No pain, but there is gain

You know those aches and pains and ailments that bring a grimace to your face some days?

Michaelle Edwards believes you can rid yourself of them. It’s a matter of proper posture.

Edwards is confident she can help pretty much anyone stand tall, sit straight, be strong and stay strong. She’s basing this on her work with thousands of people of all ages and fitness levels over the past four decades.

“Poor posture and breathing habits restrict breathing functions, compress your joints, and lead to arthritis, joint failure and premature aging,” she said.

That’s why the Kauai woman said she invented YogAlign, which she describes as a style of painless yoga and posture realigning.

That’s why she wrote a book, “YogAlign,” and is offering a class coming up in Princeville on the practice.

YogAlign grew out of her belief that the body can heal itself. Problem is, most people are overly dependent on prescription drugs, doctor visits and surgeries — “all of which depend upon someone else to ‘fix’ what seems to be broken.”

“Many times we ignore our bodies until they scream in pain, and wonder that our injuries and ills come on so suddenly,” she wrote. “In truth, if we were listening to our bodies everyday, as we ought to, we would find that the body gives ample warning things are going awry.”

The yoga class that instructors say could “change your life” is being offered April 14, 15, 16 and 17 at Mana Yoga Center, 3812 Ahonui Place, Princeville. There are morning and afternoon classes suitable for all body types, ages and abilities, from professional ballplayers to couch potatoes.

YogAlign includes four, three-hour sessions. Donations are requested for the 12 hours of individualized posture, breathing, self-massage and natural alignment oriented yoga.

Each participant will receive private instructions from one of the graduating Kauai Yoga School teachers.

“The results are amazing and it is a chance for you to reboot your nervous system for posture that is aligned, natural, and effortless,” Edwards wrote.

Tools for functional movement in daily life will help you maintain your new posture, and you will learn how to avoid exercises which may be strengthening postural imbalances or destabilizing your joints, she said.

It’s not about pain. In fact, she said YogAlign won’t hurt.

“You don’t have to do anything wild or crazy,” she said.

“Empower your posture and alignment with breathing dynamics, and painless functional natural body positions aligning you from the inside out,” she said.

Edwards, a massage therapist, talks of reprogramming the nervous system, resetting muscles and aligning the spine so the body can heal chronic pain issues.

“It’s a global way of looking at the body,” she said.

People, she said, live with a lot of stress. They live with tension. Sitting in a chair, which many do for most of the day, puts the body in an unnatural shape, she said. In a sense, it causes the nervous system to malfunction.

It’s what led her to develop YogAlign in the mid-90s and refine it over the years.

“If none of us ever sat in chairs, if we all fished, farmed or carried baskets of fruit on our head, we’d all have pretty good alignment,” she said, laughing.

But most of us don’t fish or farm for a living, much less carry fruit baskets on our head. Many have poor posture that causes an array of aches and ailments, Edwards said, and that can cause a person to work harder than an athlete in competition. It can lead to hip and knee surgeries and replacements. It’s responsible for most of the pain people live with from day to day.

Edwards said YogAlign can make life better. It’s about establishing ease, synergy and balance. She refers to it as “getting the kid body back.”

“Your body relaxes and you begin to feel more fluid and free in movement, just as you did when you were a kid,” she said.

Registration: yogalignkauai@gmail.com or (808) 652-3823