Sunday, May 25, 2008

Yoga therapist took away my pains

Thanks to my business partner and friend, yoga therapist Yap Wee Cheng, I am well again :)

Last month, on April 18th, shortly after we moved house, and exactly two months in my day job at SAS, I felt a shooting pain going down the upper part of my right arm.

The pain hit me when I woke up and then came back again and again during the day.

I thought it might have something to do with my office ergonomics. Maybe my seat was too low... Maybe it was the table, with its designer curve on the side that forced my arm into an awkward position as I handled the mouse for hours everyday.

I raised my seat. I repositioned my computer so that my arm wouldn't have to stay in that awkward position for hours every day. But the harm was done, and the pain continued.

Wife told me it was probably my moving the heavy furniture at home by myself in the middle of the night. As usual, I couldn't wait to get everything in place so that we could begin to live well in our new apartment in Toa Payoh.

Whatever the cause, I needed to get rid of the recurring shooting pain. Ouch!!!!

I applied a massage oil. It didn't help. I applied my cream for hydrating joints and bones. It didn't help either. Evidently, they were not addressing the root cause of the problem, whatever that might be.

A doctor friend of mine, when told of my complaint when we met socially over coffee, said the symptoms suggested that it may be an upper back problem and that for some reasons, my bone may have ended up pressing on my nerves. So, it is a back and nerve problem?

When I met Wee Cheng, my yoga therapist friend cum fellow Bios Life Franchise owner, in the course of business, I told her about my problem. It didn't take her long to figure out that it may have something to do with my posture. A recent physical strain may hurt a soft spot and triggered the pain.

She said she had noticed for some time that I tended to stick my head too much out of allignment with the rest of the body, and she had wanted to ask if I have back pains or problems like that.

She immediately attended to me and helped me to straighten up with some hand stretching exercises. Those stretching exercises seemed to have gotten to the root of the problem for I'd feel the same pain not in my arm but in my fingers! It's like the pain was being moved down my arm to my fingertips. We also had a good laugh discovering that everytime I tried to straighten my head, my belly would stick out. So, I'd have to remember to straighten my head and tuck in my belly! These are things I could try to get right while on the MRT, and I consciously do it nowadays.

She offered me a series of private yoga therapy sessions. Being keen to get rid of the pain and to get well again, and being a believer in alternative approaches to wellness myself, I readily took up the offer.

Having advised her earlier not to sell her one-on-one service cheap (for she has limited hours to trade off), I offered to pay the full rate for consultations. S$120 per hour! She gave me some discount.

We had the first session at the Unicity office, an hour before her monthly Yoga & Nutrition workshop. For more privacy, and to avoid interruptions, the second session was held at my home.

Through these two sessions alone, I learnt quite a number of things about my physical self e.g. I not only had bad posture, I was bow legged! Me bow legged? And flat footed too!!! I have heard of that before but never knew what that meant. And I didn't breathe right either. For example, when I breathe in, my stomach would cave in when it should be ballooning out.

Wee Cheng patiently showed me how to stand, how to walk, how to breathe ... Yes, can you picture that? A middle-aged guy learning to stand, walk and breathe right, after four decades of doing it all wrong? ;)

Wee Cheng knows about my weariness about the spiritual dimension of Yoga, and that any chanting or calling on spirits wis a no no. She understands that I'd go along so long as it is taken at the level of breathing and physical exercises. Sensitive to my concerns, she'd explain to me the physiological relevance of various acts or moves. On that basis, I allowed her to go as far as to teach me the Sun Salutation poses. Two rounds of that made me sweat more than a 30-minute walk around the neighbourhood (my kind of exercise). It was GOOD!

At the end of just those two sessions, and it's been more than a week since the second, those shooting pains have disappeared from my arm. I no longer wake up with dread and a hint of that trouble.

She asked me this morning if I'd like to do another session this evening. I sheepishly and honestly replied by sms: The crisis has blown over. I no longer feel the urgency to spend time and money on another session. But I'll tell my friends about you and what you can do for them if they are in need of Yoga Therapy, I offered.

So, here I am. Happy to be well again ;)

By the way, Wee Cheng writes a blog of her own, in Chinese. If language is not a problem, go here: http://blog.omy.sg/tingting

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