Tag: breast cancer thriver

Using yoga to navigate the intersection of heart and mind

Paulo Coehlo said “The spiritual path can only be traveled through the daily experience of love”, and I couldn’t love this quote more. Of course he doesn’t mean only romantic love, but rather love as a state of being, love as a way of living, of going through life with a completely open heart, full of compassion and understanding for those around us and for ourselves, fully in tune with our intuitive heart, really feeling each experience deeply (not just thinking about it and judging it), and an eager openness to finding bliss in whatever life brings us.

Interestingly, I am traditionally much more of a cerebral, or thinking-mind- dominant person. I was always science and math oriented, and wasn’t good at believing or feeling anything that couldn’t be proven to me by documented facts. Then of course, living in the medical field for much of my life, that mindset was just solidified. Everything had to be proven in well designed, solid, scientific studies for me to give it much credence. I did, however, in caring for individual patients, have many moments of pure love, where the mind and the facts melt away, and true human connection just lays your heart wide open. Those moments were some of the best moments of my practice, although of course I also loved discussing the science behind cancer treatment and remain fascinated by developments in the field and new treatments that can cure many people of cancers that would have been lethal just a few years ago.

My yoga practice, over the years, has really helped me to be much more in touch with my intuitive heart, and to recognize and understand the intersection between mind and heart. In yoga we often say things like “Feel how your body is in the pose, don’t think about it”, to help us stop over-thinking and practice dropping into ourselves, into that space that is deeper than the mind, into our true selves, what some might call our soul. Yoga allows us to use our bodies as the doorway to that space. Most of the time, we run around controlled by our thoughts: what am I doing next, what do I think about that, what might go wrong, how I wish something were different, etc. Yoga trains us to be able to suspend those thoughts, even if just for a few moments, and just BE. To allow things like fear, anxiety, and judgement (which all come from too much thinking mind) to drop away, leaving peaceful freedom and open-heartedness, that state of being pure love. Of course the thinking mind often comes back into action, but the more we practice moving into BE-ing, the easier it will be and the longer we can stay in that blissful state.

Now this isn’t to say that our thinking mind isn’t a valuable tool! Of course it is. The thinking mind does amazing things for us. For example, the thinking mind can interpret the scientific research supporting yoga in cancer survivors! And you know I love science. While I do think it is of prime importance for us each to focus on how yoga works for us individually, how we truly feel on the inside when we keep up our practice, it also helps to know that there is sound science supporting those benefits as well.

The medical community has finally embraced mind body practices like yoga and meditation because the benefits have now been proven in scientific studies in many different conditions. There is extensive literature on the effects of yoga in cancer survivors. In fact, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) endorsed recommendations originally made by the Society of Integrative Oncology (SIO), that include recommending yoga and meditation for: overall quality of life, fatigue, depression/mood disturbance, and sleep. These recommendations were published by Lyman et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO), the premiere cancer publication, in 2018. Similarly, in a Cochrane Review (which analyzes multiple scientific studies together to come to an overall conclusion on the evidence), it was concluded that there was evidence to support the use of yoga in breast cancer survivors in improving health-related quality of life, reducing fatigue and sleep disturbance, and reducing depression and anxiety (Cramer et al Cochrane Database 2017). Further studies on other specific symptoms like lymphedema, chemo induced neuropathy, hot flashes, etc are ongoing. The science behind how yoga results in these benefits is fascinating, and includes deep effects on our nervous systems, immune systems, musculoskeletal systems and more! We are beginning to have a much better understanding of just how yoga works to make us feel and function so much better.

Navigating the line between mind and heart is something that we, as breast cancer survivors, have to do continuously. We must pay attention to details and understand scan and lab results, our medications and side effects, and new information that our doctors share with us at each appointment. But we must also learn to let go of too much thinking mind, which can exacerbate fear and anxiety, and prevent us from feeling our true open intuitive hearts. We must learn to live in a state of love and joy, despite the stressors and difficulties that might arise. I submit to you that yoga will help you do that. But don’t just rely on the science that states it is so. Do your practice, and really feel, in your body and in your heart, if it is true for you too!

