It will be three years ago this summer that I first took a Kaiut class. A friend had mentioned to me that a new form of yoga was being offered in our community.  The yoga was the Kaiut Method and classes were being held at a small studio not far from my home. I attended a class at 7 o’clock in the morning and have been hooked ever since. 

 

I had taken different forms of yoga now and then but none of them ever seem to hold my interest.  Kaiut touched something inside me that worked.  Kaiut focuses on the joints. There were times in my life where I felt like the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. I thought if I could only oil my joints I would feel and move much better. Well, since taking Kaiut I can say I have created happy, healthy, well oiled joints. 

 

Within a couple of weeks of classes I noticed, (and so did others), that my posture and the way in which I walked had changed for the better. The interesting thing about Kaiut is that the postures and or sequences are relatively simple yet deeply focused. Unlike other forms of yoga I am not distracted by wondering if I am doing the movements correctly. The teachers explain orally how to get into each posture. Because of this type of instruction I am able to focus completely on the form. Time seem to move quickly in a Kaiut class and before I realize it we are entering into the final relaxation pose. 

​

I’ve lived with pain for over 20 years due to degenerative discs in my lower back. The lowest disc in my back is half the size it should be. the disc above it is normal, the disc above that is small, shrunk. The doctors wanted to fuse all three of those discs together with rods to keep the spine stable.

​

I came to yoga a year ago and within two months I could feel such a tremendous difference in my body, the way I felt, the way I slept, then six months go by, the way I was walking was better, wasn’t as painful.  And it’s continues to get better every class.

​

I started to practice with Alessandra in 2014 when both of us still lived in Brazil, in Curitiba. With my mom’s advice, I went for one of Ale’s classes, longing for a “complement” for my treatment against anxiety and depression, and an insistent and painful bursitis.

​

I remember that for the first two or three months of practice I dealt with a lot of resistance from my body and mind. Especially whenever I sat down in the Sukhasana pose, I recall not being able to breath properly, and felt that maybe the anxiety was being triggered by the pose itself.

 

I told Ale, and she approached me very gently, as usual, and told me very peacefully, that I could embrace it, the anxiety that was coming along, and that it “was only me and my mat”, nothing else in that room to worry about. 

 

The Kaiut Method helped me to understand the limitations of my body, and to gradually overcome them, gaining more mobility and freedom. But different than other methods I had tried before, it works in a very gentle, yet firm and clear, way.

 

Now I’m writing this from Italy, where I currently live, and preparing myself to have one of Ale’s and Bruno’s classes in a few hours via streaming from New Orleans, USA. It’s funny how life goes, and how we can still connect ourselves to people, despite the distance, despite the difficulties we might be going through. I no longer experience shoulder pain from that bursitis. I still experience anxiety issues nowadays, but the change is that Sukhasana is today one of the best poses and “places to be” whenever I’m dealing with it, and I always recall that learning: “It’s just me and my mat”, and I feel safe.