Tuesday, October 1, 2013
GARY BURTCH, FROM Burtch Construction, recently said to me “you know, you don’t have to be vegetarian or skinny to do yoga” and I smiled. I’ve known that for years, but a lot of the mainstream media doesn’t portray that. They tend to show former dancers in beautiful outfits doing complicated poses. That has never represented what yoga is about as far as I’m concerned.
Gary then went on to tell me a story about Diamond Dallas Page (DDP), a former professional wrestler who ruptured his L4 and L5 discs in his back during the height of his wrestling career.
He was “so desperate to keep his childhood dream alive that he was willing to try anything and so he started doing yoga,” his website says. For the first 42 years of his life, he wouldn’t have been caught dead doing yoga or anything like it. His world was about professional wrestling. But after a major injury, DDP started doing yoga and eventually ended up creating DDP yoga (www.ddpyoga.com).
If you go to this website you will find a lot of information about many people who are not typical yoga students who have transformed their bodies and their lives through yoga.
DDP Yoga became really well known when the story of how it helped Arthur Boorman, a paratrooper, who walked with two canes, had knee braces and was overweight regain his health and well being and lose a lot of weight. The video of Arthur’s story is on the website.
In most of my yoga classes I remind the students that we do our yoga practice not only for our own well-being, but for the well-being of all who share the planet: four-legged, two-legged, winged and scaled. We always dedicate our practice.
When I watched the many stories and testimonials on the DDP yoga website it made me feel so hopeful for humanity. All humans want to be healthy, happy and live their good lives doing what they love. And there are times when we all get injured or sick or down and need to look for help or inspiration. And that help and inspiration can come in many forms. For some it is a zumba class or a walk in the park or running a marathon. For many we don’t know how to start or where but we know that something needs to change in our lives.
The challenge becomes how to get started. There are so many good yoga resources online and in bookstores these days. DDP yoga is another resource that is full of education and inspiration and might just be a place for you or someone you know to start.
And for all you high school wrestlers you should check out why it is important to look after your wrestling bodies!
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