A Story Behind This Pose …
A little personal note…
There is quite a story behind this photograph.
A few years ago, just before I was due to lead a retreat in Sabina, I had a very bad fall.
The list of injuries seemed endless, but my shoulder was particularly badly affected. I eventually had an MRI and the doctors were ready to operate.
For someone who had spent so many years practising and teaching yoga, it was frightening. Movements I had always taken for granted were suddenly no longer available to me.
Before going down the surgical route, I wanted to give my body time and see what might be possible through rehabilitation.
And so began a very different kind of yoga practice.
I became fascinated by the shoulder. How the shoulder blade moves, how it relates to the arm, ribs and upper back, where we need stability and where we need mobility, and how sometimes the smallest movements can make an enormous difference.
Slowly, movement returned. Then strength. Then confidence.
And this is where I am today.
When I look at this photograph, I don’t really see the pose. I see the journey back to it.
That experience changed my own practice and deeply influenced the way I teach.
Our bodies change. Injuries happen. We get older. Life happens.
But that doesn’t mean our practice has to become smaller.
Sometimes it simply becomes more intelligent, more curious and much more interesting.
And that is very much what I love sharing when we practise together, whether in London or with the luxury of time we have together on retreat.
With love,
Margherita x