Reading Response 1

Where do I even begin? I did not want to stop reading How Yoga Works. The story of a man's back being healed through yoga practice? What could be more perfectly inspirational for me? In order to understand fully, let me tell you a little backstory:
When I was 16 years old, I went to a soccer camp to prepare for the upcoming season. At that camp, I injured my back. Upon examination, I was told that I had a herniated disk. Normally, people can live with herniated disks and never know, never have any pain. I was one of the unlucky few. My herniation was pushing on a nerve that runs down the outside of my right leg, straight down into my middle toes. I did almost a year of physical therapy, two steroid shots in my back and ultimately back surgery two months after my 17th birthday. Ever since then, my back has hurt. Somedays is it worse than others, but it always hurts. Ok, thats the end of my sob story.

Now you know why this story was so powerful for me to read. I cringed at the part where Friday accused the Captain of not truly wanting healing if he would not be consistent in practice. I felt guilty during parts where the Captain wanted to rush his healing and would not be patient. I felt compassion when the Captain said, "But I do want it...I do want to be healed. It hurts, you know....It all...hurts" (19). I know the feeling and after reading, I have become determined. I want healing and I refuse to allow laziness and apathy to rule me any longer.