What is yoga?

Yoga for Bendy People: Post #1

Hi everyone!

Welcome to the first book club post for Yoga for Bendy People by Libby Hinsley. If you have not ordered the book yet, I encourage you to do so here and join us!

Also, please be sure to register for our conversation with Libby. She’ll be talking to our book club and answering questions on June 29th at 9am Pacific. I’ll put the registration link at the bottom of this post. If you’re not a paid member and you’d like to join us, consider upgrading your membership.

For this post, I’m going to draw from the Introduction and Chapter 1. The introduction offers some necessary foundational definitions and context so that we can begin to understand what hypermobility is.

Of note:

• Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) is a genetic connective tissue disorder that causes joint hypermobility and a variety of other challenges throughout the body — something Libby calls being “bendy.” (p. 17)

• Some estimate that as much as 20% of the general population has joint hypermobility. Libby suspects it is be even more prevalent among yoga practitioners. (p. 20)

• Yoga can be fabulous for people with hypermobility if practiced wisely. If practiced unwisely, it can be a recipe for chronic injury and pain.

Chapter 1: What is Yoga?

Libby makes the wise choice throughout the chapters to toggle between technical information about hypermobility and yoga philosophy.

In the first chapter, Libby takes a big step back and explains what yoga is in its totality. Since many hypermobile yogis end up in pain or injured in the pursuit of poses, the idea in the first chapter is to establish that yoga is much more than performing poses. I loved reading all of the reminders of why we do yoga. Here are a few.

She reminds us that yoga is a state of being and that,

This state of being is characterized by a deep understanding of one’s true nature, a connection to something greater than oneself, and, ultimately, a sense of freedom from suffering. (Desikachar)

On page 27, she reminds us that,

Yoga wants us to focus the mind for a specific reason…The object of our attention and study in yoga is ourselves. When we understand who we are, our actions are more likely to decrease suffering for ourselves and others.

On page 28, she quotes yoga teacher Kristine Kaoverii Weber:

The practices of yoga can lead you to a deeper sense of who you are, and to a sense of meaning and purpose. When you know who you are, you know how to b in the world. You know what to do with yourself. And that’s really the goal of yoga — to get to know yourself better, understand yourself better, and develop a better relationship with yourself so you can be present with yourself and the world — and offer the best of yourself in the spirit of service.

And lastly, on page 29, she describes how Tim Gard sees the eight limbs as tools for self-regulation. 

“…self-regulation is the ability to decrease our moment-to-moment emotional reactivity that so often leads to behaviors that increase our (and others’) suffering. Self-regulation helps us gain perspective and a deeper understanding of ourselves

Toward the end of the chapter, Libby shares her story of being in chronic pain from a strained hamstring attachment, but being over-identified with the postures. At a certain point, she asked revered teacher what to do about her pain and when he told her to stop forward folding her first thought was, “Is he insane?” To stop doing forward folds felt unthinkable at the time, but as it turned out giving up forward bends was the beginning of her healing.

But, first she had to decouple the idea that advanced asanas (or even classic ones, like forward bends) meant she was doing “real” or “advanced yoga.”

These days she finds herself advising her students or PT clients to drop their identification with “aesthetics and performance,” and she empathizes when they find the advice insane or unthinkable!

She tries to get them onboard by reminding them to “change your practice so that it serves your needs instead of contributing to your pain and suffering.”

I’d love to know in the comments — are there yoga poses that you no longer do because they don’t serve you anymore? How difficult or easy was it for you to come to terms with this? Did you like the Zen koan she she shared, “Don’t mistake your finger for the moon?”