not quite the straight and narrow

By the time I let myself entertain the notion that the back pain I’d intermittently been experiencing was more than just an ill-fitting bicycle my mind leaped from strained muscles straight to late-stage cancer. Deep down, I knew it couldn’t possibly be the later and still I let myself entertain the what if? I even asked The Man if he would remain in contact with YaYa if I was to die. Reality kicked back in by the time I was face to face with my physician.

Her exam confirmed observations which I and my fellow yogis have noted over the past many months. My back is not quite the straight and narrow that you’d come to expect; it is crooked. The question is: Why?

Apparently, there needn’t be a good reason why some peoples spines develop curvatures. In a very nonchalant manner, my physician remarked that my “mild scoliosis” probably has present since my adolescence. Indeed, I do remember being told that I had a mild scoliosis. But I also remember being told at a follow up appointment, after religiously doing the exercises I’d been given, that my back “looked good.” Doesn’t “good” mean that the scoliosis is gone? *sigh* I guess not.

Well, none of that matters anymore. It is what it is. I just need to determine why the curvature, which has apparently been present for the majority of my life, sometimes causes pain. Certainly I am guilty, like many of you, of pushing my body to the limit — and past if it will let me. Take the Boston to Big Sur Challenge fore example. The whole idea of two marathons so close together was in sane — but I went for it anyway — just to see if I could actually do it.

I will continue to invite my body to take on exciting challenges. That is living, you know. But I also would like to learn ways to reduce the untoward stress I put on my spine on a regular basis. I know that it is unhealthy to force my spine to carry a load, be it physical OR emotional, beyond its ability. Yet I also believe that, like training for an endurance event, I can condition my body to stretch to new lengths — literally and figuratively — without pain.