I left yoga class yesterday acutely in touch with feeling empowered physically and peaceful mentally. I know that when I go to yoga regularly, I am a better version of myself. I can take what I learn on the mat and apply it to my life off the mat.
We all have self judgement, doubt, fear and anxiety. One of my favorite yoga teachers, Iva, calls those negative voices one hears in their head “the committee.” The committee is often composed of the doubter, the judger and the nay-sayer. We all have a committee and if you have cancer or are a caregiver to someone with cancer, the committee is often close to the surface, filled with doubt, concern, anxiety and fear. Yoga is a practice to help silence or lessen the power of the committee. In yoga you focus on the breath. When the committee creeps back in, you kick them out. Again, to focus only on the breath, the current pose, paired with breath. The idea is to focus on the present, not the what-ifs. The what-if thoughts, presented by the committee, anyone with cancer will tell you it is one of, if not, the worst part of having a cancer diagnosis. When the mind wanders, which it inevitably does, you bring it back to the pose and the mat. These skills practiced on the mat are translatable off the mat.
For me, yoga is about finding mental peace and stillness, but, the physical benefits are there too, an added bonus. I feel elongated, not as tense and less weighed down in my physical body. Cancer patients may have limitations, and in yoga, you can adjust and modify to account for those physical road blocks. A good teacher will guide you, not only in achieving a sense of openness and softness mentally but adjust, modify and guide you to move with greater ease physically.
I asked some of my favorite yoga teachers to put into their own words the benefits of yoga as it relates to cancer. These women have leaned in, gifting to me a higher sense of spiritual connectedness and physical strength. Their space is my church. I am so grateful. Thank you, Kate Moser, Charlotte Hardwick, Shelby Autrey, Lisa Weinert and my practice partner Alice James (pictured below).
May you, dear one, harvest that which yoga has to offer on your cancer journey.
“We heal best when we feel safe and relaxed. Literally whatever medication you are taking, therapy you are involved with or alternative paths you are leaning into will have the opportunity to work better and faster if you do yoga and meditate regularly. The practice of yoga and meditation will amplify and accelerate your recovery. Period. I know this from my experience practicing and teaching yoga over the years and from my own personal recovery from various serious illnesses including a cancer diagnosis. In my own experience when dealing with major diagnosis, while doctors and medication saved my life, yoga taught me how to live my life and thrive. Yoga and meditation also helped me develop an ability to pause, and fine tune lifesaving listening skills that helped me advocate for myself and discern which path was best for my body. This worked even when I was recovering from major surgery - these practices met me wherever I was in the process. For a lot of my recovery, i practiced gentler forms of yoga like restorative and meditation practices, these carry with them just as many, if not more, benefits than more rigorous forms of vinyasa yoga. The body, more than anything, needs to feel safe and rest and receive breath to heal. Perhaps most importantly for anyone living with acute illness, a yoga practice will carry you throughout the entire life of whatever illness you are dealing with, from diagnosis treatment and the challenging stages of recovering and acclimating back to "normal life". One of the worst parts of illness is the isolation and unexpected side effects along the way. Yoga and meditation are healing practices that go beyond physical benefits, they teach self-love, resilience, self-compassion. Yoga can greatly soothe the accompanying side effects of any major illness including anxiety, depression, anxiety, indigestion and worry and provide a pathway to a clear mind, love and connection.” Lisa Weinert, dear friend, yoga teacher and founder of The Narrative Healing Program, https://www.lisaweinert.com/
“It is clear to me that as I teach yoga year after year, yoga is for everyone and every body. Yoga is never about the shape of our bodies but rather the ease, space, and joy that we feel when we step on our mats. The practice is not about mastery-it’s about expansion. When I first started learning yoga, I performed on my mat and I would walk away feeling strong, but I never felt the wholeness and integration that I feel this practice can bring us if we step into it with an open heart to soften and peel away that which we are not. Yoga is a practice of surrender, of relaxation, and of transformation. As we drop into the body connecting our breath to our movements, we are given special tools to change patterns in our lives that feel old and outdated. When we give yoga the time, the space, and the energy it deserves without comparing or pushing, we begin to feel the blessings. We unpack the body and unveil the armor around our hearts that keep us stuck as this practice gradually chisels away the layers of tightness and gives us the gift of loving our bodies as they are today and not as we wish they were. This is the grace that becomes the foundation for how we approach everything we do. The poses and postures are an invitation to live with compassion towards our self and others. Yoga is an everyday practice as we learn to slow down our loud and distracted lives and really see the beauty that surrounds us. We refine our listening and we learn to navigate our lives with steadiness and presence. We saturate ourselves with breath and recharge with gentle movement and we know that we need this in our lives. We soften, strengthen, unfold, relinquish. Breath by breath, this practice leaves us feeling loved, nurtured, and strong and we quit preforming -we embody. Yoga is our call to be gentle, to be patient, to be generous with ourselves and the world. To heal, we begin by reclaiming the spacious, soft parts of ourselves and we call in our light. We come home. This is medicine.” Charlottle Hardwick, https://flowandnourish.com/
"The practices of yoga offer me time to be with myself in a safe and accepting way. Connecting my breath with movement or my breath in stillness affords me the ability to explore the present moment in even the most uncomfortable of times. Cultivating this presence affirms trust in myself and the nature of all things. When I trust myself and the nature of all things a reservoir of peace and calm abound and then I know I AM OK. That's why I practice yoga." Shelby Autrey, https://bfreeyogaaustin.com/index.html
"Everyone needs healing in some aspect of being. Whether physical cleansing toxins or strengthening muscles or dissolving emotional and mental patterns that keep us guarded and stricken in fear. The physical and meditative practices of yoga offer techniques to move energy and create clear flowing pathways of vitality and contentment. The more we can connect to our center and build a relationship with our energetic body the more healing and peace comes to us. Yoga is the practice of actively knowing yourself more fully and being with what is in a present and accepting way." Shelby Autrey, https://bfreeyogaaustin.com/index.html
