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Yoga while Flying

Margaret Kruszewska

A while ago, while creating sequences for our YogaHub site, I was asked by the producer to come up with a yoga sequence that can be done while flying. Well, there already exist many helpful tips for helping circulation and relaxing when you’re stuck in an airplane: stretching legs, circling ankles, bringing arms over the head, walking when you can. I didn’t feel I could add anything new to these common sense tips.

Yesterday I was flying from the west coast to the east coast. It was a comfortable flight with enough wiggle room and so, in between surfing cable channels which I don’t have at home on my Jet Blue screen, I occasionally twisted and whirled a bit and stretched in an inconspicuous way (if there is such a thing in a tight public space like this).

At the end of the flight as I was walking down the ramp, I noticed a dull pain around my lower rib cage. What from? Have no idea. I normally sit quite straight. But I was probably sitting slightly askew and didn’t even know it cause I was really into watching all the episodes of Top Chef!

I did not notice. My mind was in the clouds, on the screen, daydreaming and probably because I knew my body would not be in a very comfortable position for several hours- I was not really in my body.

So I did not notice. Our capability to shut off certain messages is amazing. Of course, it would be a difficult existence to notice everything that is going on in your body, all the time. But it made me think of how we do live with pain. And we don’t notice it because so many other things can hold our attention. Then, one day something changes, we get up to start walking let’s say, and we think that “out of nowhere” we have this horrible pain. A pain that was probably there for a while. Pain we had not noticed.

2 Responses to “Yoga while Flying”

  1. Sierra-maria says:

    Thats so true! I notice that in my ownlife, and not just with physical discomforts. I sometimes live with stress or unhappiness, not even aware of it, because it feels normal. Its almost as if my nervous system has acclimated to it and perhaps it (my nervous system) doesn’t even know it can survive something different, like boundless joy!!!

  2. Nico says:

    I know exactly what you mean Saraswati and agree with you Sierra-maria. I have noticed that living in the city makes it even harder for me to connect with myself, my body, my spiritual being…just spent a weekend in Woodstock, surrounded by nature and I felt happy not to have to deal with any skyscrapers, city stress and everything else. My challenge now is managing to stop shutting off, to reconnect with myself physically and spiritually, while being in the city…
    Nico in NYC

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