Navigating chronic illness on the yoga mat with MaryBeth Tipton
Women + Wellbeing Interview #8
Please share MaryBeth’s wisdom by forwarding this interview to a friend, restacking it on Substack, or sharing on your favorite social media platform. Subscribe to Yoga for Women’s Wellbeing for monthly conversations with women about wellbeing and yoga practices to support women’s wellbeing through all stages of life.
“Challenges are opportunities where we can grow. They're chances to flow like water, to yield.”
~MaryBeth Tipton
MaryBeth Tipton was a student in my 300HR Teacher Training program in 2020. She is an avid yoga practitioner and teacher and truly believes in the power of yoga “off the mat.” Since graduating from her advanced teacher training, MaryBeth was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic condition that has affected her ability to show up for her practice in the same ways she has for over a decade. I’ve heard from many of my readers and students over the years about how joint pain affects their yoga practices and joint pain is also a common symptom that pops up in perimenopause/menopause. A recent Stanford Medicine-led study found that 80% of autoimmune conditions diagnosed affect women. I hope MaryBeth’s story will inspire you to navigate your own wellbeing journeys when challenges inevitably arise.
Meet MaryBeth Tipton
MaryBeth is an E-RYT 500, YACEP certified yoga teacher and owner of Yoga Living LLC. MaryBeth incorporates the transformative practices of yoga, self-inquiry, and mindfulness into her teachings. She supports and empowers her yoga students by giving them a head-to-toe workout while cultivating presence, breath, focus, awareness, and connection to Self. Her students become stronger and more flexible, both physically and mentally, as they are guided along their transformational journey, both on and off their yoga mat.
MaryBeth recently released her first book, Journey to Joy. Her dedication to personal growth has shaped her into a resilient and compassionate guide for those seeking healing and joy.
MaryBeth spends her time between her homes in Ohio and Florida and enjoys spending quality time with family and friends. Her and her husband Larry have been together 29 years, have 4 children and 12 grandchildren. She loves to travel and has a passion for being in, on, or near the water. She makes stone and crystal bracelets, enjoys reading, and she loves yoga!
Pre-order MaryBeth’s book Journey to Joy today.
The Interview
ASHLEY ZUBERI: I would love for you to start by sharing a little bit about your yoga practice.
MARTYBETH TIPTON: I've been practicing yoga for over 11 years and I've been teaching for over eight years. I got into yoga because one of my girlfriends dragged me to a yoga class with her. I loved it and I just kept going. My practice began as a very gentle, stretchy practice, but one that cultivated presence and connection. My practice grew with different teachers and that helped me discover my capabilities and my strengths. My teachers introduced me to the word “discomfort” and I became a Power Yoga junkie from there.
ASHLEY: What was driving you to work through that discomfort?
MARYBETH: The discomfort was so many things. The discomfort was a full environment of sweaty people that I did not know. It was a very challenging class that worked every muscle from head to toe. Discovering muscles that I didn't know I have. I sweat in places I didn't even realize there were pores. It was also uncomfortable mentally because class was so challenging.
It was a new way of thinking for me. I enjoyed the challenges but I also started to notice that every time I showed up on my mat and I got stronger, I was stronger off my mat. I had a sense of confidence and I noticed that when I started building that stick-to-itiveness perseverance, those things followed me off of my mat as well.
I knew if I could get through a Power Yoga class, I can handle this little setback or this little issue in my life. I had a sense of strength and confidence. And I also found strength in my breath.
ASHLEY: Where in your life were you when you started practicing yoga?
MARYBETH: I was in my early 40s.
ASHLEY: Did you do certain types of exercise or did you love running or something like that before you started yoga?
MARYBETH: Yeah, I hate running—I don't do that unless I'm being chased. We had a YMCA membership, so we would do all the equipment there. I would do the treadmill. I would do a lot of walks. When I’m in Florida, I ride my bike. I subscribed to Women's Health Magazine and they would have a little section in there for workouts, so I would just tear it out and take it down to my workout room and work on things. But I didn't have a regular practice. I was not ever committed to a particular exercise.
ASHLEY: I remember when we first met you had been doing the Baptiste 40-day program.
MARYBETH: After I got my teacher certification, I signed up for my first Baptiste training and I loved it. I did not only teach Power Yoga though. I taught Vinyasa classes and I would throw in a gentle class every now and again.
