WELLNESS
bones in my pelvis felt
thrown out of balance.
Out of nowhere, I felt broken and ill. I did not know
about the tsunami until
a friend told me about it
later that day. The news
echoed through my soul.
I immediately felt that the
pain and numbness I was
experiencing in my pelvis
and legs was connected
to the shift in the planet’s
tectonic plates in Japan.
This strange numbness
increased over the next
couple of days. Then suddenly – out of nowhere
- mind-altering pain shot
through my spine. My
mind went blank from
sheer trauma. I could not
move my spine or my legs
at all. My partner, hearing
a blood-curdling scream I
do not remember, came
running. He took me by
my arms and tried to carry
me, while I was screaming
in excruciating pain, to my
bed. I would remain there
for nearly three months,
unable to get up even
for the most basic things.
Doctors gave a medical
diagnosis and asked if I
had been in a car acci-
dent. I was given a 50-50
chance of walking again,
and surgery was recommended for the immense
trauma in my lower spine.
In my core, I did not believe that was the way
for my healing. So I dove
deeply into myself and
surrendered to life force
(God, Spirit, whatever you
want to call it) as I had
never done before, working with the subtle realms I
knew from my YEM: Yoga
as Energy Medicine practice and my music.
What followed was a rearranging of everything I
knew. On one level, I call
the injury “karma fast forward”, where I was challenged to let go of that
which no longer served
and had to learn to absolutely trust a higher power
for everything. When you
realize that you may never walk again, may never even do the simplest
things that we take for
granted, your ego crashes and dies while something else is born.
Four months later, I was
walking again. My recovery was considered
medically miraculous. I
went straight into the studio and outpoured the
album “YIN: Yoga In the
Nightclub” in profound
gratitude.
In response to my life
changes, and miraculous healing, I have had
to adopt new habits that
put my physical health at
the same level of priority
as my spiritual well-being.
There is no doubt that
before the injury, I overlooked my physical needs
and took my physical vitality for granted.
We never know when we
will die or when we will get
sick. We do know that our
true nature is eternal. We
can manage our health
as best we can, and be
willing to see what happens in our life as a perfect teaching for what we
need to learn now.
Parvati Devi is the editor-in-chief of Parvati Magazine. In addition to
being an internationally acclaimed Canadian singer, songwriter, producer
and performer, she is a yoga teacher and holistic educator. Having
studied yoga and meditation since 1987, Parvati developed her own yoga
teaching style called YEMTM Yoga as Energy Medicine. Her current shows,
“YIN: Yoga In the Nightclub” and “Natamba” bring forward a conscious
energy into the pop mainstream. Her book “Confessions of a Former Yoga
Junkie” is a road map to a revolutionary life makeover for sincere spiritual
seekers.
For more information on Parvati, please visit www.parvati.tv.