BHARATI PAWASKAR
Health and well-being is our birth right. We are born to live a healthy life. Every cell in our body is designed to breathe life into our body but are we really in good shape? If not, then what is the reason? What do we do to remain healthful? We have tried everything but still our head, neck, back, hip, shoulder aches, what do we do? These are some questions that Lang Maria Liu ponders in her talks and workshops while offering techniques to a healthful living.
Lang, a Canadian who first visited India a couple of years ago in search of answers for similar questions of her own - is back, this time with all the necessary knowledge and wisdom of ‘how to remain healthful forever’ by following eight simple principles.
A martial arts expert, dancer and healer Lang who runs her Capoeira (Brazilian Martial Art School) in Toronto, Canada, believes in health, well-being and healing. For the past two years she has been travelling across the globe to share and teach her knowledge of getting healthy.
“This is my sixth visit to India,” she counts, adding, “I had been to Goa exactly a year ago for six weeks and taught Gokhale method to some of the Goans and here I am back again, with the same offer,” quips Lang whose gesture of giving back to society has compelled her to travel places and share her knowledge with others who are suffering ill-health. Lang who herself suffers from Femuro Acetabular Impingement (FAI) from birth and who was advised to undergo hip replacement in her 40s, has successfully managed to gain pain-free movements after pursuing Indian Ayurvedic and Chinese holistic healing methods.
Having come across American Indian Esther Gokhale’s book ‘Eight steps to a pain-free back’ during one of her trips to India, Lang was excited to have found the missing key of the puzzle of pain.
Esther Gokhale who had a disc problem in spine, researched the lifestyle of various tribal communities and their methods of living a pain-free life and came up with a technique (now known as Gokhale Method) that taught how to sit, stand, bend, walk and lie down in a way that respects our human architecture. It’s a way our ancestors did. Young generation has lost the wisdom and modern society is suffering this loss in the form of ill-health. “It is our birth right to be healthful,” believes Lang who having learnt the method herself and benefiting from it, is teaching it to others as a gift of health.
It took Lang a year to learn from Esther and get certification from Gokhale Method Institute in the US before she could teach others. Over 100 persons have learnt from her in last two years. Lang who gives awareness talks and conducts workshops wherever she travels wishes to teach the ABCs of a healthy body to all. Health is everything. Those who have health can utilise their maximum potential. Once you lose control of your health, modern medicine offers only two options - drugs and surgery. Medicines have side effects and surgery is not a wise decision. Instead holistic therapies offer benefits to the whole body and are safer.
“We have to look at our ancestors who were much stronger and healthier. They followed the laws of nature, which we have forgotten. Modern furniture is curvy, we have couches with slouches. The sofas are not stiff. The chair and beds are soft. Our furniture reflects our changing habits. We want too much comfort. This leads to incorrect posture, lazy habits and invites disorders,” explains Lang who offers a foundation course in Gokhale Method that has six classes, of 90 minutes each.
One must have an aligned body. Our spine should be erect. When we use the body, instead of muscles our joints take the strain. The shape of our spine keeps changing. Ideally it should be J shape but it has become modular spine, with S shape. This leads to compression in the disc, pinching nerves, numbness in the limbs. “Gokhale Method is simple - no surgery, no medication, no adjustments, no equipment and no exercise.
At any age, this can be learnt. Once the bones are calcified, nothing much can be done, however, sitting and lying straight can give more length to the spine which translated into more energy. If young embrace this method it can translate into a healthy future generation,” concludes Lang.
(Lang Maria Liu will conduct a free session in ‘Gokhale Method’ on February 2 at 10.30 am at The Rejuvenation Center, 1175, Anavaddo, Candolim, Bardez)
