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Vincent’s Story for Men’s Health Awareness Month

I practice yoga and meditation every morning. Just enough to have my body and mind ready to start the day.  I usually do 10 minutes of Yoga poses to stretch my body (Cat/Cow poses, Child pose, Downward facing dog), then 10 to 15 minutes meditation.

On top of this regular practice that I keep doing every morning for more than 3 years, I regularly do Yin Yoga session either at Bodytree or on my own.  I use those sessions to help my body recovering from the training I’m doing.  I run 5 to 6 times a week for pleasure and to prepare marathons. I’ve also started cycling 3 years ago to add cardiovascular training to my running with less stress on the body.

I have been practicing sport in competition (volley ball, roller skate, squash and running…) for more than 35 years now.  In my childhood, as many (every?) people, I did not feel that I had to take care about my body apart from the training itself, to only get more strength or skills.

Except little stretching at the end of training, never taken really seriously, there were nothing done to focus on the body itself, the recovery. Probably not very popular in the eighties in France 😉

Then after injuries, that put me away from my sport practice, I started questioning myself on what I should do to help my body absorbing all the workload I was putting on it as there was no way I would stop sport.  In the early nineties I’ve started seeing osteopaths (not as popular as they are now) that helped me better understand my body in term of mechanics. At a certain time, I even started thinking about choosing that way for my carrier.  I finally did not pursue in that direction but kept learning about proper stretching, recovery…

I then went to Yoga through my wife’s practice. I realised that what I was doing sporadically to complete my training was somehow coming from Yoga.  I’ve started yoga about 6 years ago when I was living in Burma. That’s also the place where I’ve started meditation. Perfect place for that!

Since then I’ve never stopped increasing my practice, working on my awareness, even doing yoga retreat. This also led me to change my diet as I am mostly vegan since the same period.

From the discipline I initially put in place to practice every day, it has now became a habit that is completely embedded into my life.  The funny thing is that I rediscovered through another perspective, through my body, things I was studying, and actually loving, in physics about forces, energies, links between infinitely small and endlessly big, from the atom to the universe.

This fascinates me.

Then 3 years ago I’ve started having these two kind of treatments to heal my injuries, balance and regulate the flow of my energy.  I have done some reiki sessions in Body tree with Jacquie when I felt I needed it to recover/re-balance my energy during stressful periods at work or during marathon training preparation that require a lot from the body, mind and energy.

I see also a Chinese doctor from time to time in Abu Dhabi who helped me heal injuries with acupuncture, cupping.

Answering your questions makes me realise how I evolved in my approach of life, awareness during the last 6 years.  It’s no longer a question of continuing the practice as it has now became a way of living which I find highly rewarding as you always learn new things, even tiny ones, that improve your knowledge, awareness, health.

In addition, this practice can also benefit to others around you!