Yoga, faith and optimism keep Shirley Bryson going
If anyone understands the value of yoga, it’s Ringgold resident Shirley Bryson. The meditation and low-impact exercise of the practice of yoga has come to Bryson’s rescue more than once.
“The first time yoga came into my life,” says Bryson, “was years ago when I was working in the accounting business. The work was very stressful. My doctor suggested I try yoga as a way to clear my mind and relax.”
Since that time, Bryson’s life has taken many turns, emotionally and physically. She’s been rear-ended by other drivers six times, resulting in damage to her spine, and she’s broken her tailbone twice. Another blow came when her sister was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer.
Through it all, Bryson has led a full life by anyone’s standards. She’s worked in accounting and sales, as a hairdresser and as a loan originator. She’s raised two daughters and volunteered with their Girl Scout troops, she’s taught Sunday School and led the children’s choir at her church. She studied voice at Cadek Conservatory of Music in Chattanooga and sang in the school’s choir, as well as in her church choir. She sews, specializing in little girls’ clothes, but also taking on things like making drapes for the floor-to-ceiling windows in her living room. She even learned to crochet and makes blankets and booties for new babies at Lakeview First Baptist Church, where she and her husband have been members for 40 years and where she’s a part of two prayer groups.
In the early 1990s, Bryson co-hosted, with Carol Cain, a program on local TV station UCTV called “Your Terrific Temperament.” “I learned a lot about myself,” she says, “including that I’m a Type-A personality, which contributed to the stress that exacerbated my pain.”
Bryson has always tried to maintain relationships in which she’s been able to mentor or help others. Her impulse to help is so strong that once when her car was hit by a young woman on her way to nursing school, Bryson gave the flustered girl a lift so she wouldn’t be late for class.
Between 2010 and 2015, a number of things happened that made Bryson’s pain worse. She broke her tailbone twice, once while square dancing and once when she fell on a walking trail. She fell down a flight of stairs and briefly lost consciousness. And this was the time her sister was sick and she lost her.
“I spent a lot of time sitting with my sister, which was hard on my back. And there was the emotional stress, the heartbreak of watching my sister’s struggle, then losing her,” Bryson says.
Bryson had been maintaining her yoga practice, walking and square dancing throughout most of these years, but the pain finally became so overwhelming she had to drop much of her physical activity. She went to a chiropractor who took x-rays and asked if she’d ever been beaten. “There was so much scar tissue, but it was just the accumulation of everything I’d been through,” says Bryson.
Bryson started carrying a pillow with her everywhere she went to ease the discomfort of sitting. “It was so bad at night that I often woke up screaming,” she says.
Pain pills were not an option, says Bryson, and neither was taking the pain sitting down. Instead of accepting her worsening condition, Bryson did something counterintuitive. She signed up to take 200 hours of training at Yoga East in Chattanooga to become a yoga instructor.
“I told them I might not be able to do some of the moves, but I felt I could teach them.” But not only did Bryson learn to teach, she ended up strengthening her body. “One day during class I lifted my leg and realized it didn’t hurt my back.”
Within months, Bryson was standing up straight again. Soon she was back to walking her customary three miles a day and she was able to resume square dancing with her husband. She also does water aerobics once or twice a week.
Bryson finished her instructor course in March and started teaching a slow-flow class at Yoga East on Saturday mornings. She also sometimes substitutes for other teachers, and she’s available for private lessons.
“Yoga doesn’t wear you out like some other forms of exercise,” says Bryson, “yet you still use all your muscles and get your blood flowing. It’s good for your body and your spirit.”
With the help of yoga, her faith and a firm belief in focusing on living a full life by being active and helping others, Bryson is recovering from the physical and emotional stresses of the past five years. “Age is a figment of the imagination,” she says. “We’re all created for a purpose, we have a task to do, and we need to concentrate on that.”
Shirley Bryson is a yoga instructor and the author of several books, including The Jericho Rose, which addresses the loss of a loved one. She can be reached at 423-488-2711 regarding yoga instruction or book presentations.