Namaste

“You are the universe in ecstatic motion”

Rumi said “Stop acting so small; you are the universe in ecstatic motion!”. I love this quote because it just makes me feel my inner strength and resilience, my true self, my divinity, even. I think that a breast cancer experience (or any other difficult life experience, for that matter) can sometimes make us feel helpless, weak, small, and defeated. We can feel like we have no power to weather the storm, to turn the sails, and to come out the other side healthy and not damaged. And of course it is ok to have flashes of that mindset. It is only natural. But we must recognize that sort of thought pattern when it begins to arise, and change that inner discourse to something healthier and more empowering. Because in reality, we truly do have that power.

In the quiet moments of our yoga practice, when we can truly turn our awareness inward and allow the outer world to melt away, we can get in touch with that place inside of ourselves, where we have this power. And by power, I don’t mean like brute force power, or power we might use to control others. I mean that quiet, peaceful, imperturbable power and fortitude to withstand anything our life throws at us. I mean that dynamic flexibility and deep faith that allow us to gracefully roll with the punches, and not get disheartened when things get tough. Because they do get tough. That is just real life. We, as cancer survivors, have had to dig deep and find this inner strength and resilience over and over again, from the first diagnosis, through telling our loved ones, through different types of trying treatments, and through long follow ups and recurrence scares. But the truth is that we have infinite ability inside of us to handle life’s difficulties, if we can just learn to see it and to tap into it.

In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (the original written text on yoga), he says “Study thyself. Discover the divine”. Whatever our spiritual beliefs are, yoga can help us look deeply inside of ourselves and find that place of true power, that place of divinity, of the universe in ecstatic motion. Don’t let yourself walk around being anything less.

Namaste

Finding stillness in the breast cancer storm

Lao tzu said “To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders”. Before I found yoga, I don’t think I ever even knew what the word stillness meant. There wasn’t much time for stillness in my life, or so I thought. Between long busy hours in the office and the hospital, driving to and from work, meetings after work, trying to get some exercise, drinking enough water, running errands, spending time with my hubs and rarely my girlfriends, there just really wasn’t much time for anything else but sleep. I literally cut my own hair for years because I didn’t want to take the time to go to a salon! LOL, it wasn’t pretty. Imagine a hamster on a wheel. And I actually thought that if I was being still, I was wasting time that could be spent actually accomplishing something “important”. I’m pretty sure I am not the only one who felt this way. It is common in our culture to always be doing, running, achieving. And if we aren’t constantly doing something, then we either feel lazy or like we are missing out on something fun. Then throw cancer into the mix, with the appointments and treatments and everything else that is required of us, and wow, there is even less time for stillness. Or so I thought.

Yoga and yoga philosophy (and actually my cancer experience too, now that I think about it!) opened my eyes to the fact that when we allow ourselves to run, run, run, in this epidemic of busy-ness as it is sometimes called, we are cutting ourselves off from so much. We are actually missing much of the richness of life, the beautiful texture of the little moments, the simple joys hidden in each experience, the glory of nature or the smile of a loved one, the true bliss of just being ourselves. If we are constantly thinking about and/or running off to the next moment, the next accomplishment, or the next thing to mark off of our list, all of these beautiful little still moments of presence are lost. Talk about a waste!

Importantly, it is in the stillness, in these moments of just being, that our bodies and minds can rest, relax, heal, and regain balance from whatever challenges our lives have brought. Without that stillness, we remain in that vicious cycle of stress, tension, and disequilibrium that is SO unhealthy. And we, as breast cancer survivors, need to heal and restore harmony and balance as much as anyone! Having cancer sort of forced me to be still at times, because I just really didn’t feel well enough to do anything else. And I consider this such an important gift from my cancer experience; learning that it is not just ok, but tremendously important, to put down my desire to run and do, and instead just be. So now, I make stillness a priority. I always begin my yoga practice with settling in to find that place of stillness. And I try to revisit that place throughout my days, as often as I can.

What I eventually learned is that we can learn to choose. Once we recognize the profound importance of stillness, and of really relishing those moments of just being, we can actually choose NOT to let ourselves get swept up in constantly running and doing. We can change our commitments, our schedules, and our priorities to make the time for stillness and present moment awareness. We can make time for yoga, or meditation, or walking in nature, or just spending time with loved ones really being together and soaking up all of those beautiful little moments. For many of us, we will still have busy lives with work and family and responsibilities. But if we can just take a few minutes for stillness here and there, I think we’ll find we really love how it makes us feel. Just take a few minutes and look away from your computer screen and out the window at a beautiful tree or a blue sky, listen to the birds, and just feel your breath. Breaking up a busy work day with just a few short interludes of stillness will help tremendously, and give your body and mind a break to enter into that relaxation response where deep healing can take place. And as we learn to practice stillness, we will be better and better able to shift into that place with ease whenever we want to. As with everything, it just takes practice.

