How do I feel and understand the different sensations in my body with yoga and for that matter, everything I do with my body? I don’t have a specific answer because I think we all experience and learn differently. One of the many gifts yoga has given me is to start to differentiate the different feelings my body has.

Recently I had this sensation in the back of my upper thigh and I was not sure why or how it came to be. I maybe walked to much or over stretched, really don’t know. At the end of the day, I started self massaging and I believe I over did it. For a week or 2, while stretching I would feel that area was not quite right, not terrible, nothing excruciating, but none the less it was there and not my normal. I started pulling back in the stretching and just leaving it alone. Sure enough it went away. I think its important to start and understand what the different sensations in your body means. Understanding if it is something to leave alone or something you can stretch or massage, something to ice, or something is injured.

Here’s my big point, until you start to really understand what the feelings are and potentially mean you can’t understand what if anything can be done. I see many people just understand the opposite ends of the spectrum, meaning all feels good or something feels bad, but there is so much in between. Starting to decipher those things in the middle could help one not end up in pain or injured. It is all those feelings in the middle that help me keep my body not only ache & pain free but hopefully free of injury.