How yoga keeps me balanced: a guest post by Linda C. Wisniewski

As part of her WOW! Women on Writing Blog Tour, book author, Linda C. Wisniewski has written a guest post on yoga and meditation for This Mama Cooks! Linda writes for the Bucks County Herald and teaches memoir classes for Bucks County Community College. She is regional representative of the International Women’s Writing Guild and a board member of the Story Circle Network. Linda is a contributing editor for the Story Circle Journal and is co-editor of Story Circle Book Reviews, as well.

Her book is Off Kilter: A Woman’s Journey to Peace with Scoliosis, Her Mother, and Her Polish Heritage. Born to a cruel father and a long-suffering mother in the insulated Polish Catholic community of upstate New York, Linda learned martyrdom as a way of life. Off Kilter shows her learning to stretch her Self as well as her spine as she comes to terms with her mentally deteriorating, widowed mother, her culture and her physical deformity.

I’m honored to have been chosen to spotlight her work on my blog, and know you’ll be delighted, too.

How yoga keeps me balanced
by Linda C. Wisniewski

Chapter Twenty-Six of my memoir, Off Kilter, begins with my yoga teacher’s words. “That was an excellent adjustment,” she said after checking my body’s alignment. My life has been full of adjustments, some more “excellent” than others.

Through my yoga practice, I balance my body, my mind and my emotions, and through them, my daily writing life.

The peacefulness of the yoga studio gives me what my heart needs: quiet, softening air, bare feet on bamboo floors, soft voices, soft music, and evening candlelight.

I was diagnosed at age 13 with scoliosis, a side to side curvature of the spine that makes me feel I am about to tip over. Yoga teaches me to pay attention to sensations in the body and adjust, when necessary, to a more balanced posture. In each pose, I return to my breath. Is it shallow due to stressful thoughts? I breathe more deeply as I settle into a standing pose.

In a short meditation at the start of class, as worries arise, I let them go. Later, I find that all day, out of class, I can also let things go. I know how, because I know yoga.

Throughout the class, my teacher brings me back to breath awareness. Sometimes we do alternate nostril breathing. My body calms and centers itself as my mind focuses on the technique.

The concept of balance carries over in my writing. After I have a rough draft on paper, I go back over it and add a stronger ending to balance an equally strong beginning. I make sure the piece flows smoothly, each part standing strongly like my legs in a yoga pose.

For a memoir writer like me, it’s tricky delving into the past and not getting bogged down there. I try to always relate a past event to one in the present. How has the past illuminated today? What can I learn from it to best live now?
I begin my day with yoga stretches and end in mountain pose, balanced on two strong legs, eyes closed and arms at my sides, rooted and connected to my little spot on Earth, in time. From here I am ready to face the day.

Later, I take time to sit in meditation, in a comfortable position on the floor, cross-legged, eyes closed, attention on my breath, not trying to change or force it, just attend to it, observe it.

After meditating, I feel more open to the possibilities, able to come up with ideas for my next writing project. And this mindfulness follows me all day. I do one thing at a time – no multi-tasking. Feel the sponge as I move it over a dish in the sink, feel my feet walking in the park, notice the individual leaves as they fall in my backyard. With yoga, I am always here, living in the now.

Yoga makes me stand taller, walk more confidently, and stay open and soft.  In a storm, the tree that does not fall is the one with deep, strong roots and flexible limbs, the one that bends in the wind.

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Posted on November 6, 2008 in Books,Health,Inspiration

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