How are YHET Accessible Yoga Sessions Different?

At YHET our residential weekends always include gentle asana (posture) sessions as well as general sessions for those who find the latter too challenging but there is also a group for whom both these are too much and not beneficial to their health and well-being.

We continue to offer residential retreats each year for people with health issues and those for whom most classes are unsuitable as was started in 1972 by YFHF from which we grew. Yoga sessions are balanced in the same way as in general sessions so what is different in an accessible yoga asana session?

1. PACE: Apart from the effects of tiredness and fatigue it can take longer for some people to get into posture, they may need to stay in it longer and need more time to get out of it with time between each asana.
2. CONTENT: possibly different postures, different adaptions, more emphasis on other aspects of yoga that can be more beneficial and/or a ‘buddy’ to help you.
3. RESTORING YOUR NATURAL BREATHING RHYTHM: working with the breath can highlight a problem but also help restore your natural breathing pattern and balance, both conducive to good health. When the breath is disturbed the autonomic nervous system (ANS) is disturbed and vice versa.
4. RELEASING UNRELIEVED STRESS which is part of virtually all ill health creating imbalance, disrupting body systems and disturbing breathing.
5. FOCUSING ON THE BREATH BETWEEN EACH ASANA is very beneficial as many illnesses also include tiredness/fatigue which leads to shallow, weak breathing. St Bartholomew hospital tested 181 people for movement of the lower ribs, a basic function in breathing and 178 failed.
6. MORE PRACTICES TO AID RELAXATION. Illness and disability can create considerable tension for which relaxation is a powerful tool.
7. ASSISTED POSTURES (with permission). Muscles not used weaken and shorten so it is very beneficial if somebody can gently help for example to stretch a leg that can only move a short distance on its own when it’s capable of more or hold a bent leg in position to stop it flopping out to the side. It feels really good!
8. VISUALISATION can be a powerful tool to complete the movement if too weak eg after an MS attack when lying down I could only lift my arm about 20° off the floor so I used visualisation to complete the movement. 9 months later I again touched the floor behind my head.
9. WORKING ON THE FLOOR OR SITTING IN A CHAIR. If you can’t get on the floor that’s not a problem as yoga sitting in a chair is very beneficial.
10. TIME AND SPACE to contemplate or share with others who may well understand.

YOGA AND MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

I have MS with chronic fatigue as one of many symptoms. 20 minutes physiotherapy left me unwell and for some considerable time afterwards so 90 minutes yoga seemed unrealistic. However at the end of my first yoga session, having worked with the breath throughout, I felt better than when I started. I knew from that moment that it was going to play a major role in my search for wellness. Working with breath awareness also became part of my physiotherapy and the physiotherapists work too.

At a recent YHET residential weekend a member joined the gentle class and said she felt so included when she was able to participate in the circle of people in contact with each other doing the tree asana, commonly called the forest. She had the support of a teacher either side and the wheelchair behind her. It really was inclusivity in action and she felt part of the whole.