Scoliolistik -Yoga, scoliosis and holistic wellness

I am starting this year grateful for all the things i have in my life that make it relatively easy for me to live with my curvy spine...
-for example my job as a yoga teacher, which keeps me moving, accountable to myself and my students, not to mention the philosophical and spiritual dimensions of yoga that are of great support mentally and emotionally 🙏
-I have always known somehow how to take time off and just do nothing 😅 from the outside it may sometimes look like laziness, but prioritizing rest is a life saver and has always come quite easily to me 🙏
-I have learnt to understand my body, through study and experience, which gives me great tools to take care of myself, but has also empowered me and strengthened my trust in my body and in the future.

One of the things this path has taught me so far, is that living well with scoliosis is a matter of what "conditions" we create for ourselves. It is about chosing to organize our lives in ways that support who we are as a whole so that we can thrive with our curvy spine as it is 🙏

I have worked quite "hard" to get to the place I am today, but I know I am also "lucky" in many ways... It feels good to take some time to acknowledge all that I can be grateful for 🙏

A new year is about to start, and my wish for you, me, us, in this new cycle is that we continue trying to live less out of habit, and more out of intent 🙏

Because it keeps you on your feet, curious, open, listening

Because it keeps you from living on autopilot, stuck in a life that isn't truly yours

Because it nurtures optimism, acceptance for what is, what comes and what goes... Hope that as long as you just keep trying everything is in your power, as long as you don't settle, as long as you keep your eyes and heart opened, life can surprise you, you can surprise yourself!

May we keep surprising ourselves this year, for all that we are, all that we can be, all that we can experience and create and build in this world ✨✨✨

Knowing how to care for yourself - and for your scoliosis, will give you peace.

Not because you will control everything, eliminate uncertainties, predict how the future will unfold, be certain of how your scoliosis will evolve or not, how your body will age, or how you will feel and move in 10 years.

But because it will strengthen your connection with your body, your spirit, your needs, your ability to listen to yourself, to make informed decisions for yourself and for your health. In such a way that you will be able to embrace the uncertainties, and trust yourself, trust that you will be ok, trust in life and your ability to live it to the fullest.
THAT is peace.

There are so many ways of caring for scoliosis, so many types of therapies and "treatment" plans. No matter what path you choose, be sure to ask yourself: is this path leading me to greater self-trust? To better connection with my body and spirit? Is this path I'm choosing leading me to greater peace?

There are many different options out there that claim to be the right one to care for, cure, treat or fix your scoliosis.
I personally do not like the term "treatment" when it comes to scoliosis because i don't believe it is an illness or disease, and also because it is in most cases misleading, in the sense that it implies that it can make scoliosis go away, which it will most probably not (even with surgery!)
So you can guess i don't like the terms "cure" or "fix" either 😉

I'm not here to judge what option you choose for yourself, because i can't judge your personal beliefs, history, emotions, wishes, projects and how you envision your future.

But my experience has taught me 3 things, or better said 3 common flaws of scoliosis treatment plans that are detrimental for the long-term wellbeing of the person living with scoliosis (and by extension, for the spine itself).

Swipe to read 🙏 maybe this short overview can be useful for you to either choose your treatment plan, or reflect on the one you are currently following and maybe improve it.

Do they resonate with you?

Take care of yourself 🌞

All emotions are part of the human experience 🙏 some come and go, others stay with us, sometimes we know they are here with us, sometimes we don't... They are stored in our subconscious and keep on affecting us and the way we live and experience our lives...

These emotions leave an inprint on our nervous system, our brain, which in turn will affect our physical body through a wide range of reactions/symptoms such as tension and pain, stiff and collapsed posture, digestive, circulatory and respiratory issues and more...

Becoming aware of these emotions, not only superficially, but in depth, including the repressed ones, can be transformative for your wellbeing and your quality of life with scoliosis 🙏

Psychosomatic tension is a real thing and freeing yourself from them could be the one thing you need to go from chronic pain and stiffness to movement freedom, standing tall and embodying your true powerful self 😍

(not saying that this is the only way, but that it is a path worth exploring 😉)

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Earlier this year i completed my second 10-day Vipassana course. The course consists of learning and practicing the Buddhist vipassana meditation technique, for 10 hours a day.
Here is one of the things I learnt from sitting on the floor for 10 hours a day, for 10 days straight.

DETERMINATION
Not as a useful quality among others. But as THE quality. The FOUNDATION.

Determination is control of the
mind. It is this discipline and control of the mind that is the key, the foundation to everything you want to be or accomplish in life.

You cannot meditate without the determination to continuously stay still and present. It does not matter how many seconds or minutes you manage to meditate. The only thing that matters is that you work to bring yourself back to it every single time you get distracted. In other words meditating is first and foremost working on your determination. The determination that you need in real life.

