Long ago, about fifteen years long ago, I started going to occasional yoga because I couldn’t touch the floor and felt the stretching would surely be good for me.

I went to several studios where people were doing pretzel poses (Asanas), and the instructor pulled my shoulder back to my butt till I left wincing, never to return.

I also went to a nice gentle yoga class where most of the people, (women) would bend backwards and touch the floor with ease. Nice if you can do it. Another class was so slow moving and meditative that I never felt I got the stretching I needed. I was bored.

My yoga salvation came when I discovered Bikram – sometimes known as the Hot Yoga, and was blessed to have a teacher who made everyone feel welcome regardless of stretching capabilities. Yet she also corrected the students so we could get the most out of class. The sweating helped heal a bad shoulder that had plagued me for years and the eventually I could touch the floor. Mostly I loved the teacher and stayed with it for five days per week for two years before my teacher moved away.

Since that time I’ve been going ‘gym yoga’, because they offer day care for my three-year-old while I’m in class. The instructors vary and the yoga is usually a combination of power yoga, Ashtanga or another version of impossible to do, pretzel poses.

I’m so grateful to my first Bikram teacher who spent a lot of time helping me with alignment; Because of her, I allow myself to move at my own pace and let my body open slowly. I watch my alignment. I don’t try to keep up with class, but sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t. It is all OK.

Now, I can touch the floor with my legs almost straight and my hands flat on the floor. – Although that isn’t imperative to continue with yoga, it is nice that I can see slow but consistent progress with my still stiff, and injured body.

Recently I’ve discovered Restorative Yoga, which is the best thing ever. Again, I’ve found a teacher who I completely resonate with. She has shown me new ways to get in and out of poses which help my body relax into a pose instead of push into a stretch.

In just a few short weeks my yoga practice transformed and I feel more at ease than ever in my body. Instead of re-injuring my shoulder, (which I didn’t know I was doing) I don’t try to do all the poses with my arms fully outstretched. I concentrate on lowering my shoulders, pulling them back and carefully moving into the pose until I feel my shoulder pull.

Want to start at home doing some gentle yoga? Just start by breathing in and out through your nose deeply five times, then, slowly lean forward and touch the floor, (or your legs), with your knees bent. Continue to breathe.

Before long, you’ll be ready for the next step. A class maybe.