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Several years ago, I was struggling with sleep apnea, knee pain, and chronic neck pain from an old diving injury—all despite my committed yoga practice. Something was missing. When I found the Gokhale Method®, I experienced a profound shift. My pain reduced. My stamina increased. I felt calmer, more confident, more capable in my body.

Our teachers often field questions about tucking the pelvis for Tai Chi and Qigong. It is frequently perceived that Tai Chi recommends tucking the pelvis as part of a baseline stance, purportedly to facilitate “the Qi to flow unimpeded.” It’s a central tenet in Gokhale Method® philosophy that the baseline pelvic position be anteverted, and that tucking the pelvis is a “wrong turn” Western society took about a century ago (think flapper posture). So students who encounter a seemingly exactly opposite guideline or model in Tai Chi are understandably confused.

Vacation time is in full swing in the northern hemisphere. For many of us, being beachside or poolside gets us yearning for a dip, a splash, and a swim. And I’m guessing that many of us have been mesmerized and inspired by watching the Olympic pool athletes in action.

In January and February this year I took the Gokhale Method Elements course, which consists of 18 brief (13 minute) but potent lessons. I would like to share my experience of the Gokhale Method with you in this blog post. My goals were to find out how to sit, stand, and walk well, so that I don’t overstress the scoliotic parts of my back. I was also in search of more comfortable and beneficial sleeping positions. I felt I needed guidance to help me develop a better sense of my body posture and alignment. To be able to do a one-on-one course online made this possible for me. It was only when I saw the difference between my “Before” and “After” pictures that I realized just how much change it was possible to make to my posture in such a relatively short period.

This blog post explains how some common yoga injuries occur and how applying the principles of healthy posture to yoga postures replaces this scenario with movements that are good for your body. Yoga postures and back pain Growing up in Mumbai, India, my Dutch mother was a student of BKS Iyengar and the Satyananda yogis, and keen for me also to learn yoga asanas, or postures. I practiced, and, being reasonably athletic as a child and already trained in Indian classical dance (Bharata Natyam), did not find it particularly difficult to choreograph the back bends, forward bends, and twists that were asked of me. I became a yoga model, demonstrating postures alongside visiting swamis’ presentations to induce the audience to sign up for upcoming yoga courses.