Day 23 Tips and Tricks for Sofa Heroes: Yoga When You're Sick

Click Here to donate to my fundraising page for The Optimum Health Clinic Foundation

Hi Everybody!
When you have ME you're sick all the time. The easiest way to describe it to people is that I got mono (mononucleosis/glandular fever) and never got over it.

So today I'm offering some special practices for when you're unwell - which I know is always - but these are especially good if you've been bogged down with a bug or a flare up and you're all achy from being scrunched up in bed.

In my yoga practice today I was wrung out like a wet washcloth - every little twist and stretch made me release fresh tears - of frustration, sadness, mourning, loneliness - Yoga has that power, to unleash feelings you didn't even know were there. I did a gentle spinal twist and could feel the fascia in my rib cage stretch and release and I just cried - not out of physical pain, the discomfort was relieved with the stretch, but of an emotional pain that seemed to find release in the movement.  It was almost as if my physical pain was saying "you see me, thanks for noticing me, I have a lot of mourning to do".

If anything like this comes up for you while you're doing yoga, it's completely normal.  When I first started yoga I would be very focused on doing the right poses - until we spend 10 minutes at the end in savasana - and I could no longer hold back tears.  These tears don't necessarily have stories, they just need to be felt and moved through.

Snuggle up in your breathable flexible jammies, grab a pillow and blanket and have a cup of tea near by and make friends with your body and yoga mat today.  If you feel any emotions just let them come, if you don't feel anything at all that's fine too.

If either of these practices is too strong for you- just sit or lay in your favorite pose through the postures you think you should skip. Simply showing up and giving it a go is enough.

Let me know how you get on.

Happy Yoga Friyay everyone <3

20 minute practice - Yoga For When You Are Sick with Adriene


30 minute practice - Yoga for Healing and Meditation with Adriene



If you found this post helpful - please consider helping me raise funds for The Optimum Health Clinic Foundation - doing research on how its integrative methods can help ease the suffering of people with ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia.

Go to Day 1 for a full Table of Contents