A few days ago I had my first cold in at least 5 years. No doubt due to some EXTREME family stress I had experienced the week before. No, I was not quite as miserable as this guy in the illustration BUT, my nose ran like a faucet at and I felt lethargic and miserable. No fever but a slight headache and I had a few hours when I felt chills. I had forgotten all about what it was like to be sick and impeded by feeling lousy! Usually, I can read my body pretty well and at the instant I feel the slightest sensation that any cold germ has invaded my body, I down megadoses of Vitamin C and drink glasses and cups of water, herbal tea, and broth. I have prevented many colds this way. But, this cold caught me off guard. Even doing yoga breathing techniques to strengthen my immunity could not stop the cold once it was underway.
I should have gone to bed the minute I felt the cold germs i my body, but I had several commitments. I was scheduled to give a talk at church and also I had agreed to carpool to a college holiday party with a college classmate who was new to the Washington, DC area. I didn't want to abandon her. Luckily, the speech went okay (all about Scrooge and A Christmas Carol), but I dragged myself around at the party even though I enjoyed the spectacular panoramic view of the Potomac River and Washington, DC from the 7th floor of the Watergate Apartments.
However, the next two days I spent sleeping in my bed. No going to the office. No reading, no watching TV, and admittedly no yoga or any other exercise. Just sleeping. When a virus attacks your body and you haven't been able to nip it in the bud, the only remedy is hours and hours of sleep and lots of liquids (and, in my opinion, megadoses of Vitamin C - we're talking MEGAdoses - not a tablet here and there). Even though I practice gentle yoga, I knew that to beat the fierce cold I had to sleep or lie onstop (or as close to that as possible) in bed and do NOTHING.
If you have been practicing yoga daily for a while, skipping a few days of practice to rest in bed to recover from a cold is the best remedy. This is one time that you drop everything, including yoga. No excuses. You have to listen to your body. My body demanded tons of liquid - I felt like a sponge - I absorbed so many glasses of water and cups of teas over those two days and tons of sleep.
After the first day - I had no shift whatsoever in my state. I couldn't believe it! I felt just the same as the day before. I was so perplexed and annoyed - it had been so long since I had experienced the nuisance of a cold. But, I resigned myself to another day in bed and that did the trick! By the end of the second day, I started feeling like ME, once again! When I resumed an abbreviated yoga practice (I still made sure to sleep extra long to totally clear the cold out of my system) the following day and then my usual practice a day later, I was just fine. I little stiffer doing a few poses but fine, nonetheless.
So - if a strong cold has invaded your body, rest completely, temporarily skip your yoga practice, and don't let up with resting and sleeping nonstop until the cold has left your system!
Yours for listening to your body when you're sick,
Laura Venecia Rodriguez, The Beginners Yoga at Home Coach (for REAL, regular people)
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