Aileen Ferris: Cork yoga teacher’s ‘feel good’ class for the nervous system.

Or in the case of autism and dyspraxia, differences in body awareness and posture are often seen as ‘deficits’, with strange bumps and bruises that can sometimes be present.

The wonders, limitations, and possibilities of the body have long fascinated Aileen Ferris, a Cork-based yoga instructor with a background in dance, acrobatics, silks and weightlifting—especially after recovering from a spinal cord injury. which prompted him to examine her again. relationship with him.

“If you train like I did in flying classes and teaching, you consider yourself an athlete, and I was very fit and very strong,” he says.

But when you get an injury as bad as the one I got, and suddenly you can’t exercise at all, it completely destroys your sense of who you are.

I think that’s common among athletes who get seriously injured, but at the time, I didn’t realize how common it was.”

He didn’t exercise much for about a year, during which time he discovered the now-closed Aclaí Cork gym, which worked hard with people with disabilities.

He says it “completely changed my life.” “All that time, I was doing yoga, and during this epidemic, I started doing it every day at home.”

Rehabilitating the body after injuries and negative experiences was accompanied by another epiphany – which prompted him to think about the relationship between the body and the mind.

“I always knew something was different [about me]. I didn’t understand why I found some things more difficult than other people, and I used to be very self-conscious about that, [asking] ‘why am I useless?’.

“I also didn’t have good boundaries when I couldn’t do things. I had very deep anxiety, for most of my life, because of living in a world with nerves and not intended to accept others .”

A friend of her husband was diagnosed with autistic and ADHD, and when she described her experience, it made sense.

“It was something that happened slowly, gradually. Finally, I went and got tested for autism, which was a long time because there was a long waiting list, and I was diagnosed as autistic about two years later. ago. I was 37 years old – which is “old” to notice such a thing. “

Thinking about recovery and awareness alike made Ferris realize the importance of yoga in dealing with it all – and the role it played in his life became very evident.

“I initially signed up for yoga teacher training, not to teach, but to deepen my understanding of why it has benefited me so much, but about halfway through my training, I I said, ‘I have to share this’.

“Neuroaffirmative teaching seems like a lot of different things to me. The most important thing, perhaps, is to use invitational language rather than directive language so that students do not feel pressured to do anything within the classroom setting.

“I’ve never given a handstand. Many people find a handstand to be helpful in yoga, where the teacher will help the student into a pose.

“I wouldn’t do that for two reasons – a lot of autistic people don’t like people in their own space, so I won’t go into someone else’s space unless I have to, but the other reason is my classes are not really about getting the right positions.

“It’s not about perfecting your asana – it’s about what feels right, and if what you’re doing right now feels good and won’t hurt you, that’s right.”

I proudly went to class one Saturday morning in Cork city. Apart from the rare moment of close time with my partner, everything was new, so getting to know the environment that Ferris cultivates was a point of curiosity and a learning curve.

Ferris is drawing on a common culture among the town’s neurotic adults, few of whom arrive on time.

He starts off with a relaxing, easy-going, funky mix of modern Irish music, as well as electronic and classical music – part of a simple exercise for the brain that’s prone to overstimulation. the same.

Using pranayama breathing as a method of concentration and returning to rest areas frequently to explore the experience while allowing for natural, gentle movement throughout the body, Ferris’ research into the medium provides a point of no unusual focus for the brain’s nervous system to listen slowly. the whole body.

It’s liberating, especially for those of us whose bodies sometimes feel more like a physical boundary than a home.

“It’s about helping people feel like they’re alive in their bodies, because there’s this misunderstanding, in my opinion, that the body and the mind are two separate things, or separate entities. two of the same thing,” Ferris says. “I think they are really similar.

I have a lot of neurotic friends who I’ve heard say things like, ‘Oh, this stupid body I have to carry around, and you’re not doing yourself any good.

“One of the most important aspects of yoga is ahimsathat means kindness or nonviolence, and that should apply to you as well.”