Tag: breast cancer survivorship

Often in a yoga class, the teacher will say at the beginning of class “Set your intention for the practice”, and I think this is a great way to focus your mind on something that is important to you, rather than letting the mind run off on your grocery list, or what you should have said to that jerk who was argumentative with you yesterday, or whatever other wild stuff our minds tend to do. We are taught to set the intention in the present (ie “I am xxxxxx”, rather than “I will be xxxxx”), to just go ahead and bring it to life in the now, rather than imagining something that might happen in the future. And of course, you can choose any intention you want, be it “I am healthy”, “I am resilient”, “I am content in the now”, “I am loving awareness”, “Abundance flows to me”, “I trust in the universe”, or whatever speaks to you. You choose what you want to embody, and then you use the energy of the practice and your focus during the practice to help make it so.

For me, pretty much every time I hear “Set your intention”, the word PEACE is what comes to me. Inner peace seems to be the thing that I hope the cultivate the most. Of course, other intentions come up occasionally, but “I am peaceful” is far and away the most common. Inner peace, to me, carries with it so many things that I want to develop more of in my life. As Rumi says in the quote in the photo, when we develop inner peace, allowing the waters to settle, an intense clarity comes along with it. This clarity helps us see things as they are, without all of our emotional overtones clouding or distorting the truth. And it also helps us to see the big truths, like the moon and stars mirrored in our own being, rather than just staying stuck in the weeds of small thoughts and concerns. And of course, seeing the big truths with clarity will help us to know what we truly want out of life and how to get there.

This image of settled water and clarity, or clear reflections off of still water, is used often, and I find it a great analogy to our human predicament. When we are stirred up and agitated, of course we can’t see or think clearly because our emotions and thoughts don’t allow it. But if we can take a few deep breaths, and find that space of inner peace, often we see the situation in a completely new light, finding clear and easy solutions to our questions that, before, were really stumping us.

One could also think of the concept of inner peace and how that state affects our nervous system. You know I’m fascinated by the phenomenon of sympathetic system overdrive (which happens with chronic stress) and all of the bad things that happen in our bodies with that (chronic inflammation, cardiovascular disease, mood disorders, immune system dysfunction, and on and on). Sympathetic overdrive would be analogous to a turbid, stormy sea, with big waves disrupting the stillness of the water. The parasympathetic system, on the other hand, is active and balancing out that sympathetic activity when we are in a state of inner peace, when the storm calms and the waters settle. And when the parasympathetic system can achieve this balance, the body has the clarity to heal itself.

And finally, maybe in the simplest terms, I just feel better when I am able to cultivate this sense of inner peace. It just doesn’t feel good to be agitated, stressed, angry, fearful, and disturbed. So why would we allow ourselves to stay in those places if we had the choice. And fortunately, most of the time, we DO have a choice. We may not realize it when we are in the midst of some upset. But we can learn to notice quickly when we get off track, and to respond calmly and intelligently to right our own course. (See the video on Meditation to learn more about programs like Mindfulness Based Cancer Recovery and how they teach us to do this).

In summary, cancer and cancer treatment sure can feel like a huge never-ending tsunami, which distorts and agitates the water of our being. But we can learn to restore inner peace and tranquility, stillness to our waters. And this inner peace will help us have more clarity of mind, to be physiologically healthier in our bodies, to heal, and to just feel better. Yoga can help us get there. See you on the mat.

Did you ever notice how powerful your breath is? We breathe mindlessly all day, and don’t usually think much about it, nor even notice it. But if we can learn conscious breathing, and really practice the techniques, we can harness the immense power of our breath. Your breath, when directed properly, has the power to calm and focus your mind, to relax your body, to ease pain (mental or physical), to release a negative energy/thought pattern, to balance the nervous system, and so much more! The science behind the breath is fascinating! And on the flip side, if you don’t know how to control it, shallow rapid breathing patterns can also have negative consequences, like increased stress, physical tension, and heart rate/blood pressure.

We breast cancer survivors can benefit so much from the power of the breath. From helping to calm our scanxiety after follow up imaging, to training our bodies to react to stressful situations in a healthier way, to easing physical pain leftover from breast cancer treatments, and others, the benefits are endless.  Learn to tune into and control your breath, and the benefits to your body and mind will amaze you.

If you have never looked into pranayama, or breath control practices, check it out! No gadgets necessary. Just you and your lungs!
Check out our tutorial video if you want to learn about pranayama, and start using the techniques.
Breathe deeply, my friends! 🧘🏼‍♀️🙏🏼🕉

Hey amigos! I’m back after a brief hiatus. As you can see in this photo, early this spring I was fortunate enough to take an amazing trip to India, the birthplace of yoga. It was beautiful, inspiring, and transformative, and I will talk more about all of that in a future post. But I wanted to use this gorgeous pic from the Taj Mahal today. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about inner balance, adaptability, resilience, equanimity, and how important those qualities are in recovering from breast cancer, or any stressful event in life, for that matter. And of course, how yoga helps us cultivate those qualities!

