with this light/lamp … it has a “secret” feature… This is one of the coolest yoga studios ever …
“Beam me up Scotty:)”
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Category: Yoga
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Too busy?
Last weekend I attended Yoga for Cancer teacher intensive training led by Lorien Neargarder, RYT 500. Today I went to her actual class she provides through Stanford Medical Center but rather than having the class at a hospital setting, it’s held at a beautiful studio in Palo Alto. It’s free for cancer sufferers and survivors ! How wonderful is that? FYI, it’s not depressing at all but rather …the exact opposite. I’ve done some super punishing yoga classes myself in the past. While there was a sigh of relief during savasana, I didn’t really see joy and contentment. maybe it was just endorphin high but was it truly good for me? Nothing Sattvic … more an extension of that looping self-talk, beating yourself up. This class is … soothing and supportive but not in a pity or sympathetic fashion. It’s more authentic than that as it caters to this special population of students seeking wellness.
Lorien has been leading these kinds of classes for something like 10+ years so needless to say she has honed her skills to become the Peninsula community’s best known yoga teacher and therapist with this particular expertise. But … this amazing veteran teacher is leaving us, leaving California !!! Oh,no. So for me the news of her impending move meant no more procrastinating studying under her. This is the time to absorb as much knowledge she gained through years of experience and seek out what skills transmission she’s able to share directly in person … while she’s still here. Luckily my yoga therapist training cohort who introduced me to Lorien in the first place will be taking over the class. I couldn’t be happier for him having seen how dedicated he is. Training under her for awhile now, he’s in touch with the Palo Alto community. He’s going to do a great job as he is so committed to this – so compassionate and knowledgeable.
Why my interest in cancer care? My father had stomach cancer; my aunts; my cousins … they all had cancer and so when people close to you suffer, you suffer with them. As long as I remember, I have been directly affected by this disease though family and friends. Most recently a friend and a mother to 13 year old boy died suddenly. Ironically the Grim Reaper came on Easter Sunday, upon her return trip from Japan with her son. Only a couple of months ago, she lost her husband and became a single mom. Only a few months ago, over our breakfast outing, she confided she had just few more months of having to take Tamoxifen. She confided she had breast cancer nearly 5 years ago. Surprised, I just listened. She was determined to see her son into adulthood, at least he finishes college, she said. In our earlier talks she said she wanted to try yoga and hoped that I would introduce her to it. That is, she said, when she’s not so busy. (Have you heard that before? That qualifier statement … stagnates you.)
She said, let’s get together after spring break, I joked maybe you will finally do my yoga class – of course, if you are not too busy, after she gets back from seeing her mother who suffered a stroke. A spring break trip to visit her ailing mom with her son. I said, of course, yes, let’s. After you get back, let’s get together, yes, let’s! And I bid her goodbye. On Easter Sunday, right after her return flight, she collapses and was rushed to the hospital. She dies almost instantly. Cause of death? Deep vein fibrosis. I know it was from being too busy, too busy to really care for herself, she was putting out so much, suffering from chronic stress and taking medication with side effects.
I know non-yogis will either think I’m crazy or some delusional egomaniac but it’s not about me; it’s about the power of yoga. I know had I got to her earlier to practice yoga, she would be alive today. It’s not confidence in me but confidence in the practice, faith in the teaching of yoga that would have helped her with post cancer treatment self-care. Side effects of the drug Tamoxifen are many but uncanny that developing blood clots is one. Knowing that, it behooved her to practice yoga – not any yoga, but the kind of yoga I am studying – for better circulation, lymphatic drainage, stress management, pain management & so much more.She would have benefited so much. If only.
I am sorry I didn’t insist and push her that she come to my class. I am sorry many a times, I didn’t invite her thinking she’s too busy. The practice would have saved her.
If attending a class is difficult, get a private with a yoga teacher/therapist or if that’s out of reach, how about this DVD Lorien produced. While nothing beats the real live class for the group vibe, if you have to care for others and can’t take the time to come to class like Lorien’s (or mine:), I highly recommend Lorien’s DVD.
I am going to take a friend and her mother who is a breast cancer survivor to Lorien’s class while she’s still here. I know the practice will benefit anyone on a healing journey. I don’t want to regret that I hadn’t shared this preventative medicine. This … medicine.
After your read and appreciate the depth of this definition, it’s important that that therapist is very well trained – 200 hrs. “instructor” probably will not be able to serve at this multi-layered capacity unless she branched out from the healthcare profession (is a PT or OT, RN, even MD, PhD). It is also important for the therapist to know their scope and stay humble enough to refer the client to the right help with more expertise if the need is beyond our scope. That’s why its important for the YT to know others in the caring and healing profession to refer out to. Here’s a IAYT Definition and the rest is all an excerpt from IAYT’s page:
Yoga therapy is the process of empowering individuals to progress toward improved health and well-being through the application of the teachings and practices of Yoga.
