SICK BED YOGA

It's no fun to be sick.  Over Labor Day we took a trip to Idaho where we planned to meet up with friends for a few days of outdoor adventuring and lots of food and laughter.  My husband and I got there a couple of days ahead of our friends and prepared the space to welcome them.  But the night before they arrived, out of the blue, I was struck by a wicked intestinal virus.  The details are not pleasant so I won't recount them.  I trust you've likely had some similar experience with this scrounge in your lifetime.

Unable to sleep a wink, up all night, I sat in the living room bundled in a blanket noticing in my best "mindfulness" manner my sore back, headache, chills, and cramps.  I talked to my body and reassured it all was well; I breathed deeply; I closed my eyes; I opened my eyes; I took some medicine; I drank lots of water to stay hydrated.  Nothing seemed to help.  I was miserable and it seemed the whole ordeal would go on forever.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  I decided to do some yoga.  Seriously.  I Googled "Yoga for Diarrhea" and stunningly there are actually several sites that address this situation.    Here's one:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV67aFURSxw&feature=youtu.be

I've never done a full headstand in my life, so the beginning of this video was of little use to me.  I was able to do the shoulder stand for a bit and I'd already tried the pranayama breathing thing; it's my go-to for anxiety.  None of this helped.

I decided to focus on my headache.  But what I found were poses purported to work great for headache, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/15/yoga-for-headaches_n_3574848.html but were to be avoided if one had diarrhea. AND the site for what NOT to do if you have the tummy yuk  https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/contraindications-modifications/diarrhea said NOT to do Shoulder Stand, which the other guy in the video recommend you DO do.   This type of conflicting advice might be commonplace in western medicine, but in yoga?  Oh no!

I felt Yoga was starting to fail me in my hour of need.   But it did distract me and by dawn I was feeling a smidge better.  I went to bed and slept most of the day, missing a lot of the socializing with our friends, but I was in no mood for that anyway.  Not my best weekend, all in all, and it took several days for me to regain my usual vim and vigor.

I have not, however, completely lost faith in yoga as a curative because I also discovered this guy and have found laughter to be the very best medicine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDtfHl1v9xI ("advocate yoga as a cure for everything"... LOL!  That's me!) ©

Namaste,  donnajurene

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