ByronYoga

Written by Star Rumble

Byron Yoga teacher Star Rumble has adapted her yoga practice to help her heal from a perplexing and distressing illness. Her story is an inspiring account of how her illness actually provided unexpected gifts, including introducing her to the path of yoga therapy.

“I’ve been teaching for just 3 years but was first drawn to yoga 15 years before that, enticed by what I found to be it’s dynamic physical practice. My direction has changed much in the past few years. It’s now the deeper and quieter aspects of my practice which sustains my journey and it’s my own path of healing through yoga therapy which has helped transform my life.

In fact, it’s the strength of yoga, helping me overcome a serious medical setback just 3 years ago, to which I attribute my current state of healing.  
My journey on the mat has revealed more than I could have ever expected. That journey has seen my travel to the darkest of dark places. I’ve cried, suffered and bared my soul yet my heart has opened in a way I never knew truly possible.  

My yoga practice has always been strong. I felt I was naturally over-flexible and early on, found a dynamic and advanced “ego” driven practice seemed to suit me well. I loved the seemingly endless high I would gain by pushing my body to and beyond it’s limits. I found a true joy in the way my physical body would willingly do all I asked of it.  

I didn’t notice the cracks appearing as I was deaf to the whispers, trying to be heard. What I didn’t realise at the time, but do now upon reflection, is that whatever I was doing it wasn’t yoga.

It was about 2 ½ years ago my life changed in such a way that I felt sure I would never be the same again. My life had become so dysfunctional it forced me to stop, the nuts and bolts holding me  together for so long began to rapidly unwind, rocking the very foundation of my world.

I suffered what I can only describe as a complete physical break down. For the next 2 years, I struggled more than I ever knew possible and felt pain and exhaustion in my body that I feared would never leave. Everything changed. I couldn’t work or even do the most mundane and simple activities without pain.  

Finally, after a year of various therapy options, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, an auto immune disease very similar to chronic fatigue syndrome.  The practice I had once delighted in was no longer available. But there was a shining light through the darkness. A quietness came to me which I ‘found’ through breathing and meditation. I changed my physical practice on the mat and began to encompass a more nurturing and soft approach.  

The more I allowed myself to open to the more subtle aspects of this ‘new’ practice and it’s underlining philosophy, the more I opened to it’s power of healing and wellness. I felt that for the first time in my life I was practising yoga from a deeper inner knowing of how my body needed to move and not how I “thought” it should. My time on the mat was spent listening, going in and then letting the movement evolve from the inside out.  

A new passion then burned within. A desire to acknowledge my own journey by learning how to help others heal through the path of yoga. I undertook the 10 day yoga therapy intensive at Byron Yoga Centre and combined it’s teaching with my own life experience to further my love of practice and my desire to share it’s benefits with others.  

I knew deep within that this was truly my dharma. My journey on and off the mat continues to be one of discovery and joy as I continue to find healing and strength from my practice. My path towards yoga therapy has been one of self fulfilment, but also awareness of it’s place in a world of pain and suffering, perhaps much like my own.  

I have finally found the peace and stillness for which I have so desperately yearned. I feel a gratitude beyond words.”