John Nelson can now twist and turn like a rubber band, but had he followed his physician’s advice and gone ahead with the several operations and injections advised, he might have reduced to a cripple, he says. Having grown up in Alaska, John as a young man would sail in fishing ships for weeks together for the prized catch. The extreme cold and icy ocean waters would soak the men to their bones as they’d stay like that for days together, until their return to dry lands.
Says John, “Gradually , that cold gave me arthritis even at a young age. I used to be stiff, my bones would hurt and I would feel miserable. Gradually my pain increased and the pain wouldn’t even let me move or bend my toe,” recollects John.
John, who’s now 52, says that stage was the beginning of a new career and life. Having lived with pain for a long time, John was a regular at the doctor’s clinic, until his physician suggested some injections in the joints, followed by a couple of surgeries to keep the joints lubricated.
“I had no choice but to accept what was put across to me by my doctors. I agreed for the procedures but I was heart-broken. I knew that, it was not the end for me. That day as I returned from the hospital after consulting my physician, my sister suggested that I follow Bikram Yoga which she had seen on the yellow pages. I was adamant and pessimistic and wouldn’t want to listen or try anything. I reasoned, ‘how can hot yoga help me’? But since my sister insisted I went to the centre. It was a hot room and I was sure I couldn’t even turn my head. I struggled with every move, I felt the pain was killing me, but after the hot yoga session I felt some relief. My bones felt the warmth and I wasn’t crying in pain. That feeling gave me a boost and soon, I became a regular and forgot all about my doctor’s appointment. I felt I was on my road to recovery,” recalls John.
By then John had joined a radio company as a radio jockey and was quite happy doing his yoga sessions and being an RJ. “But I wanted my own yoga studio and that meant I should know more than what I was doing. I was a learner, I had to be a teacher to be able to own a yoga studio,” he says. After a couple of months, John quit his RJ job to take up another jobwhere he found himself even busier and that “ate into my yoga time. I was irregular and I felt the need to do more. During this time, I felt my arthritis was back and after working for a good number of years, I felt it was time to move on and enrol to become a yoga teacher. That was my second best decision after listening to my sister’s advice of learning Bikram yoga. That was also the best time of my life. I was just doing yoga and nothing more,” smiles John as he talks in the Bikram Yoga centre near Hitex. After completing the teacher’s program John came to Asia and since then have been in different parts of Asia teaching Bikram Yoga.
“The only thing I tell my students is: if I can do it, you can do it as well.”
