Good Yoga or Bad Yoga

On some days, practicing yoga makes me feel better.
It releases muscle tension, it opens up the joints, gets the adrenaline going, helps me feel active and accomplished, and helps strength and flexibility.

On other days, practicing yoga makes me feel worse.
It depletes energy, it puts strain on muscles, it puts pressure on inflamed joints (inflaming them further), it's exhausting, and it can increase my heartrate above what my body can handle.

Here's the problem: I don't really know when it will be helpful and when it will be harmful.
But just because yoga can sometimes be harmful, that doesn't mean that I should eliminate it entirely from my life. It means that I need to listen to my body and learn to recognize the signs of over-exertion or when my body is responding poorly.

It's important to remember that chronic illness has a complete mind of its own. Just like a human being, it may react well to something one day, then bite your head off for the exact same thing another day. Even if you find an exact routine or diet that seems to help, unless you are lucky enough to experience remission, flare-ups can occur out of nowhere. All we can do is try our best, try and live a HAPPY life and as healthy as we can, and hope that we experience more good days than bad days every week.
Take it day by day. Learn to be in tune with your body. And don't despair when even 'healthy' activities wear you down. Don't get down on yourself when others can't seem to understand that chronic illness is an entire being - impossible to be 100% controlled, no matter how hard we try.
Sometimes we need to remind people that we are fighting for a better life every single day, and that we wake up every day completely oblivious to how we are going to feel each day.

Keep fighting. It's worth it.