Living w/ Chronic Pain and Life Threatening Illness

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To me, yoga is not really about achieving that hot yogini bod or pretzeling

our bodies into postures, although this can fulfilling to watch happen. 

It's about getting off our mats, and spreading kindness;

it's about "Seva," Sanskrit for the Art of Giving Back.  

For many years, I've been privately teaching yoga to people living 
with chronic pain, life threatening illnesses, and cancer patients.

As a complementary therapy to traditional medicine, yoga and meditation 
practices, have been shown to ease stress, help patients sleep better, reduce 
pain, fatigue, ease the side effects of drugs and treatments, 
and in general, improve quality of life.

People going through life threatening issues deal with A LOT. 

 It is not just coping with pain and physical discomfort that is most troubling;

it is the emotional distress, loneliness and fear of the unknown

that can be the most concerning. Being ill, we are deeply confronted with

the body-mind-spirit paradigm.  When the body is suffering, 
the mind reacts, when the mind is at odds with the body, the spirit 
looses hope.  Yoga and meditation practices 
can really help with all of the above.

Yoga is Empowering! 

While practicing yoga and meditation, students can take a break from

the obsession of their illness.  Yoga provides a safe place to feel comfortable 
and relax in a body that is suffering, and to sit without judgement in a mind 
that is worried. The breath work allows students to step back from tension 
and its componentto suffering.   
The community of other students in class, or simply sharing 
timewith me, provides a sense of camaraderie, 
peace of mind and inner balance.

To be able to help people who suffer from illness, and/or wrestle with the 
uncertainty of recurrence has been an incredibly moving experience for me.  
It has been my greatest honor to help in some small way by providing my 
students  with a sense of hope, and a few gentle tools 
to help alleviate their physical or emotional distress.

A little over 10 years ago, I helped create the 
Stanford Cancer Supportive Care Program 
at the Stanford Complimentary Care Clinic.  This program provides 
traditional medicine and complementary care 
(including yoga and meditation)

to cancer patients in treatment, recovery, and transition.

 

I am pleased to announce that I am bringing this program to YogaSource 

in collaboration with Stanford Supportive Cancer Care Program 
beginning in November. If you know of anyone who could benefit 
from this COMPLIMENTARY 

program, please ~ spread the word. 
ALL classes are FREE to patients, family members and caregivers. 

For more details including class schedule,

visit YogaSource or Yoga and The Art of Living.

xx ~ Cindy

Yoga and Aging Well

Remember when a quick visit to the gym or swipe of Nars Blush in orgasm was all it took to make us feel cute? When we recovered from a late night, no problemo? Oh, that feeling of eternal life — and effortless beauty — was the nectar of the gods back in our 20s and 30s. Then something happened…We hit our 40s. Somehow we didn’t heal as well, or bounce back as quickly. We started to realize that effortless beauty wasn’t quite so well, effortless anymore.

Everybody talks about aging, but once we reach our 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, reality starts to set in. We watch our parents hit their 80s and 90s, and are confronted with the painful realization of mortality. Anyone who practices knows that yoga helps us lead saner, more balanced lives. Quite simply yoga makes us better people, and more accepting of life's ups and downs.  But did you also know that yoga can keep us healthier for longer and in a sense, suspend the aging process?

Recent scientific research shows that practicing yoga and mediation on a regular basis can help our bodies age more graceful and yes — slowly. Not to go all Dr. Sanja Gupta on you, but inside the nucleus of a cell, our genes are arranged along twisted, double-stranded molecules of DNA called Chromosomes. At the ends of the Chromosomes are stretches of DNA called Telomeres… Stay with me… almost to the good part!

Telomeres have been compared with the plastic tips on shoelaces, because they keep Chromosome ends from fraying and sticking to each other. Smoking makes your Telomeres shorter, as does emotional stress and lack of exercise. Conversely, a regular yoga and meditation practice — and the accompanying healthy lifestyle including nutrition, etc., can actually prevent our telomeres from shrinking and help us live longer.

Okay, so yoga can help us live longer (Yay!) but can it also help us deal with the psychological effects of aging? Can it help us look in the mirror and realize that aging can be beautiful? The answer is YES!

I want to share an epiphany I had lately. Full Disclaimer: It’s taken me a while to get to this point, but recently I looked in the mirror at my chin. I analyzed it and studied it. Well yes, it is sagging a bit, and in fact, I would stay underneath my chin is a double chin.  Shoot – where did that come from?  I do not remember ordering this from Pottery Barn? How do I send this Waddle Back? And then, I thought: do I really want to blow five grand to get rid of this not-as-tight-and-supple 50 something-year-old chin? Or, do I want to age gracefully, and not try to look 35 or even 45 anymore?  Tough decision!

 I answered the later. The moment of surrender was actually freeing. Aging is a part of living and certainly letting go of our control over “how we look” — our perceived beauty.

It’s time for all us yogini’s to look in the mirror and finally start to love what we see—even if it is a little baggy, saggy, wrinkly. So go ahead and embrace 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90! Celebrate your good points, don’t obsess on the imperfections! Sport that red bikini like Helen Mirren.   Whatever you do, commit to the mat! Your cheeks will get a nice flush, and you’ll look healthy and alive.  You can’t buy that from any plastic surgeon.

With Love and Aging Naturally,

Cindy