Yoga works wonders
Moving with a litheness that belies her age, Pamela Porch walks barefooted into the yoga studio and sits cross legged near a brass gong.
As she strikes the gong, sounds reverberate through the room.
Porch, 63, who says she tried yoga initially to alleviate her back pain, has found that yoga has helped improve her health and flexibility.
“I started yoga when I was 40 because of severe back pain,” she quietly explains. “I have severe scoliosis and had visited chiropractors. My muscles were uneven because of the curve in my back.
“I started doing yoga and I did get rid of my back pain. I almost never go see a chiropractor.”
After practicing yoga for 10 years, Porch says she began teaching because she wanted to share what had worked for her. At that time, she was practicing hatha yoga, which involved more physical stretching. Then, as she progressed, she earned her certification in Kundalini yoga, which she says is “very different” from hatha yoga.
“It (Kundalini) was a real surprise to me,” she says, adding that she and her husband attended training in Kansas City. “It increases the flow of energy in the body. It’s a yoga of awareness. It works more on the glands and on the organs.”
She explains that there are 84 pressure points on the tongue, different ones of which are used with different sounds produced. “It’s very scientific and very spiritual.
“When you pray, you’re talking to God. But, when you meditate, it’s God talking to you,” she says.
“For 23 years, I’ve been doing yoga and supplements and eating right,” Porch says.
“My husband has been doing tai chi chuan… he started practicing tai chi because of back pain. He’s 67. He teaches a beginner’s class for body reintegration. We in the West have been taught to ignore the pains, to take aspirin and go to work, to cover up the symptoms.
“Heaven forbid we take care of ourselves. We’ve become unattached from our bodies,” she says, explaining that in yoga and tai chi, one learns to listen to the body, to stand and walk correctly, to strengthen the core.
Originally from Pennsylvania, Porch moved to northwest Arkansas from Los Angeles where she and her husband, David Lenkovitzki, were living because her parents had retired in the northwest Arkansas area.
At their studio on their property in Little Flock, Porch and Lenkovitzki teach people of all ages to better connect with their bodies. She teaches pilates also. “We start out with balls, then
do mat work. The next week, we start out hooping — it’s like a hula hoop, but these are a little different,” she says.
On Mondays, Porch’s class is “flowing yoga moving slowly with your breath.”
“In yoga, you’re very quiet and very focused. In my class, we laugh and talk and share green smoothie recipes. You have to enjoy it to work that hard.
“My classes are lighter. We’re serious about our practice,” she says.
Porch also teaches at the Adult Wellness Center in Rogers. She remembers one man who had suffered pain from whiplash suffered as a result of a car accident for more than nine months. She says that by the second week of practice, he was off his pain medications and is still off of them.
Interestingly, Porch has a bachelor’s degree in computer science. She and Lenkovitzki are both computer programmers and both write software.
At the end of each yoga class, Porch sounds the gong — something she says is relaxing.
“In quantum physics, it’s pretty amazing, scientists are proving … that everything in the universe is vibrating… we can align our vibration so that it vibrates the same as the cosmic or divine spirit vibration,” she says. “It helps relax. It stimulates the dermatomes on the skin, the largest organ in our body. It goes deeper. Sometimes you can feel it vibrating deep in the center.”
Porch teaches 11 classes. She accepts drop-ins and plans to begin a lunch class for Monday and Wednesdays.