I want to circle back to your question about the discomfort in my practice. There's a difference between discomfort and pain. Your practice should not be painful. I have a quote from the yoga teacher Eric Schiffmann. He describes working with a balanced edge, and he says: “Yoga is a balance between active and passive, and it's not overly aggressive, but a harmonious blend of push and yield. It's both vigorous and quiet.”
Sometimes people might not always understand Power Yoga. It's also very quiet and it can be very still. It is very much a work-in.
ASHLEY: When you first started experiencing joint pain, how did that show up for you? How did you work through that on the mat?
MARYBETH: Before my joint pain and my rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis, I had several injuries to work through. They weren’t injuries from yoga but I had to work with them. I tore a hamstring attachment—took me nine months to heal that sucker. I tore cartilage in my wrist using a power tool but I modified and still showed up on my mat. I tore a meniscus on the dance floor dropping it like it was hot because I can. A couple of months later I had my fourth knee surgery. I was back on my mat four days after that knee surgery. I broke my third metatarsal in my foot and spent six weeks in a boot, two weeks non-weight bearing. I've had quite a few setbacks on my mat.
But one big difference between those and rheumatoid arthritis is that those injuries were all temporary. RA is permanent.
I first started experiencing joint pain primarily in my wrists. Whenever I did anything weight bearing on my hands I would notice a lot of lingering pain after leaving my mat. My first thought was fear. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to do what I love, that the pain would affect my teaching, that I would atrophy, that I didn’t know how long it was going to last.
Then the joint pain ended up spreading into my hands and elbows. My fear worsened and suddenly there were a lot of things that I couldn't do, not just on my yoga mat, but even around the house. Even holding onto my steering wheel to drive to visit my grandkids was painful.
I had to wait on a diagnosis. I had to go through a lot of testing. There was that fear of the unknown. I was afraid to show up to yoga practices because I was afraid of what I would look like. I know that sounds very silly; that’s just not who I am at all. But that fear was real and from that fear judgment came up, self-criticism came up, a lack of self-confidence came up, and I threw myself a few pity parties. There was a lot of negative self-talk. I remember that period of time in my life—I was barely recognizable. It was pretty tough not being able to do what I really wanted to do, or what I was used to doing. But what I started to realize was that my practice is so mental; my body's craving for yoga was overshadowed by my mind’s and heart's need for yoga.
I desperately needed to spend time on my mat, I just wasn't sure exactly how to do that. So I started modifying poses. I eliminated others. For instance, High Plank became Forearm Plank. Dolphin wasn't something that I did very often, but I added it in to flow between Forearm Plank and Dolphin. Standing postures were fine. Balancing poses were fine. But Sun A's and Sun B's were definitely out. I could not Chaturanga. Even Cobra became too much for me. All my Power moves were out.
I started noticing that I was showing up on my mat focused more on what I couldn't do. I wasn't holding space for the things that I could do. I was frustrated and my practice wasn't helping me mentally like it used to. What we practice, we get good at, so we have to be really careful what we practice. If you practice frustration, self-pity, self-criticism, judgments on your mat, all those things fortify. They follow you off your mat. They're strengthened in your life. But when you show up on your mat and you start practicing with patience, kindness, self-compassion, and acceptance those things start strengthening off of your mat. I had to keep showing up until I could finally practice those things. The practice of that was more challenging than the asana. I had that moment when you go back to yoga philosophy. I had to tell myself, “Okay, MaryBeth. It's time to begin again.”
The teacher became the student and she began again. My Power Yoga practice became “Power and other things”. There's power in taking Child's Pose when your body craves it and needs it. There is power in choosing a variation that is different than what it looks like in everybody else's body. There's power in flowing on your mat with more ease and grace, there's power in owning your limitations—not just knowing them, but owning them.
Going back to what Eric Schiffmann said, I already knew how to push. I had to learn how to yield.
I’ll share a story that was a turning point for me. One of my favorite teachers had moved to South America and was coming back to the studio as a guest teacher. I wanted to show up for her and take her class even though I was in the middle of my RA issues and I was still struggling. The studio was packed—our mats were maybe an inch apart. This male yoga teacher came in and put his mat right behind mine and I felt the need to turn around to tell him that I wasn't myself that day and that my practice was going to look different, that I was going be modifying a lot. He reassured me that he too was struggling with a medical condition and was going to modify. I felt comforted, but also disempowered.
After the class I acknowledged myself for showing up on my mat. There was a moment when I realized I was so wrong. I was myself. This is me. I am enough. And I remember it just finally clicked. I needed to own my disease. I needed to own my modifications unapologetically. I remember once that realization hit me, I stood an inch taller and I was so proud of myself for the courage it took to show up. Here I was thinking that I'm not myself, apologizing, and worried about what I was going to look like.
