“Everyone has an indestructible center that is already peaceful, joyful, wise, soulful, luminous, & loving. This center is…believed to be our true Self. By nature of being human, the (Self) is covered by layers Yoga sages call koshas.” Julie Lusk
“Each of these 5 layers must be looked after if we are to live a healthy balanced life.” Ann Swanson

To present client w/a new way to consider her physical symptoms: Introduce 5 Kosha Model, note while symptoms are a PART of her, they are not ALL of her. Goal #1: Discuss whether pain or peace is her true nature. Goal #2: Develop an action plan w/specific practices she can implement when she feels her peace is threatened (by symptoms/stressors).

The client introduced herself as “someone who used to be healthy/strong” & cites her former fitness regimen that included daily gym attendance, regular Zumba, & Pilates 3X a week as evidence. The past 5 years included: family stress, Breast Cancer, knee pain, & 2 years of Polymyalgia Rheumatica [PMR]. Eager to be healthy & strong again, she is currently frustrated by daily chronic pain [managed with activity restriction & Prednisone], weight gain, hot flashes, variable energy/sleep/mood.

Building on prior sessions where I’ve planted the seed that physical symptoms (e.g., rash, pain) are part of who she is BUT not all of who she is, the plan was to Check-In, introduce the Panchamaya Kosha Model (PKM), and begin to apply it via discussion. Client is a strong collaborator and eager to learn/apply yogic philosophy as a tool for self-discovery. After some Joint freeing Hatha, Yoga Nidra served as an experiential PKM System Review (planting the seed for future sessions).

I began with familiar practices of centering via pranayama and body scan (Adaptive Hatha), followed by introducing the PKM as a way for her to begin to connect some of her life’s dots. In one sense, this was an application of Jnana Yoga: self-realization/discovery, in another, it’s Raja Yoga: svadhyaya (self-understanding). The discovery & acknowledgement of distinct, yet related parts of me = Jnana, while understanding the impact of those interconnections [how to cope] = Raja. To be clear, I did not go near this level of detail in an INTRODUCTION to the PKM but began with this: “every one of us has an indestructible center that is already peaceful, joyful, wise, soulful, luminous, and loving. This “center”…is believed to be our True Self. This “center” is covered up by layers: physical, energetic, mental-emotional, intuitive, & joyful.” (Lusk, 2015, Ch2,3).

We began seated in a chair w/grounded feet [blocks] & a tall spine. After scanning the body & refinements for posture/ease, we shifted awareness via a brief Centering [Guided Breath Awareness, SMTT] preparing us for conversation. After sharing the key teaching in plain language, we unpacked it, drew connections between the model & her life. A single slip on an icy driveway 1 month after the client gave birth 32 years ago set off a chain reaction of self-protective beliefs, emotions, and behavioral habits that lingered until recently [our yoga sessions]. Long after her broken leg healed, she held the beliefs that “ice = falling, winter/cold = ice, therefore winter = dangerous, to be avoided.” She was delighted to point out that this is no longer her story! She spent the most recent snowstorm “on the other side of the window” helping her husband clear the cars & playing with their dog.

To discharge any tension from the discussion, we engaged in some joint freeing movements and concluded with Yoga Nidra as an experiential PKM Review (planting the seed for future sessions). Going forward, I encouraged her to consider another area where she currently feels it is challenging to “remember her true nature is peace” {the definition of True Self that resonates best for her = Peace}. We reviewed her current yoga tool box of gentle stretches, joint freeing movements, & breathing practices & added one more. From my Trauma Informed Children’s Yoga Training, I shared the “peace begins with me” mantra, paired with bringing the thumb to connect w/the tip of each finger. She was delighted to receive a portable peace practice that offered gentle movement for her hands & that she could “practice under the table” or anywhere she needed to be reminded of her True Self.

I applied the intended plan & we met the goal because in a subsequent session she reports she is “getting better at noticing when she is losing her peace & at knowing how to protect it.”
In Yoga Therapy Foundations: Tools and Practice, Ch 3 & 16, suffering is distilled from Yoga Sutra 1.31 this way: There are four symptoms/illness patterns that interrupt mental clarity: mental discomfort, negative thinking, the inability to be at ease in different body postures, and difficulty in controlling one’s breath. Any one of these symptoms serves as an alarm and signals the need for change—through self-awareness and right action we can prevent future suffering. It can be easy to forget that our natural state is peace, not pain. I say we succeeded because her peace protection involves carefully planning her activities w/ample time to prepare/recharge [rather than avoid them].

No adaptation needed. Observation: Western biomedical approaches may have missed a critical piece of my client’s puzzle. If your intake only records “left femur fracture ~age 22” you miss the part where it was caused by black ice in the driveway, one month after the birth of her second child, in the process of unloading the car with her firstborn, a toddler. While the bone healed and physical therapy exercises are STILL followed all these years later, no one took the time to listen and connect the dots. While a Western doctor with a biopsychosocial perspective may have known there was more to this broken leg than a fracture, sadly even if they had the training to inquire, they may not have the time or bandwidth. This is where Yoga Therapy can come in as a complement to Western medical interventions (Foundations TT, 2021 and The Principles & Practices of Yoga in Health Care Ch 2).

Faced with this situation again, I would do the same: I met my client where she was & offered an introduction to the PKM in the simplest language. I ended up using analogies of nesting dolls & an onion (as a huge Shrek fan, this delighted her). As I’ve read more since that session, I am liking the analogies of Julie Lusk (Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation & Stress Relief, 2015) who describes the koshas & their interrelationships via rainbows & a labyrinth. For this client, I think the onion was still the best starting place &, in the future, as we revisit this, I think the image of a rainbow will help illustrate the interconnectedness of the koshas. While we had the experience of Yoga Nidra, there wasn’t time to fully unpack it so I decided to leave the unpacking and connecting to the koshas for a future session. Rather than overwhelmed, the client left easeful and peaceful.