Also, a student of mine has had two operations for a brain tumor. When we do poses like the lunge, where one leg is forward, the other back, she gets some sensations which she interprets as “bad” since they were present everywhere in her body after the surgery and have since gone away. She describes the sensations as being electrical shocks. Can you explain that? And what kind of poses would be contraindicated for her? Thanks so much, H
I cannot tell for certain from this description. I have more questions for you. Does she experience this on either side or only one? Are there other movements that bring it on? Where is the shock and how is it moving? Does she experience a sensation in her neck or head as a result of the shock? My best guess at this point is that the prana is disrupted. Prana has specific directions of movement that the energy should flow through during the motions of the breath. Accidents and surgery disrupt this flow. One general way to restore balance is to do Agnisar dhouti and/or alternate nostril (nadi shodhana) breathing. The former is abdominal breathing followed by holding after exhale and pumping stomach as many times as is comfortable during the pauses. This restores the Samana prana to the belly. Alternate nostril is with inhaling left, exhaling right, inhaling right and exhaling left for as many cycles as she can sustain without a feeling of being winded.