Viniyoga® and Multiple Sclerosis

with Sarah Ryan, Dorset, United Kingdom

Sarah Ryan has been practising yoga for many decades. She has also held various positions at the British Wheel of Yoga (BWY) and has been instrumental in being part of the development of education standards at BWY. She has also been a BWY Diploma Course Tutor, training BWY teachers.

In the 1990s she discovered the Viniyoga® tradition of Krishnamacharya and started to study with her first teacher Paul Harvey. Around 2005 she started learning more directly from Desikachar and from his son Dr. Kausthub Desikahar and feels privileged to do a 4-year Yoga Therapy training with both of them She continues studying and practising with Kausthub and his mother, Menaka to deepen her studies and practice both in yoga and in Vedic chanting.

Here she shares her invaluable experience of teaching Viniyoga® to patients with Multiple Sclerosis.

1) What brought you to Viniyoga in the first place?

I had been practising yoga and even teaching it for a long time, when a friend told me that I would really get on well with the approach of Viniyoga, so I contacted Paul Harvey, at that time a student of Sir, TKV Desikachar, in England. She was right! I loved the way that Viniyoga included all parts of yoga, and that everything hung together – practices including asana, pranayama and meditation, and the teachings: all were congruent. And I loved the way viniyoga honoured the individuality of each person.

During those 10 years I was also lucky enough to attend a teaching on the Sutras taken by another teacher. I was struck at how psychological the Sutras were and wanted to know more. This lead me to the Teacher training which I actually did twice as I felt there was so much to learn.

2) How did your work of teaching Viniyoga to Care Seekers with Multiple Sclerosis manifest?

Someone contacted me about five years ago. She had been teaching this group of women with MS for a long while and was now ill herself, so she asked me if I could take the class on. There were about twelve people to start with, but we have lost two whose husbands didn’t want to drive them to the class any more, and another because she just got too old and frail. Their ages range from the mid-50s to early 80s. MS has affected them in different ways – two people can move neither arms nor legs; two can walk with the aid of a stick/walking frame. All spend most of their time sitting down. One person has a Help Dog, a beautiful Golden Retriever, who comes with her.

3) What frequency do you teach these students? And how long is each session?

It is a weekly class during school termtimes. Each session is 90 minutes which I think is a bit long – but it allows for some social time as well, which is very important for these wonderful women, who are becoming more restricted and handicapped as they get older.

4) What kind of tools do you offer them and how do they receive it?

Work with the breath is the most important tool. We usually start by becoming comfortable, then focusing on the breath, slowing it down and making it fuller. I emphasise the importance of using the abdominal muscles on the exhalations and feeling the chest expand on the inhalation. This can counter a little the fact that they spend nearly all their waking life sitting, so that the upper trunk sinks down, everything pooling around the apana area, and allowing no space for the spine or the lungs or the organs of the lower trunk.

We then move onto arm stretches, always combined with the breath, and again I emphasise creating space. We move the upper body in different ways, always with the breath. We also do work with the legs. Because some people cannot move arms or legs for themselves, I am fortunate to have three or four people who come and help – a retired physiotherapist and some other yoga teachers – and they are wonderful at moving and stretching people who cannot do it for themselves, yet get so much benefit. Four or five of the group like to do a bit of standing work, when they are feeling ok. Until recently two of them used to get down on the floor for floor work, but they don’t do that anymore – the MS is gradually getting worse for most of them.

We often have some time focusing on the hands – stretching them in different ways and massaging the joints gently – doing it themselves if they can, though some people have to be helped. I remind them how this will be helping the whole of their circulation.

The part of the lesson they all love most is the last twenty minutes. They settle back in their chairs, some with their coat on, close their eyes and I talk them through relaxation, work with the breath and visualisation, often asking them to feel that they are sending healing/light/warmth/energy to particular parts of their body, or to other people. I also emphasise throughout the importance of being kind to themselves, and not being angry with their body or themselves when they get frustrated because of things they can’t do.

5) What challenges have you faced in bringing Viniyoga to these students?

When I first started teaching the group, they were used to thinking of it as an exercise class, even though it was called yoga. They found it very difficult to close their eyes, to focus on themselves instead of what others were doing, and they talked throughout. The only time they were happy to be silent was during the relaxation phase at the end. It is very difficult to change these patterns, because the helpers need sometimes to talk to the people they are helping... asking how far they should be moving an arm or a leg, for instance. So, because of that talking, others still tend to feel that it’s ok to talk to each other whilst practising!

I should also love to use sound with them, but when I first tried it, it provoked nervous giggling! That was very offputting, so since then I have only used it once or twice myself, not asking them to do anything.

6) What are some of the positive effects you have seen on these Care Seekers?

Whenever I ask them what benefits they feel they are getting from their yoga, they say how important and helpful the breathing work is. I try to give them tools for everyday, and they know that working with the exhalation can help them feel calmer and is also the best way of working with pain, whereas the inhalation can help them nourish themselves and brings energy. Even those people who seem to be still breathing very fast and who cannot sit up straight at all – they still say how much benefit they get from the work with the breath, and how they use it at home. I think the relaxation is also very important, giving them the experience of stillness and letting go. And the social aspect – getting out regularly and meeting others who are in the same boat – is invaluable.

7) How do you see the role of Viniyoga in the future of Viniyoga Therapy in the world?

What I am doing is perhaps not true viniyoga therapy, as it is a group class situation: I have seen only one of the women individually and given her a daily practice. It is nevertheless very valuable for them, and I feel my viniyoga training has helped me a lot. Viniyoga helps me to think about the function of what we are doing rather than the form, and this enables more creative work with people. I tend to think more in terms of helping prana to flow as freely as possible, rather than in terms of moving joints and muscles, for instance.
I think that the tremendous benefits of viniyoga will gradually be known more widely, with the increased number of viniyoga therapists being trained. Viniyoga is one of the few truly holistic therapies there is and I feel so fortunate to be able to study it and practise it.

Sarah Ryan can be reached at her website - http://sarahryanyoga.co.uk/