely messed up. A few weeks later I visited a Chiro but left infuriated with him trying to market his services like a car salesman. I was in a lot of pain so I immersed myself in Bikram Yoga practice, ever mindful of my spine in each asana. I found a lot of relief, confident I could put myself back together, but like the lone screw left over after assembling ikea furniture, I just couldn’t find space for that last vertebrae!
Just shy of 4 months later (can you believe it), I hear about and am intrigued enough to see a woman who calls herself a kind of body mechanic. I drive 45 minutes and enter a room with a handwritten list of good and bad times (at Belinda’s request), not really knowing what she actually does but resigned to the fact I need someone else’s help. Belinda briefly explains a method called B.E.S.T (Bio Energetic Synchronization Technique). OK sure. I’m up for anything at this stage so I lie on the massage table, she swings my ankles, I refer to points on my list, she touches me there and here as I breathe or hold my breath. It was like I turned up on a date with a friend and suddenly I’m the wingman. My body and Belinda seemed to have a great time in dialogue while I did my best to follow the conversation. I leave with a hug and Morter March instructions, not really sure if she’s helped or taken me for a ride.
The Morter March is an exercise which helps to improve neurological balance – re-time internal communication – by extending large muscle groups and their joints through a full range of motion.
I continue with my Bikram Yoga 6 week challenge that evening unsure if things will be the same or I’ll suddenly transform into Joseph Encinia speedo. Fortunately I don’t transform but I do my first backbend without pain and gingerly practice my asanas knowing the test will come during Half Spine Twist. I do it, then do it better today. The only pain I feel is the reassuring kind in my lower back from going the deepest in Camel in months. My right leg also feels a little more supple. I’m impressed and google Morter March and B.E.S.T and wonder why she didn’t fix my freaking elbow?! Who knows, maybe I can fix myself and march all my ailments away!