Rachel Krentzman - Scoliosis, Yoga Therapy, and the Art of Letting Go

This book is a uniquely successful guide towards a deeper understanding of both the readers own body dynamics as well as yoga in its fuller context. The book addresses the physical and emotional consequences of living with scoliosis through therapeutic poses, breathing techniques, and intention-setting that the reader can easily adopt at home. I highly recommend this book to both patients and clinicians alike.

Melanie R. Fiorella, MD, Center for Integrative Medicine, UC San Diego Health

by the same author

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Scoliosis,
Yoga Therapy,

and the Art of Letting Go

RACHEL KRENTZMAN PT, E-RYT

Foreword by Matthew J. Taylor PT, PhD

LONDON AND PHILADELPHIA

First published in 2017

by Singing Dragon

an imprint of Jessica Kingsley Publishers

73 Collier Street

London N1 9BE, UK

and

400 Market Street, Suite 400

Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA

www.singingdragon.com

Copyright Rachel Krentzman 2017

Foreword copyright Matthew J. Taylor 2017

Photographs copyright Tim Hardy 2017

shotbyhardy.com

Illustrations copyright Lior Hikrey 2017

Front cover image source: Tim Hardy. The cover image is for illustrative purposes only, and any person featuring is a model.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying, storing in any medium by electronic means or transmitting) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the law or under terms of a licence issued in the UK by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd. www.cla.co.uk or in overseas territories by the relevant reproduction rights organization, for details see www.ifrro.org. Applications for the copyright owners written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher.

Warning: The doing of an unauthorized act in relation to a copyright work may result in both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Krentzman, Rachel, author.

Title: Scoliosis, yoga therapy, and the art of letting go / Rachel Krentzman; foreword by Matthew J. Taylor.

Description: London ; Philadelphia : Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016011811 | ISBN 9781848192720 (alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Scoliosis--Popular works. | Spine--Abnormalities--Popular works. | Yoga--Therapeutic use--Popular works.

Classification: LCC RD771.S3 K74 2017 | DDC 616.7/3--dc23 LC record available at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__lccn.loc.gov_2016011811&d=BQIFAg&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=4EemtO9R1x-uacXap7EaQ1RHPq9-MnYBwnfuC-ulpHU&m=qU2tv1DLO8U5u8Ez0Bl8J5WvoTI5T4TknNG6GllnMNc&s=bCBsdVUWdWMxF0PnXZmA90l_87BJmkK-4XazlvRyK3o&e=

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84819 272 0

eISBN 978 0 85701 243 2

Contents

Foreword

I met Rachel Krentzman the first week of November 2001 at my seminar on yoga in rehabilitation in New York City. Air traffic was just settling into its new routine, so I wondered who would still make the trip so shortly after 9/11? I saw Rachels name on the attendee list and noted her home address in California. What kind of a nut, I wondered, would fly into NYC for this seminar? Turns out that nut was an acorn. She was pulled from within by something far stronger than the fear outside her.

Today Rachel is a strong, nurturing oak. Her gift of Scoliosis, Yoga Therapy, and the Art of Letting Go is her second book to bring the healing power of yoga to our twisted and contorted world. So often, caring for scoliosis has involved a forceful, external struggle against perceived deformity. Krentzman will have none of that!

Instead she invites you, the reader, to move from a fiery struggle against into the refreshing shade of being with ones curves. Yes, the book is chock-full of smart, safe, and appropriate things to do to explore and work with your curves; but, in the end, a deep silent force makes her approach different. Her invitation to sense and experience your inner qualities and wisdom gently supports the entire book.

The image of an arborist staking and pulling at the trunk and branches of a tree is commonly employed in scoliosis care. That visual reveals our societys penchant for manipulating and forcing change on others and ourselves. Rachel calls you to explore with the same sagacity that a true craftsman among arborists brings to his task. The craftsman knows that, while outer support and lines of tension can aid the process of developing the tree to its potential, more important things actually determine the vigor, vitality, and longevity of the tree. The craftsman arborist works with the trees inner nature, its quiet drive to flourish, and describes forces that include water pressure in the cells, the genetic inclination towards full potency for its species survival, and its biomechanical dance with gravity for optimal growth.

Like a wise and healing craftswoman, Rachel invites you to discover those same types of quiet powers within yourself and in your graceful curves. We humans have a heartmind energy that whispers our deepest yearnings. Only when that force is also tended can the internal stability that creates presence, passion, and compassion flow like sap nourishing the tree of your spine, and life. She offers many simple, but important, tools for discovering and nurturing the inner powers so critical for you to find true fulfillment in the world.

Rachel also knows too well that the tiny, supported tree doesnt grow in isolation. She encourages you also to utilize your human equivalents of sunlight, soil, and roots. In an age during which most yoga books focus on actions, Rachel asks you not to stop there. Instead she guides you to explore yogas wise and ancient precepts for living well: the yamas and the niyamas. Without knowing towards what light are you being pulled, how can you thrive? If you fail to tend to your rootsthose origins you hold most dear and from which you grow your lifehow can strength and longevity unfold? By rooting yourself in the yamas and niyamas, you can begin to be nourished by the interconnected roots of your support community. You can move towards the bright light of mystery that stirs the seed to sprout, the leaf to unfurl, and the flower to bloom.

Rachels instructions and her personal examples will bring you to what she knows is the taproot of your being: the final niyama, which she calls the art of letting go. Surrendering and letting go creates the possibility of reaching up and out. Paradoxically, as in a Zen koan, the one requires the other. Rachel invites you and instructs you how to fall gracefully into the mysteries of your life so you can bring forth your one, unique, and oh so important way of being in the world with all the perfection of the imperfection of every mighty tree. She shows you that it is only in your personal practice of tending, nurturing, and guiding yourself that youor any of uscan ever hope to mend and straighten our larger world from the twists and turns of hatred and fear.