How Yoga and Niblets Corn Changed My Life

What the heck, you say, do these two things have to do with each other? Well, a few years ago, yoga and corn, led to my enlightenment and a new sense of appreciation for my body and what it can do. No small feat, for me, a 40-something woman, who has lived with rheumatoid arthritis since I was 4. Wheels are my life. “Hell on wheels in a black dress,” (from a Matchbox 20 song) is my motto. One of the lucky happenstances in my life has been living in the Twin Cities. Even though we’re a forward-thinking, innovative place as far as disability rights and advocacy, I’ve fought many battles over the years. Mostly, these wars and skirmishes involved advocating for accessible transportation. But, despite our wars, Minnesota and the Twin Cities are pretty good places for a gimp to live, in my humble opinion. One of those benefits is access to a local nonprofit rehabilitation center which offers many innovative fitness programs. Adapted yoga, taught by paraplegic Matthew Sanford matthewsanford.com, changed my life and the way I look and think about my body. Although I no longer take part in his yoga class (I’m lobbying for him to start an advanced class), what I learned in my year with Matt, and my other classmates with unique bodies, are lessons I use every day of my life. I’m guessing that many of you, like me, have struggled with the body you have. We often hate our packaging, our barriers, our scars. I hated my body for decades, battling and trying to conform my uniqueness into normal AB society. I was self-conscious and afraid to show my scars or my pretty darned cool tattoo. Then, about 15 years ago, while reading one of those new-agey, self-help books, an epiphany left me in tears, and I started down the road of beginning to accept and appreciate my chubby, stiff little self. No longer was I afraid to flash my tattoo. Heck, I even bared it all on a nude beach in St. Martin. But the year I spent in yoga — bending, rolling, breathing and putting myself in positions I hadn’t been in since childhood — showed me how much more I really could do. Now, here’s where the Niblets come in. It was Sunday afternoon. I was hungry. We had leftovers, including corn, in the fridge. My fridge has a freezer on the bottom, which means my short arms can reach only the first shelf easily. Unfortunately, the corn was on the second shelf, in a container that could not be bounced down without the cover coming loose. Flying Niblets, anyone? (My PCA did not appreciate the corn acrobatics!) Fortunately, my new yoga body and brain took over. Instead of parking my manual wheelchair sideways and pulling the corn with my reaching stick, taking my chance on catching it before it spilled … I parked my manual chair straight on to the fridge, swung my foot pedals out of the way, stood up, grabbed the corn container, and sat back down. Corn. Kitchen floor. Safe and sound. One small step for [wo]man, one giant leap for gimp kind. Originally posted on NewMoblity.com