I’ll meet you on the mat to practice finding our stillness.

Namaste

Book review time, again

This is another book that you absolutely must read, if you are a cancer survivor interested in learning how you can take control of your situation, or at least how you respond to your situation. And as we know, we cannot control the outside world. All we can control is how we respond to the outside world. But in this control over our response lies our power. AND, in this response lies the key to whether our cancer experience continues to be stressful, painful, and full of suffering, or whether we can transform that experience into one of peaceful acceptance, growth, resilience, grace, and joy — despite the difficulties that cancer brings.

Mindfulness Based Cancer Recovery is concise and easy to understand, but at the same time a profound and potentially life-changing manual on how we, as cancer survivors, can learn to use mindfulness practices like meditation and yoga to help us navigate this difficult experience. The authors do a beautiful job of describing how most of us react to stressful situations, like cancer, with fear, panic, and anger, and how this stimulates the stress response in our bodies and minds, starting us into a vicious cycle of maladaptive coping and negative emotions that just make things worse. Alternatively, they describe the possibility of responding to stressors with awareness and clarity, which allows us to recognize that stress response when it begins, and then engage healthier maneuvers to counteract it with the relaxation response. This then stops the vicious cycle of negativity in its tracks, promotes healthier physiological conditions in the body, and gives us the power to choose better coping strategies and move forward with balance and equanimity.

The book then gives us step by step instructions on how to achieve this new way of responding. Their program is an 8 week system, in which you learn a number of mindfulness techniques, yoga, breathing, and more. They relate some of the research that has documented this program’s success in helping cancer survivors feel better, have less mood disturbance, less stress, more energy/vigor, and more mental clarity. Who doesn’t want all of that?! All it takes is putting in the effort and time to develop these skills ourselves.

Mindfulness Based Cancer Recovery (MBCR) is a similar program to Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). If you love this material, I also recommend his book “Full Catastrophe Living: Using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain, and illness”. It is a much longer and more detailed work, so it takes a bit longer to read. If you prefer more formal structure, there are MBSR programs in many cities around the world, where you are led through the program with trained teachers.

Finally, as you may have realized, most of the techniques that are used in MBCR and MBSR are very similar to those of the traditional 8 Limbs of Yoga, as set out by Patanjali, and now practiced by millions around the globe. These 8 Limbs of Yoga are what guide my practice and my teachings, so you will learn many of the same strategies here at Yoga with Leona. Please check out the books, keep practicing with us, and see for yourself how these practices impact your life for the better.

Namaste

Mastery of fear

Buckle up, this is a long one. This month marks three years since I started treatment for my stage 3a HER2+ breast cancer. It is confusing to think about my “cancer free” interval, as I had 4.5 months of chemo before my surgery, and at surgery the cancer was all dead, so who knows when exactly I was “cancer free”?! So I count from diagnosis. Just over 3 years.

Fear sucks, but unfortunately is a reality for cancer survivors. The good news is we can learn to overcome our fears, to master our fears, to be courageous, if we just find the right tools.

This summer I had a recurrence scare after some routine follow up imaging showed suspicious nodules in my lung and liver. I had previously had PET/CT, CT scans, and plain chest xrays, but we decided to do an ultrasound of my liver and another plain chest xray as routine follow up this year, just because they are cheper and easier than PET/CT (for which I have to drive 5 hours to Guadalajara).  Interpreting an ultrasound of my liver is difficult, as I have many cysts (which have been previously seen on all of my imaging), but this summer’s ultrasound described two small solid nodules of unclear etiology that had not been seen before. This summer’s chest xray also showed a small solid nodule that had not been seen before. So for anyone who knows anything about cancer, you’ll know these imaging reports scared the shit out of me. Any newly identified solid nodule in a breast cancer survivor is concerning for metastatic disease, meaning the cancer has recurred and spread to those locations. I had bloodwork at the same time, which showed mildly abnormal liver function, but normal breast cancer tumor markers.

