This Too Is Yoga (Yoga Post Op) July 12 2025

Just After Surgery - Not My Best Look 😂😅

I started to write this blog four days after my hip replacement surgery. I mentioned the early days being blur of pain, nausea, and drowsiness and my attempts to find the right balance of pain management and movement. Since then, I have changed medicines (allergic reaction) and I think I have found a good balance of activity and resting. The pain now isnow only extraordinary during the night; the days are reasonably comfortable. A sure sign that I am feeling better is the number of books I have read over the past 10 days (5) and the fact that I am now making gentle suggestions 🤣😅 about household things like the plants being watered or the dog being brushed. A sure sign that I am on the mend. My husband Peter has been helping me immensely including cooking amazing meals, helping me wash up and adjusting pillows and ice packs continually. The drugs make me itchy, so he is continually giving me scratches and helping me with endless lotion. My sons have also been helpful, especially Luke; on the night of fourth of July when Peter and Sam were at our friends Lisa and Dave's party, he made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a side of potato chips. I have not missed that party in close to 40 years. I was feeling a little sorry for myself, yes, I admit it.

The timing of this surgery was tough for me in the summer, keeping me away from my gardens, the beach as well as the party and the wedding of one of my close friends' daughter this weekend. I was in denial insisting that I could wait till fall, trying to teach 7-8 yoga classes a week, playing tennis, walking, biking all while heavily medicating myself with too many anti-inflammatory medications and nighttime gummies, covering myself in ice and hobbling through my life in tremendous pain. What did I learn from this?

As yogis and instructors, we constantly remind ourselves and our students to listen to our bodies. If we truly cultivate and practice mindful awareness, we should readily acknowledge when it is sending us messages about pain, and we should respond appropriately. The response should be self-care and compassion. My obtuse self may argue that I did listen, I took the pills, iced the pain; if I am being honest, I recognize that this was stubborn, not a practice of self-care or body awareness. It was irresponsible to some extent and just painful. As I write this, I imagine my husband humming the melody from Tina Turner (Thunderdome) "We Don't Need Another Hero" - an inside joke (more on that another day). I now know that I had misplaced feelings that if I got the surgery now, that I would be letting people down. I had ramped up advertising at Rockbriar Farm for the summer, I had committed to teach more classes at Bend Wilcox and had recommitted to So. County Community Yoga Beach Yoga. The ideas of missing these commitments (along with the gardening and beach) was weighing heavily on me and producing self-doubt.

After spending some time with a couple of friends who were staying with us (and who I could not hide the ongoing pain from), I realized the folly of this thinking and availed myself of a surgical opening that my surgeon had. I am now focused on recovery, having learned some good lessons about my personal practice both on and off the mat. So while I may not be teaching or doing hour long vinyasa flow, am I still practicing yoga?

This brings me back to my ongoing mantra, what is yoga? The Sutras tell us that yoga is the calming of the mind and the yoking of the mind, body and breath. The Bhagava Gita tells us that yoga is defined as "equanimity in the face of success and failure" which is a very similar definition. Krishnamacharya, considered the father of modern yoga, believed that yoga could be both a spiritual path as well as tool for physical healing and wellbeing. Desikachar reminds us that "Mastery of yoga is really measured by how it influences our day-to-day living, how it enhances our relationships, how it promotes clarity and peace of mind."  None of those explanations define yoga as a 60 minute hot asana practice!

So, when we hit a bump in the road and are unable to practice the asanas to their fullest extent, as yogis we practice acceptance, understanding that we cannot control life and literally need to go with the flow. Rather than feel negatively, we should show ourselves some compassion and lean into our yoga in its truest form, finding ways that our practice can support us during this time. Many of us started practicing yoga because we had an injury (for me it was a troublesome back). As I thought about this, I realized that the whole time I have been recovering, I have indeed been practicing.

My yoga practice has certainly cultivated in me a heightened body awareness as I practice mindfulness. Practicing Ishavara Prandihana (surrender) reminds me to give myself over to a higher power as I embark on the healing path. As I have been beginning to move and walk this has helped me recognize pain and helps guide me to move sensibly. Mindfulness also helps me manage my frustration, helping to make me feel more balanced and reasonable in my expectations as I recover. I have been relying on my yogic breathwork (pranayama) for support during this time. I have practiced various breathing techniques as I moved through my physical therapy and when experiencing significant pain to help calm myself. This kind of deep breathing also helps mprove circulation, facilitating the delivery of oxygen to the tissues promoting faster healing. I have spent much time lying or sitting quietly contemplating my happy places (the beach, hiking in the woods, practicing in my studio). This meditation has reduced my stress and has fostered joy in my heart as I imagine myself returning to these things with less pain and better mobility (eventually). Finally, while I may not be on my yoga mat practicing or teaching a vinyasa flow sequence, while doing my PT or going for my walks up the street, I am moving my body, yoking my mind body and breath, this is yoga!

I have realized that although this injury has limited my physical practice, the tools that I have incorporated into my life's practice are significantly supporting my physical, mental and emotional healing during this time! This is yoga.

Meditating On Healing and Self Care

Flowers To Cheer Me Up

"The lotus flower blooms most beautifully from the deepest and thickest mud" ~ Buddhist proverb

Tells us that we must start out with challenges or tough situations in order to bloom into our best selves.

"The success of Yoga does not lie in the ability to perform postures but in how it positively changes the way we live our life and our relationships."  ~ Desikachar

Our Practice – Tadasana (Mountain Pose)

Tadasana on the Ganges 2019

As I was thinking about this blog and the asanas that I am not doing, I realized there are many that I do do as I move through my physical therapy and my day. Bridge pose, savasana and tadasana are all part of my daily routine! When I start the standing part of my therapy, I find tadasana. I ground down through both feet epecially trying to gauge the weight bearing in my right leg, gently testing it and ensuring that I work toward equal weight. It is powerful in its simplicity.

This posture helps promote stillness, strength, relaxed power and stability that we associate with mountains.  Alanna Kaivalya, author of Myths of the Asanas explains the inseparable relationship between mountains and rivers, both represented by the Indian god Himavat, who represents the Himalayas and is also considered the father of Ganga Devi, the goddess of the Ganges, India’s most sacred river.

“When we stand in tadasana, the head, being nearest to heaven, is where we receive the blessings that flow through the rest of our body like a river,” she says. The even stance of Mountain Pose—the lengthened spine and steady base—sets the tone for our practice.

To Practice:

1.   Stand with the feel parallel, about hips width apart, or slightly less if it feels better.

2.   Lift and spread your toes and the balls of your feet, then lay them softly back down on the floor. Move your body side to side and back and forth finding your center.  Slow your movement coming to a standstill with your weight evenly balanced. 

3.   Stand tall, ankles, knees, hips stacked.  Spine is long, chin is not jutting forward, core is engaged.   Allow your shoulder blades to draw toward each other and down the back, away from the ears.

4.   Let your arms relax beside your torso, palms facing where they naturally fall.

5.   Balance the crown of your head directly over the center of your neutral pelvis with the underside of your chin parallel to the floor.  Breathe!

See you on the mat (Soon!)

Namaste,

Julia Anne