Lois began practicing Adamantine® Yoga for pain relief, but eventually realized the benefits derived from practicing are as much mental, emotional & spiritual as they are physical. 

Lois Reichert is an Adamantine® Yoga Advanced Practitioner and Apprentice learning to assist other students in class.  Initially she was very resistant to the idea of yoga and stayed away from it because in group classes she had taken in the past had either become bored or was constantly comparing herself to others & trying to be the best… HELLO EGO.  A quality Lois has recently realized is one of her biggest challenges in life upon completing her Advanced Practitioner training.

But that’s part of the yogic journey for anyone who sticks with it consistently and long enough to begin to experience true self-transformation.  The practice brings to the surface not only the areas that challenge our bodies physically, but also the areas we struggle with regarding our personalities.  Adamantine®, fortunately gives you a clear path to follow to begin to uncover these areas and face them if you make the conscious decision & commitment to yourself to stick with it & practice consistently.  Lois has also discovered that approaching her practice with an open mind, opens her body as well.

But what made this yoga practice different from other practices she had tried?  Where did the boredom & comparison go?

With a very physically active background Lois had done a lot of “damage” to her body.  But she immediately began to feel pain relief after each time she practiced, which kept her coming to her mat in the beginning.  Eventually, she was experiencing more sustained pain relief after just a couple months of practicing and found herself sleeping in positions she hadn’t slept in for years.  She was also connecting with her true self, remembering the feeling of freely moving as a child.  It’s as though she has reverse-aged her body by at least 20 years.

This was in part due to the fact that Adamantine® empowers her to make decisions about how much or how little effort to put forth each time she gets to the mat.  Although there is a clear path, it requires that each day you listen to your body and balance integrity with non-violence toward yourself…in thought and deed. 

If you fail to listen to your body’s needs, something will eventually show up that will have a reverse effect on the work you have been doing.

As an Advanced Practitioner & Apprentice, she has now realized that the personalized individual relationship that a teacher has with a student was a key factor for her in not only setting this style of yoga apart from others, but also in creating lasting change in her life.  When practicing in the studio, the balance between the support & guidance from the teacher AS WELL AS the support from the community of other fellow practitioners helps keep her ego in check & allows for fewer distractions that tend to creep in when practicing at home or in a group class.

She has a deeper connection with herself to change the internal voice that creeps in with negative self-talk.

And the kindness & compassion that Lois seeks to demonstrate toward others in relationships, are now easier for her to give to herself.  It’s becoming a more natural way to respond, but still takes work.  She realizes that her mental health also depends on it.

Lois shares her battle with depression and how the time she spends in the studio practicing and apprenticing now are her favorite hours of the day.  (Even though when she first began practicing, she couldn’t ever imagine herself as a morning movement person…)  In her experience, the practice doesn’t cure the illness, but makes it better.  It allows her to get out of the mentality of feeling down & bad about herself.  And it has now just become something that she knows she has to do to stay positive & keep moving forward. 

And as she does, she continues to refine herself in other ways.

Like the choices she makes that will undoubtedly impact her practice.  She now has an awareness that paying closer attention to her nutrition plays an important role in how she feels on her mat each morning.  Progression in her practice relies on what she is putting into her body.

Progression is also dictated by changing perception & keeping an open mind.  Lois realizes that as she ages she CAN get & feel better in all aspects of her life.  ”Age & ability are only limiting factors in your mind.” By committing to opening her mind to these possibilities, it brought to light all the other challenges she had been putting in her own way.  The reinforcement she receives by attending class helps with this. 

It takes work, and is definitely not the easy route as Lois continues to discover, but with discipline, it works.

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