ACL Reconstruction & Hot Yoga

If you are reading this you are either researching the best ways to rehab, currently rehabbing or just plain curious.

An Anteriror Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction of the knee joint is one of the most common surgeries and the recovery time can be up to a year. That is a long time for anybody and even after the instructed rehab has finished for many the pain can still be a problem as surgery doesn’t always mean a pain free life.

This is where the Classic Hot Yoga (26&2 sequence) approach comes in as an aid for your ACL reconstruction rehab.

Before I go into more detail - I have had double ACL reconstruction, and one of my surgeries didn’t go to plan, and the Classic Hot Yoga (26&2 sequence) helped me walk again. And there have been many stories of this working for people.

Combining your physio and Classic Hot Yoga you will be back in action in no time, and you will be able to maintain the health of your knee.

This is a practice to aid your normal physio therapy rehab, or to practice after you have fully rehabbed but please be sure to check with your physiotherapist and doctor before starting.

The following factors explain why the yoga helps those going through rehab and even post rehab.

• The heat allows the joint to relax giving it the stretch it needs.

• The emphasis on straightening out the leg and activating the muscles around the knee joint helps to realign the knee and creates a strong muscular structure to support it.

• The calm and relaxing environment that your mind goes into during practice will allow you work with the tightness of the knee; giving it the safe stretch it needs.

• Yoga pumps fresh oxygenated blood around the body to the knees where they are needed the most and this really helps the healing process.

• The repetition in the sequence balances out the body and builds muscles correctly, giving strength equally throughout the body.

During the practice please do not miss out: Fixed Firm - Supta Vajrasana, this is the knee healer, and even though 99% of "rehabbers" will not be able to do the full expression at the beginning, you must start this – the teacher will guide you and this right here is the knee healer regardless you have had surgery or not! Before you know it you will be in the full expression and happier than ever.

Before you start tell the teacher about your injury, listen to them and also listen to your body – do not strain yourself in any posture.

Using this approach to rehab both of my knees has been an absolute gift - I couldn’t walk after an infection in my left knee reconstruction and, I can say I have been very lucky to have this practice.

If you have any further questions about ACL rehab please email me at – surajyoga1@gmail.com and I will be more than happy to guide you through and give you some tips to get you back to what you love doing most.

Below is a picture of me 10 years on post infection, and you can see the wonders yoga has done for my knees by allowing me to hold this posture and also straighten out the knee joint as much as possible.

Will Power: the cliches, and one Yoga-esque practice to enhance Sankalpa Shakti

Some thoughts on will-power and a Yoga-esque practice to enhance will power, Sankalpa Shakti.

D.O.M

I'd just come out of the shop with a roast beef sandwich, large chips, ear of corn, & a jumbo sausage. A poor, homeless man sat there and said 'I haven't eaten for two days.'I told him, 'I wish I had your will power.' 

A 1996 paper in the field of psychology concluded that “Will-power is like using a muscle: After exercising it, it loses its strength, gets fatigued, and becomes ineffectual, at least in the short-term.” For those inclined to read more, elaborate commentary can be found here.

The flip side of the same coin is that will-power can be strength-conditioned as well - through deliberate exercises and practices. For example, by setting “small”, “easy” goals and seeing them through, the mind is conditioned - it develops a winning habit. Converse is true, quitting tasks - no matter how trivial - becomes a habit too.

Another perspective, backed by data and scientific research, comes from Dr Krishna Savani at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and also shared by Dr. Christian Jarrett: “Instead of thinking of willpower as the amount of petrol in a car… think of it as the car’s battery,” The more you drive, the more the battery gets charged, and the longer it will last.” An elaborate commentary can be found here.

The real-life practical implications, in my humble and layman-ish opinion, are similar from all such works of research, and they converge with the traditional wisdom on the matter: ‘Practice becomes strongly embedded when it is nourished by regularity and truthful actions over a period of time’ (Patanjali’s Sutra 1.14: Sa tu dirgha kala nairantarya satkarasevito dridhabhumih.) Applied here: with earnest, mindful practice, will-power can be increased.

As day-to-day practical steps, it is then generally advised to make any resolution - “sankalpa” - very judiciously, and to refrain from lofty and unrealistic goal-setting, as the outcomes feed either of the two respective mindsets (a/ strengthened will-power-mindset or b/ debilitated will-power-mindset). Unfortunately, the magnitude and glory of the tasks undertaken is immaterial. The scores move by just 1 or -1, black or white, simple yes or simple no; not taking into account the quality.

As an example: a smoker’s resolution to stay off tobacco just for one day, if successfully kept will have a positive impact. Another resolution could be to complete the London marathon in under four hours. Well, if the marathon was completed, but not in under four hours: the sankalpa failed, and despite the glorious context, it will have a negative impact. The sankalpa shakti scorecard gained 1 in the former instance, and lost 1 in the latter.

