The Tale #1 - Am I Pregnant?

Yoga Teacher training was a little challenging for my 44 year old bones, but I stepped up to the plate and did remarkably well.  The only problem that I experienced in my first couple of months was this strange lower back "burning."  It wasn't a muscle pull or a spasm, it was like there was a lit cigarette trapped in muscles of my lower back right where my hip flexors connected to my lower spine.  It attributed it to over training and I was fine with it.

But the truth of the matter is this...

I was pregnant with THE PEOPLE IN MY HIPS.

It was my third month of Yoga Teacher Training.  I was taking a class at BeYoga in Midtown Manhattan being taught by an extremely gifted Yoga teacher by the name of Douglass Stewart.  I had taken his class a number of times before and I loved it.  His teaching style personified Yoga.  He was present, compassionate and at times, humorous.  Little did I know at this time, that we would form a unique YOGA BOND in the years to come.

It was towards the end of the class, and we were doing a Yoga Asana called Maltese Twist.  It is a chest opener and a hip opener.  One lies on their side, with their knees to their chest and then the upper torso twists open. As I moved into the twist, I started to cry... but I had no idea what I was crying about.  Tears were streaming from my eyes, I was breathing as if I was crying, yet the crying was disconnected somehow. It was as if someone else was crying, while I stood by watching.  It was bizarre.  Unsettling.

As I moved out of the stretch, my "crying" subsided.  I talked with Douglass about it after class.

He said that sometimes in the process of your Yoga practice feelings will arise.  I should just breathe, be with it and eventually the feelings will dissapate.

But that wasn't the case this time...

I was giving birth.