From long distance running to Yoga

A few years ago, I was living in New York and having three active young boys and no help at home, I was feeling quite stressed out and underwater at all times. My only escape was to hit the road to run every single morning at 5:30am while the house was still sleeping. At this time, I wasn’t listening to my body and I was doing everything wrong: No stretching, no strength training, no proper refueling, not enough rest. Of course, the inevitable happened and I got injured.
The sport doctor I consulted told me that I had a patellar tendinopathy and an ankle sprain and that I needed rest. After a while, since the pain was still here, spreading from the ankle to the hips, I consulted again and finally, I found out that I also had multiple stress fractures. Unfortunately, I’ve been compensating so much during several months that the tissues, ligaments, tendons and muscles were in a very bad shape and I never recovered properly. Physical therapy, chiropractic, infiltrations and orthotics were not enough. Doctors were starting to talk about arthroscopy surgery… I was getting more and more nervous, frustrated and hopeless.
At this point, a friend of mine advised me to try Yoga. At first thought, I refused, explaining that I needed some more active and dynamic physical activity. I was somehow scared that starting Yoga would mean that I was giving up on the idea of running again. She finally managed to convince me to give it a try.
Long story, short story: That’s how I got ready for my first Yoga class and I must say that I loved it straight away! I loved the serene atmosphere during the class and the light movement from one asana to another. I also really enjoyed the connection with the breathing. I found it quite challenging and demanding. At the end of the class, I was feeling rejuvenated. The following day, after an amazing night sleep, I was happy to feel good muscle soreness from my toes to my head. I was discovering some new muscles in my body. Being convinced that Yoga would be a good therapy, I decided to attend the class every week. Then, I went twice a week, then even more often and I discovered week after week some new positive effects of Yoga. I was feeling more relax, more detached to daily troubles, I was more patient, my body awareness got better, I started sleeping better… and my leg was getting better and better. Since then, I moved to Singapore and deepened my practice.
For me, Yoga is a long-life journey. I know that I will always have something to learn and to improve. I will always be grateful to my friend and to my first teacher with whom I built a wonderful connection and relationship.
Yoga heeled me. I started running again but not the same way. My breathing got better and I decided not to push my body as far as before but instead, just to enjoy every mile I run.
Amelie