By this logic, will power can be conditioned and increased by succeeding frequently, even though in small magnitudes, and by being a mindful decision-maker. One may also think of it as an Artificial Intelligence bot that has to be trained on data. This analogy gives a sense of healthy detachment from the mental faculty of will-power. i.e. it is a skill, though innate but still to be sharpened as if an external tool. Mindful decision making applied to small tasks can have compounding impact on will power. A simple daily check-list that I would myself like to follow in this direction is to:

• Have a realistic and reasonable wake up time in the morning, so that there is never the risk of pressing the snooze button and scoring -1 on the sankalpa shakti scorecard

• Make up bed first thing every morning after getting up and score an easy +1

• Meditate every morning to shore up energy for further +1s

• Having a well-deliberated and realistic time-plan for the week and the day that involves wholesome life activities; with self-joy taking the highest priority (arts, sports, etc. - any recreation that doesn’t involve self-abuse): and sticking to the plan. Score more +1s in a planned way!

• Working towards a “larger” and long-term goal may or may not be part of the plan; it does not matter. Frequent uncorrelated wins - even though small - matter more.

Of course, everyone would have their own similar check-list. But the importance of a self-schedule can’t be over-emphasized enough.

In all likelihood, all of the above is commonly known, cliched and intuitive. The associated neurological and biochemical narratives (adrenalin, dopamine, endorphins, etc.) are well researched and general knowledge. The following section may not be. 

There is an effective yoga-hack to access the sub-conscious and therein plant the seeds of a sankalpa. It is kind of self-hypnosis - making a suggestion to the sub-conscious, priming it and influencing it. Modern science estimates, and it’s yet another cliche, that sub-conscious controls more than 90% of our brain activities, and is arguably proportionately more potent than the conscious mind. So why not harness this reservoir of power to achieve a particular goal!

The practice goes thus: Prepare yourself in a meditative posture, ideally after a run, or a yoga session, a gym workout, or a dance. Perform pranayama or simple deep breathing to calm down body, breath and mind. After a complete exhalation, assume simultaneously the bandhas (energy locks) of the mooladhara and swadhisthana chakras (mool-bandha), manipura (uddiyan bandh) and vishuddhi (jalandhara bandh); and with closed eyes gaze internally at the ajna chakra (eye brow centre). One of Ajna’s literal meanings is “command”. While holding the locks and the gaze, and awareness at Ajna chakra, repeat the sankalpa internally three times. This is akin to commanding the subconscious. The bandhas and the internal gaze bring the practitioner in proximity of the sub-conscious, and repeating the sankalpa in this state encourages the entire sub-conscious to organise and align itself behind the sankalpa.

If the practitioner is not familiar with the chakras and bandhas, a simple substitute could be to exhale completely and hold the breath (or even while holding breath internally after a deep inhalation), gaze internally with closed eyes at the space between the eye-brows, and repeat mentally the sankalpa. No excuse for not trying!

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” Zig Ziglar

One final thought: While there are elegant theories and abounding practical tips to understand and  enhance will-power, taking the first baby step itself needs will-power to build will-power. Developing other skills and working towards goals need will-power. The funny - and also simultaneously not so funny - thing here is that developing will-power needs a starting dose of … will-power. For many this could be a never-ending (or never starting) convoluted loop of dependancy. For example, pulling oneself out of depression vs. slipping further into it. External help from loved ones - to provide a much-needed jumpstart - becomes quite critical in such situations. Stocking up the reservoir when completely healthy and capable is a wise idea too.

Then there’s the other extreme - which we should be wary of - where will-power can morph into ego-fuel. 

Thank you for letting me share my thoughts with you, Namaste!

Making mistakes - using yoga & meditation to help you identify & fix them

Making Mistakes

Making mistakes is a part of life. Every single human being in this World has made a mistake.
Mistakes are in fact healthy, and they teach us so much about; ourselves, our personalities and also our bouncebackability.
We live in a society that is tracked so much more than ever before, and with videos, pictures and the social media, people may feel like they have to be robotic. But the reality is that mistakes have been happening since the day the World was created and they are what makes you and I human.

Why am I writing this

I want the good people out there to be ok with what they have done in their lives! :)
I myself have made more mistakes than I've had hot dinners, and that's in many forms of my life but as a society, we need to assess how we treat others, look at others and approach others that make mistakes without pointing a finger and acting like "OMG I would never do that", because the chances are those pointing fingers are those trying to hide what they are up to behind closed doors.
And I want people to understand and accept that IT IS OKAY TO DO STUPID THINGS THAT YOU REGRET!
I am not saying to go outside and hurt people, bully people, or anything that is seriously bad. But if you date the wrong person, or you get a bit too drunk that night and sleep with someone, or you say something you shouldn't have then it's OKAY!
Do not beat yourself up about it, instead, use these lessons to take forward in your life, and fix those mistakes (if possible). A simple sorry for example could do the trick and if the situation is not possible to fix then at least work on not doing it again.
And these skills are what we learn in yoga & meditation.
We learn to forgive ourselves firstly, then once we surpass that, we can work on bettering ourselves.