Equanimity is sometimes defined as “evenness of mind, especially under stress; a state of psychological stability and composure which is undisturbed by experience or exposure to events/emotions/circumstance”. And I like to add physical stability and composure (in addition to the psychological) to the equation as well, because of the clear interdependence of our bodies and our minds. If one is disturbed, it is more difficult to maintain composure in the other, and vice versa. So if we can aim to maintain stability of both, each can help the other.

Breast cancer, and the treatment thereof, is an inherently stressful situation that puts a lot of strain on the body, mind, and spirit. Our bodies and minds are burdened with healing from surgical wounds, the toxicities of chemotherapy and radiation, the fear of recurrence, the anxiety around follow up testing, etc…. all creating an environment that isn’t the healthiest in our bodies: surging stress hormones, inflammation, etc. Of course, these things are necessary in the short term for us to heal, but we want our bodies to return to a healthy state of inner balance as soon as possible, because chronically elevated stress hormones and chronic inflammation are known to result in myriad other problems and diseases (including things like diabetes, heart disease, depression, obesity, and auto-immune disease to name just a few). Fortunately, our bodies are highly intelligent and have systems in place to bring us back to that state of balance after a stressful event. But sometimes the shock to our systems from a serious illness like breast cancer can be so significant that we have a difficult time finding our way back to balance. The good news is that there are simple things that we can do to help our bodies along, and restore that balance more efficiently. Physical yoga asana practice, pranayama breathing exercises, and meditative practices have all been shown in scientific studies to stimulate and tone the parasympathetic nervous system, which orchestrates that return of balance. Other studies show the same types of yogic practices reduce stress hormones and markers of chronic inflammation.

I believe yogic practices are important at any stage of life, and can do so much to help us achieve our healthiest state of inner balance. But the benefits are even more profound when we are struggling to recover from such a threat as breast cancer and breast cancer treatment, which can knock us off kilter and make it so difficult to regain stability. Sometimes it can even feel like we are trying to balance on one foot on top of a beach ball that is rolling down hill! Yoga shows us the way back to equilibrium by training us in equanimity, adaptability, flexibility (both physical and mental), and resilience.

Join me at Yoga with Leona to learn more about how yoga can help you attain and maintain the essence of health– inner balance.

Anybody else ever feel a little unsure about all the “warrior” imagery in the breast cancer world? I know some people feel a little off-put by all the pink ribbon stuff, especially in October (or Pinktober, as some call it), when it seems like it is everywhere, being crammed down everyone’s throat, from the grocery store to the football players’ uniforms and more. The pink stuff doesn’t really bother me. In fact, I really embrace it, and am glad for the visibility of the push for advances in breast cancer care. However, the pink warrior/fight like a girl theme doesn’t really work for me. Don’t get me wrong, the breast cancer experience is indeed a tough battle, and our bodies and minds have to do a lot of fighting to get through it. But I guess that is exactly my point. Especially when I was actively in treatment, I really felt like I had more than enough fighting going on inside of me, like the last thing I needed was to perpetuate the idea of battle any more. From the toxicity of the chemotherapy and my body’s reaction to that, to the physical wounds from surgery and the inflammation from radiation, and the emotional resistance I felt against the cancer in general, I felt like my entire being was a war-zone. What I truly craved was peace; peace in my body, and peace in my mind. It seemed (and still seems) to me that what I needed most was to try to help my body and mind return to a place of peace, so that healing and recovery could take place. Yogic ideas from the yamas and niyamas (2 of Patanjali’s 8 limbs of yoga) helped me find that space.

Eckhart Tolle has been a favorite of mine since long before my cancer, and many of his teaching are right in line with basic yogic principles. During my active treatment, his writings about non-resistance and acceptance of the present moment spoke to me so profoundly.  He says “To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness” and “The moment that judgement stops – through acceptance of what is – you are free of the mind. You have made room for love, for joy, for peace”. This was exactly what I needed, to help me recover from all that breast cancer brought. Rather than go on mentally perpetuating the fight against my cancer, which I felt only created more turmoil and suffering in my mind and spirit, I accepted it, made peace with it. I mean, no amount of being angry could make the cancer go away, so why would I allow that anger and resentment to stay and make me more miserable than the cancer itself did?! Now, this is not to say that I enjoyed it, or that I wasn’t thrilled each time I passed another milestone, such as the final chemotherapy or the last day of radiation. But by releasing my resistance and aversion to the things that I needed to do, I felt such an increase in the sense of peace in my being, and the treatments actually became easier to tolerate. It is said that it is actually our resistance to, or our attachment to things or experiences that makes us suffer most. And this is taught in the yamas and the niyamas of the 8 limbs of yoga. We will talk more about these in detail in some of the videos.

Of course, if the warrior theme speaks to you, and makes you feel more empowered in your breast cancer recovery, by all means, fight on sister. We all have different ways of approaching this experience, and only you can know what feels healthiest for you.

In the meantime, I do love the physical asana warrior II (as in the photo above) in my yoga practice, so I’ll just take it nice and slow, with long deep breaths, and call it a peace warrior.

Wishing you all peace and healing on this breast cancer journey.  Namaste