– IAYT Educational Standards for the Training of Yoga Therapists
Selected Additional Definitions by the respected authorities in this vast subject:
Yoga therapy is a self-empowering process, where the care-seeker, with the help of the Yoga therapist, implements a personalized and evolving Yoga practice, that not only addresses the illness in a multi-dimensional manner, but also aims to alleviate his/her suffering in a progressive, non-invasive and complementary manner. Depending upon the nature of the illness, Yoga therapy can not only be preventative or curative, but also serve a means to manage the illness, or facilitate healing in the person at all levels.
– TKV Desikachar & Kausthub Desikachar
Yoga therapy, derived from the Yoga tradition of Patanjali and the Ayurvedic system of health care refers to the adaptation and application of Yoga techniques and practices to help individuals facing health challenges at any level manage their condition, reduce symptoms, restore balance, increase vitality, and improve attitude.
– Gary Kraftsow American Viniyoga Institute
Yoga therapy is that facet of the ancient science of Yoga that focuses on health and wellness at all levels of the person: physical, psychological, and spiritual. Yoga therapy focuses on the path of Yoga as a healing journey that brings balance to the body and mind through an experiential understanding of the primary intention of Yoga: awakening of Spirit, our essential nature.
– Joseph LePage, M.A., Integrative Yoga Therapy (U.S.A.)
Yoga therapy adapts the practice of Yoga to the needs of people with specific or persistent health problems not usually addressed in a group class.
– Larry Payne, Ph.D. Samata Yoga Center (U.S.A.)
Yoga therapy is the adaptation of yoga practices for people with health challenges. Yoga therapists prescribe specific regimens of postures, breathing exercises, and relaxation techniques to suit individual needs. Medical research shows that Yoga therapy is among the most effective complementary therapies for several common aliments. The challenges may be an illness, a temporary condition like pregnancy or childbirth, or a chronic condition associated with old age or infirmity.
– Robin Monro, Ph.D. Yoga Biomedical Trust (England)
Yoga comprises a wide range of mind/body practices, from postural and breathing exercises to deep relaxation and meditation. Yoga therapy tailors these to the health needs of the individual. It helps to promote all-round positive health, as well as assisting particular medical conditions. The therapy is particularly appropriate for many chronic conditions that persist despite conventional medical treatment.
– Marie Quail, Yoga Therapy and Training Center (Ireland)
The use of the techniques of Yoga to create, stimulate, and maintain an optimum state of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health.
– Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D.
Yoga therapy consists of the application of yogic principles, methods, and techniques to specific human ailments. In its ideal application, Yoga therapy is preventive in nature, as is Yoga itself, but it is also restorative in many instances, palliative in others, and curative in many others.
– Art Brownstein, M.D.
Yoga therapy may be defined as the application of yogic principles to a particular person with the objective of achieving a particular spiritual, psychological, or physiological goal. The means employed are comprised of intelligently conceived steps that include but are not limited to the components of Ashtanga Yoga, which includes the educational teachings of yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi. Also included are the application of meditation, textual study, spiritual or psychological counseling, chanting, imagery, prayer, and ritual to meet the needs of the individual. Yoga therapy respects individual differences in age, culture, religion, philosophy, occupation, and mental and physical health. The knowledgeable and competent yogin or yogini applies Yoga Therapy according to the period, the place, and the practitioner’s age, strength, and activities.
– Richard Miller, Ph.D.
Yoga therapy is of modern coinage and represents a first effort to integrate traditional yogic concepts and techniques with Western medical and psychological knowledge. Whereas traditional Yoga is primarily concerned with personal transcendence on the part of a “normal” or healthy individual, Yoga therapy aims at the holistic treatment of various kinds of psychological or somatic dysfunctions ranging from back problems to emotional distress. Both approaches, however, share an understanding of the human being as an integrated body-mind system, which can function optimally only when there is a state of dynamic balance.
– Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D.
Yoga therapy is a holistic healing art. Rather than prescribe treatments, it invites presence and awareness. Using age-old yogic approaches to deeper presence and awareness, we are able to know ourselves more fully. Out of that knowing, we are more easily moved to embrace the opportunity for change, growth, and enhanced well-being in body, feelings, thought, and spirit.
– Michael Lee, Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy
Yoga therapy is the application of Yoga to individuals to empower them to progress toward greater health and freedom from disease.
– Ganesh Mohan, Svastha Yoga and Ayurveda