How yoga & meditation can help you understand your feelings and move on from your mistakes

When I started practising yoga in 2011, I was full of a lot of mental baggage, I was searching for physical healing but found that my mind was going to go into healing too. It was a very long and intensive healing process that I wanted to happen quickly but actually took years.
Nearly 7 years on, I have made and still am making numerous mistakes; in my personal life, at work, with friends, with family, doing yoga postures, playing FIFA, writing emails - you get my drift! But what yoga has done has allowed me to understand and be conscious of what mistakes I am making, and act upon not doing them, and bettering myself.
In a society where we are fed so much (false) information - free thought can be lost, and when free thought is lost one can find it hard to even understand what they are doing is wrong. Some people that cheat on their spouses will understand slightly what they are doing is incorrect, but because they are not looking within they may be stuck in a loop. Some are just truly bad people, but this is a separate conversation.
But the yoga gives you an understanding of yourself and allows you to understand why you are making certain mistakes in your life and then gives you the tools and skills to action a better life for yourself and work at moving away from the bad things you may be doing.

A few last words

Life is short, we all know that but whilst you are here wouldn't it be wonderful to at least understand yourself a bit better and why you have made the decisions you have made. And whether they are right or wrong; being aware through the union of your mind and body is a commodity no currency in the world can buy and this can only be purchased by the "soul" owner - you.

Enjoy your yoga and thank you for reading.

Written by Suraj Ghumra.

Showing love to your yoga teachers

Love

Love is something I guess we don’t do enough of, even myself; I don’t love people enough. I find it easier to talk about it in this blog post but as I have grown I have found it harder to show those around me. As a child, I was very loving, and my mother and grandmother taught me how to be that way. But we are all born to love, even Donald himself and I’m not talking about the duck by the way.

Back to the point, love is something we need more of and today's topic is based on how much I love yoga teachers, my yoga teachers and to be frank the real yoga teachers and not those in it because of the fashion element that now comes with yoga.

Love makes all the different

Real yoga teachers are healers, leaders, creators, believers, changers and most importantly lovers. With love nothing real can exist, we wouldn’t exist.

When I started practising seriously in 2012, I started when I required to love and help, I was extremely fragile and sensitive and the teachers that I came up with (the likes of Naomi Clark, Matt Devine, Elizabeth White, Beth Crivelli, Sibel Olcer and many more) taught with love for yoga. The love was clear because they would go the extra mile to help somebody in class, go the extra mile to talk about yoga once class was finished and make sure if people had questions and/or concerns they would give their honest and experienced point of view.

Students

We can make that difference by just respecting and loving ourselves, our fellow yogis & yoginis and of course our teachers.

I practice yoga in a fair number of different studios, and everyone and then I come across a student that is extremely rude to a teach other for no reason, and that does affect me and upset me. This shouldn’t be the case, usually, those students aren’t actual yogis and are just in the room because yoga is the “in” thing and they want a tighter butt! But if you do see this occur, we all have the right to explain to those that understand less how teachers should be treated.

Why did I write this?

This topic came about when I was being nostalgic post Yoga class and thinking about how far I have come in my practise, and not only myself but those around me; both teachers and students. And I want to raise the awareness that real yoga teachers are wonderful people, they are there to be loved and treated well, the same way you want to be loved and treated well. And in a day and age where people are so stuck to what is on their screen rather than the human in front of them, we need to come together, and we need to appreciate those around us that help us day in day out get through the difficulties of life. And by having this attitude in your practise you can take it into other aspects of your life.

Thank you for reading.

Written by Suraj Ghumra.

Feeling at home on your yoga mat

Your yoga mat is a very personal place. Whether you practise by yourself, or in a group in a park or at a studio your mat is your space.

And that space goes through as much as you do wherever you are in the world, and in your life at that time. Some days you are on top of the world, and when you practise your yoga you feel unstoppable; sometimes you are in a lower place and you just don't have as much energy. Regardless of the emotion, you have, you feel that feeling whilst practising in on your mat, in that space and at that time.

And to be clear I am speaking both literally but also metaphorically. I personally love the yoga mat I use; the colour, the feeling and the comfort I find in the Yogamatters mat is something I enjoy practising with. And from a non-materialistic perspective, such as the different forms of emotions, thoughts, stages in my life, places I've practised and all other personal feelings that you go through in that space.

Like anything in life, when you have a ritual, at that moment you generally feel at home as space is familiar to you both mentally and physically, and I have found comfort knowing that no matter what I am going through. Good or bad my yoga practise, my yoga mat, and my yoga space provides me with the home to celebrate or be sad through that expression and feeling of how I feel at that moment.

Thank you for reading, and if you ever feel homesick; remember just practise your yoga and everything feel a whole lot homely.

Written by Suraj Ghumra