kayla kurin Archives - Melissa vs Fibromyalgia

“Yoga and meditation led me to a new way of thinking about my body and about what the worlds ‘illness’ and ‘health’ mean. It gave me the tools I needed to manage my pain and fatigue, and live a full life, even when I wasn’t feeling my best. Eventually, it led to my full recovery.” – Kayla Kuran, Yoga for Chronic Pain: 7 Steps to Aid Recovery from Fibromyalgia with Yoga.

If you’ve been following my work for any amount of time you’ll know I’m obsessed with yoga and meditation.

Yoga is a multi use tool for strength and pain management. Meditation is my favourite tool for deep rest and pain relief and has decreased my funky fight or flight response.

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As soon as I heard about Kayla Kuran’s book Yoga for Chronic Pain: 7 Steps to Aid Recovery from Fibromyalgia with Yoga, I was like “Me! Me! Pick me!” And Kayla kindly sent me a copy.

The book begins with Kayla’s journey and how yoga helped her on her journey to wellness.

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Step one invites you to learn about your pain.

Here we learn the difference between acute and chronic pain and how chronic pain affects the autonomic nervous system.

There’s a good action point here – start a journal and track your symptoms and what the context was to catch the patterns.

Step two delves into the science of yoga.

Here we learn about the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda and how it helped Kayla on her journey. Ayurveda provides a more individualized answer for us and is holistic in nature.

Step three is all about taming the mind through mindfulness.

Here I found the answer as to why meditating instead of attempting to nap (and getting frustrated about being unable to) – because I’m focusing on what I can control (practicing meditation) and not on what I can’t (sleep). The frustration is secondary and controllable. The sleep is primary and not in my control.

Kayla provides five ways to use meditation. And encourages us to set a mindful goal for your pain management plan. Something we can control (like meditating instead of napping, doing some breathing practice before bed).

Step four using breath as am energy source and takes you through some options for practice. Here she talks about Yoga Nidra guided meditation which I adore for coping with sleep deprivation.

Step five yoga postures to relieve pain – this is the jam!

“Yoga and meditation help rewire the brain. In yoga we call this namaskar, and in the scientific world, it’s called neuroplacticity.”

There are two practices offered – a morning flow and an evening restorative and both are just lovely. There is also guidance for making a flare up plan that involves yoga.

Step six self care – this includes yogic self care such as massage, meditation and following your passions. There’s also some good tips for getting sleep and for reorienting how you think about sleep.

Step seven invites us to take mindfulness into daily life.

If you enact the actions Kayla provides, you will certainly be on a positive step on your way to fighting Fibromyalgia.

You can get your copy of Yoga for Chronic Pain here.

Nerdy note:

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