I was first introduced to yoga in my mid-twenties, when I started experiencing shoulder and back muscular pain due to work and bad postures. A colleague at that time, who happened to be a yoga teacher, invited me to attend her lesson. It was tiring and I can still remember the aches I experienced when I first started attending class, but I can see the benefits of practising regularly. As I became more flexible than I ever was and the pain resolved, I continued to attend for the next 2 years, until SARS stopped everything in track. When I tried to pick up yoga by myself again, it didn’t work out as I planned, due to various reasons. One of the main reason was getting sharp pain in one of my shoulder when I practised certain poses. And I thought that I am probably having some problems and that I should stop practicing since yoga should not cause pain but rather aching and sore muscles only. It seems my relationship with yoga came to an end then, or so I thought.
After a hiatus of 10 years and more, at my current work place which I joined since nearly 9 years ago, one of my colleague took up yoga teaching and taught a few of us (colleagues) for her practice. That piqued my interest in picking up yoga again, although I didn’t really take it up immediately. When another close friend who practice yoga regularly took up yoga teaching as well, I started to take it more seriously as I practice under this friend more regularly, at the same time realising how inflexible and weak in strength I have become over the years from not doing much exercises. The other main reason why I decided to take up yoga is that I have scoliosis and had invested a lot of time and money to reduce the pain and various problems related to it. The result is still not satisfactory and yoga was recommended as a complimentary and recovery plan in addition to treatment by my therapist. She had taken up yoga 1 year before and see the multiple benefits of practising yoga correctly and is also the same person who encouraged me to take up YTT. It was at the same time that I realised the pain in my shoulder was partly due to the wrong way of practising yoga pose (without understanding).
My journey with yoga officially started when I made the decision to jump into taking up YTT at the encouragement of a couple of friends. The main reason I decided to plunge into it is to understand how to practice poses correctly and to make it work for me. However, I panicked when I first heard about the criteria to pass but as time passes and with the weekly yoga classes, I realised my own potential in terms of physical capabilities. Imagine that I had never been able to touch my toes when I did a forward fold. Of cos, this is also not possible without the constant encouragement of my friend who practised together and guide me constantly. She has also volunteered to be my ‘student’ for me to practise teaching. I realised that in fact, I am capable of doing a lot more than I thought I could. I am excited and looking forward to planning out lesson plan for a more elderly aged group, while considering the limitations of this special population who holds a very special place in my heart as I have worked with elderly for most of my work life. Hopefully, with my understanding of this population group, I will be able to open a brand new niche market that cater to them and their special needs.