That was the shift. After that, I could say, “Yeah, I've got this. I can keep showing up.”
ASHLEY: Thank you for sharing that story. A lot of people come to me and tell me they’re experiencing joint pain. Often the solutions offered, especially if you just do a quick Google search, are Chair Yoga practices or a sequence that looks100 percent different than what they were used to practicing. If you previously had a practice you loved that was very physical, sometimes the solution offered is that you just can’t do that practice anymore. That can be a really tough pill to swallow and a really hard transition.
It sounds like you still do show up for the practices even if they’re modified. I certainly don't hear you saying that you stopped doing yoga asana, or you only do Chair Yoga now, or you’re only doing Restorative Yoga postures. You're still definitely showing up for your practice, and perhaps it looks a little different than it did, but you're not saying, “Because I have this, I can't do anything anymore.”
MARYBETH: Definitely not me. I think it is a lot easier to give up and quit. It's a lot easier to allow your discouragement to become an excuse for why you can't do something. That’s not how I want to show up for myself. It's not how I want to show up for other people in my life. I want to practice to the best of my ability on that given day. I honor my body. I do the modifications. I take some things out.
ASHLEY: What advice would you give to someone who's going through this and maybe doesn't feel like they know intuitively what to do?
MARYBETH: What I would want my students to do with me is to come to me and tell me before or after class what you’re experiencing. Ask for help. Ask for recommendations and modifications. Use blocks. Private instruction is a great option. I know it's expensive, but it might only take three sessions with a teacher to help you figure out what you can do.
Understand that just because you are modifying a yoga pose doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you or that you're not good or that you're not doing it right. There's no one way to do it.
If you're showing up to practice criticism, judgment, negativity, that’s not yoga. When you show up and you do your best based on your capabilities at that time on that day and you find ways to be resilient, go with the flow, not resist, not cause suffering, and you are working on your way of being, that’s yoga. When the teacher says to bind your Extended Side Angle and do a Bird of Paradise, that’s when you go, “Yeah, I'm not doing that today. I think I'm going to stay right here and breathe through it.”
If you don't know how to modify, talk to your teacher and find ways to work through it. Because isn't that what you would do in life anyway? You don’t say, “I don't know how I'm going to cook dinner, so I guess we're not going to eat.” That doesn't happen. You find ways to do things.
ASHLEY: Is there anything else you want to add?
MARYBETH: If you have joint pain, instead of quitting, show up and allow the practice to help build your resilience. Shift your perspective.
It takes courage to show up when you know that what you think of as your best is not your best. You can't compare yourself to how it used to be, especially as we age and we go through all of our hormonal changes.
There's a difference between challenge and struggle. When we struggle, we're resisting. When you're fighting your reality, that's struggling and it's also very disempowering. Challenges are opportunities where we can grow. They're chances to flow like water, to yield. I’ve grown through having RA. Life’s full of challenges, but it's how we respond to them that determines whether or not we struggle. Facing difficulty is a normal part of life. Getting stuck in an challenge is a choice that we make. When you choose growth, you show up for yourself and others with an open mind, open heart, and a courageous spirit.
One of the reasons why I love yoga more than any other form of exercise is that it's not just an exercise for me. It is a mental work-in and I work just as hard mentally and emotionally on my mat as I do physically.
MaryBeth’s practice suggestions for managing joint pain
Always listen to and honor your body on that day.
Practice for 30 minutes instead of an hour or find a time that works for your body.
Use blocks and props.
Don’t do as many repetitions of the same posture, especially weight-bearing postures that you know bother your joints.
Take out postures during flare-ups. Find a pose that feels comfortable and empowering and choose that instead.
Yoga pose modifications
Sun Salutation A :: Half Sun Salutation (Mountain —> Forward Fold —> Halfway Lift —> Downward Facing Dog)
Chatarunga :: From Tabletop, lower chest to the ground then your chin (Knees, Chest, Chin), and flow up into Cobra.
High Plank :: Forearm Plank
Side Plank :: Forearm Side Plank
Yoga poses that may be helpful with blocks
Extended Side Angle
Triangle
Low Lunge
Pyramid
Half-Splits
Bridge (place the block under your sacrum)
If you enjoyed this interview, please forward it to a friend, share it as a note, or share on social media. And be sure to subscribe to Yoga for Women’s Wellbeing for monthly conversations with women about wellbeing and yoga practices to support women’s wellbeing through all stages of life.