Ok y’all, I’ve been thinking I wanted to share with you a few of my favorite books. So of course, I felt like I had to start with this one! This comprehensive and easy to understand book was written by Tari Prinster, the founder of Y4C, or Yoga 4 Cancer, with whom I trained last year. You can find it on Amazon. I also highly recommend checking out their website, which is packed with great information, as well as a directory of Y4C trained yoga teachers across the world.
Tari is a breast cancer survivor herself, and so understands all of the challenges we face firsthand. She demonstrates profound compassion and understanding, and shares some personal accounts of the inner emotional experience of having cancer that many of us will identify with, and has helpful advice on how to traverse the experience in healthier ways. She has been teaching yoga to cancer survivors now for more than a decade, and has called on medical experts in different fields to help her develop the program in a truly scientific manner. Based in a deep understanding of what happens in the body with cancer and cancer treatments, her program is specifically designed to help cancer survivors receive the benefits of yoga in a safe and effective manner. She is very cautious in providing clear instructions for beginners, so that they may learn to practice safely, taking into account whatever physical limitations they may have from treatment (or for other unrelated reasons). BUT (and this is one of my favorite things about her), she also encourages cancer survivors to know that they can work up to a strong and vigorous practice if that is what they want. She empowers survivors to continue to build strength and flexibility, not just believing that all we can ever do is gentle yoga because of our cancer history. The book provides many illustrations of different postures, including a number of different sample practice sequences designed for different times in your treatment and recovery. She also explains a lot of the science and biology behind how and why yoga is particularly beneficial to cancer survivors, which helps immensely in understanding what the practice is doing for us on a deep level.
In summary, I believe every cancer survivor should read this book and consider how yoga might help them in coping with the effects of the disease and treatment. Whether you are young or old, fit or not, have a prior yoga practice or not, and whatever stage or type of cancer you have, you will learn important information in this book that will help you take some control of your situation and harness the power of these ancient healing practices.
Namaste