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Originally Posted by rosiegirl
I have a disability that causes muscle spasms in my legs. I can't move them on my own nor can I control the spasms. They just happen. It gets really frustrating when I'm trying to meditate and my legs start acting up. Sometimes it's better and I can do a complete meditation. Other times, I've had to end it because it distracted me too much. Do you have any advice on how I can deal with this?
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I also have a disability causing muscle spasms in my legs and restless leg syndrome so, sitting in 'lotus pose' isn't possible for me, because it cuts off circulation and nerve conduction to both legs at the hip.
If I sit on the floor, I
must stretch my legs out in front of me and when I do so, I perform Pashimottanasana (head to knee) pose....even though I have never been able to place my head right down on my knees, but I
can grab my ankles and pull all the muscles in both my legs to burning pain point a few times - this helps relax all the muscles and decreases the spasms...a bit...a bit.
Drinking chamomile tea beforehand, lighting some lavender incense as well also helps a bit..it relaxes.
Mostly, I lay on my bed to meditate now - nobody says I
cannot do that if I am trying to transcend the body anyway....it's all about focus, not position.
Even laying down, my leg muscles will still spasm, so I will bend them at the knee and bring both to the chest (pawan muktasana) and that usually helps - so does keeping my magnesium levels up and avoiding lactose.
Anyway, when they still spasm laying down, I can still go into my meditation, making my spasm-ing legs the very
focus of the meditation and I start 'breathing into my legs' while I
consciously tense up the muscles and let go - I figure if I want my leg muscles to work,
I should be the one controlling it! so I will tense and release all my leg muscles over and over - about half a dozen times - squeezing all the tension out and away.
Eventually (after about half an hour) my leg muscle spasms stop and I do the same muscle tension/relaxation exercise to the rest of my body and go into a deep state called
yoga nidra. From Yoga Nidra, where all spasms stop, I can then go into meditation or go to sleep depending on what my mind and body need.
Another thing that helps is to focus on something externally, like a candle flame (trataka) and as soon as your legs start going into spasm, bring your focus and awareness back to the candle flame and don't get annoyed about it...let it all go with love.
My leg spasms are decreasing, but yeah, there are still days when I cannot even walk.
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