Every Day…….

I get out of bed.  Check my blood sugar….pee…put a pot of coffee on…..check my site…..check insulin left in pump…..drink my coffee……..bolus a number I think will “cover” my food intake.  I’m hungry…..I eat…..check blood sugar again….it’s freakin 221…What happened??…Should I change my site?  Mingya.  My foot is going to fall off.  I’m going to go blind.  I’m feeling low.  Maybe I should check bg again.  It never fucken ends.  You can do it. 

I went to this really cool place in Massachusetts called Kripalu.  It is a wellness type retreat center that certifies yoga teachers and massage teachers and other healing modalities.  I made a bit of money back in the early 2000’s and took some time off from “working.”  I had been doing Bikram yoga for about 5 years and wanted to deepen my yoga “practice.”  I decided to do a month long 200 hour Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training Program.  

One of my teachers who specializes in restorative yoga and yoga for people with ‘disabilities.’ upon learning that I was Type 1, said, and I quote…”NOW THAT IS A YOGA POSE.”  

There are three ‘stages’ to Kripalu Yoga and they offer a, perhaps, valid “map” for us Type 1’s who are trying to balance in the BLOOD SUGAr MANAGEMENT POSE WHILE INJECTING INSULIN BECAUSE OUR BODY, CURRENTLY, CHOOSES NOT TO PRODUCE IT FOR WHATEVER REASON IT HAS.

The Three Stages:

1.  Proper Alignment.  This stage is about confronting the reality of the situation with integrity and head on.  The most profound awareness I had about 25 years ago was the I was 100% responsible for my condition.  One of my mentors is quoted as saying, “99% commitment is a bitch, 100% commitment is a cinch.”  This thing is doable.  I am proof of that.  I am not the perfect person living with diabetes.  Far from it.  But the one thing I never did was deny that I had to deal with it.  I made a 100% commitment to be response-able.  No room to be the victim.  This is “RIGHT ALIGNMENT.”

2.  Find and Explore Your Edge:  Every-body is different.  There is no exact right way to “do” a yoga pose.  More important than what you look like or how far you can get is that you are doing with “right effort.”  Right effort is an honest and humble assessment of where you are at and where you can go.  It is never beneficial to “push” a yoga pose past your edge.  It creates an atmosphere of unnecessary danger and invites an increased opportunity for injury, or worse.  Find your edge and then “play” your edge.

3.  Authentic Free Expression:  For me this is when I realize a cure.