Want to be a good person?
Determination
>Want to live by your values? Determination
Want to be a good friend >Determination
Want to take care of your health? >Determination
Want to be self confident? >Determination
..
The list goes on and on, to encompass the smallest and the biggest things of life...

Determination is the key that will allow you to continuously stay on the path you have chosen, dismantle the false and limitting beliefs you hold about yourself and others, resist the distractions that are constantly shoved upon you
And continuously stay present, awake, strong to do the work.

The foundation to healing is DETERMINATION
And it has to be trained.

M. Contacted me last year with an urgent need for tools that would help help her relieve her intense chronic pain. She had looked for help with many doctors, fysios and other specialists, but each time, and for years, she was not heard or taken seriously 😪
A big part of our work was to gradually re-build the relationship to and trust in her own body, that the lack of empathy, care and understanding from health specialists and practitioners (the whole system actually) had gradually weakened (not to say destroyed).

Exercises and practices focusing on mobility, stability, calming breaths and body awareness were integrated in her day-to-day and M. quickly made huge progress.

Her closest people described her as "a new person", who learnt to prioritize herself more, listen to her needs, and therefore managed to take care of herself and regain trust in the future.
🙏

What is a holistic approach towards scoliosis, and how is it different from other approaches?

>It does not only looks at what happens in the spine. It also looks at other areas of the body such as the feet, hips, shoulders, the relationship between these, and how they function in movement as well as in static positions. We also take into considerations the organs and tge different systems of the body that may be affected by the curving of the spine: digestive, cardiovascular, respuratory, nervous, lympgatic, circulatory..

>It takes into consideration other, non-physical, dimensions that are interwoven with the scoliosis itself: emotional, mental, energetical dimensions. This includes working with nervous system regulation to release mental tension and stress, going inward and using a variety of tools to improve self-confidence and other beliefs, patterns, wounds, that may hold you back from living a better life with your scoliosis

>It takes as point of departure your life as it is and helps you make the practice work for you!

We shouldn't deny that our scoliosis is a big part of who we are, but we should absolutely remember than we are far more than that! We are a whole, that is far bigger, richer and deeper than what the sum of all of our parts could ever be ❤️

Here are just a few of many reasons why you may want to welcome Yoga for scoliosis into your life 🙏

Does any of them resonate with you?

I would like to add 2 important things to this list:

>"yoga for scoliosis" is practiced and taught in many different ways by many teachers. Here I am talking about the way I personally teach it.

>you don't have to let go of other approaches, exercise modalities or orthopaedic treatments. Yoga for scoliosis can be a great complement to these.

A little game of true or false for this last day of 😅

There are still a lot of myths out there about scoliosis... Can you spot which one(s) of these statements are myths?

If you have scoliosis you've probably heard at least one of them in your life...

Or, have you?

This page is also here to make scoliosis better known and understood, so here are a few facts about the condition 😉

I'm under the impression that there are huge differences regarding scoliosis awareness from country to country.
For example here in France everybody knows what scoliosis is (at least the basic definition of it), while in Norway where i lived 13 years, i have met many people who had never heard of it 🤔

Thankfully there are many scoliosis advocates around the world, so there is hope that the condition will be better understood by the general population in the years to come 🙏
This is important to be able to recognize if we have scoliosis (the symptoms), take better care of ourselves, but also to help people with scoliosis feel seen and heard and taken seriously 🙏

Hello I'm Léa 🌼

Time for a little presentation 😅

As most of you know I'm a yoga teacher specialized in yoga for scoliosis. I work privately with clients who have scoliosis, and also through online courses and webinars about scoliosis and wellbeing. I also teach "regular" yoga in studios in Toulouse, France.

But here are some "fun facts" that you may not know about me:

-I'm always "studying" something 😅 yoga related or not! I barely have been out of university for the past 19 years 😅 and i'm currently writing a thesis on education for sustainability🤓

-One of the places where i feel most at home, is Mexico! I don't know why... I've lived there for months at a time for the past 12 years, and everytime i have this same feeling, of belonging, of being in the right place, of a weight being taken off my shoulders... I've had numerous breakthroughs in Mexico, or "revelations" and life altering experiences. It's also where i did my first teacher training, and started to work on myself from an energetic and chamanic perspective

-I am full of contradictions 😅 and i love it! For example i am both an intellectual and emotional, rational and intuitive, introvert and extrovert a thinker and a doer. I embrace this duality and see it as a gift that allows me to see and experience life from multiple perspectives and in rich varied ways, and embracing this quality has actually helped me to find the space in the middle, where so much magic happens... ✨

Here is for a short intro 🌼

Is there anything else you would like to know about me? Feel free to ask 🙏 or visit my website www.skoliolistik.com

P. S. I realized i made a mistake in this post (3rd slide) i've been teaching since 2016 not 2017! 😅