At the time I received these results, I was feeling great, practicing yoga every day, seemingly getting stronger and more flexible each month. I just felt nothing that would suggest that anything was wrong. In fact, I had never felt better. Of course, this doesn’t always mean that everything is fine, as you might not “feel” small volume metastatic cancer. But I just really didn’t think it was back. So I talked it over with my doctor, and we decided to just wait 2 months, and then repeat the tests to see what was there. I felt good about this plan. I didn’t want to panic, freak out, and go all the way to Guadalajara for another PET-CT, and cause myself a bunch of unnecessary stress if, in fact, everything was fine, and these were just benign findings, or false positives on these new images. I felt like my mind was clear, calm, and I could definitely wait 2 months. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen? I even though “this sure will be a test of my ability to remain equanimous in the face of stressful situations”! And as morbid as it sounds, we even said “well if the cancer is indeed back, waiting 2 months to start treatment won’t make any difference in the overall situation”. Ugh.

I started into the 2 months of follow up time feeling pretty good. I reminded myself that I had responded so well to chemo, achieving the “complete pathologic response”, which is a good prognostic sign. I reminded myself that the highest risk of recurrence is early in follow up, and that my PET-CT at 2 years had been fine. I felt pretty sure that everything was ok. Pretty sure. But not 100% sure. Eventually, little moments of fear started creeping in. I remembered that it had been a very aggressive and locally advanced cancer at diagnosis. Shit. I remembered patients I had known who had recurred 3 or more years after apparently being disase free. Double shit. Maybe I was just in denial, trying to tell myself that everything was ok? I started getting paranoid about little aches and pains (which I always have, and I relate to yoga or sleeping funny), fearing maybe they meant something bad was actually going on. And then my mind would just start to plummet into awful scenarios of recurrence, and what I would do, how would my loved ones react, etc. If you are a cancer survivor, you know what these fears feel like.

Fortunately, each time I started into one of these fear episodes, I was able to notice it. Awareness is the first step toward change, right? Body and thought awareness practices from yoga helped me to feel the fear swirling as it began.  Then I was able to engage my breath, or a mantra, to calm my mind. This allowed me to come back to the present moment. Was I ok in this very moment? Yes. So why allow fear of some unknown in the future to wreck my here and now? Might I find out some day in the future that my cancer has recurred? I guess so. But today is not that day. So I want to enjoy today to the fullest. I thought about non-attachment, contentment, and surrender (from the yamas and niyamas of the 8 limbs of yoga), and I was able to release my attachment to “knowing” I am free of cancer, to find contentment with the not knowing and with where I am today, and to surrender to the universe, to trust that whatever is meant to happen (even if that is cancer recurrence) is happening for a reason, and is part of my path and my journey. Fighting against it or freaking out about the possibility will not stop it from happening, and will just cause me misery in the meantime. It sounds a little crazy, and it isn’t always easy, but I really do believe that all of our struggles are here in our lives for a reason, to help us learn something or grow in some way. So whatever my life brings, I welcome it openly. In these ways, my yoga practice and yoga philosophy helped me immensely in the 2 months while I waited for my follow up.

The time finally came and I went for follow up in August. The lung nodule had disappeared (who knows what that was or if it was just the appearance of overlapping blood vessels that looked like a nodule), and the liver nodules were unchanged. The radiologist’s impression was that they are likely hemangiomas (benign vascular nodules), as they surely would have grown in the 2 month interval if they were cancerous. Also the follow up blood tests showed the liver tests were normal (probably abnormal previously due to dehydration or too many margaritas). Phew, the relief was immense. Of course, we still need additional follow up to be certain, and I’ll probably have the PET-CT this winter, but for now, it looks like I am cancer free. I’m back to feeling great, not worrying about little aches and pains after vigorous yoga practices, and not thinking about cancer recurrence too much.

Mark Twain said “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not the absence of fear”, and I think that is so true. As cancer survivors, and maybe just as humans, I think we are always going to have moments of fear here and there. There is no way to eliminate them completely. But through the practice of yoga (and I emphasize the word practice, because it truly is an ongoing effort, a practice), we can learn to resist, master, and overcome those fears one by one.

I know I am one of many who have had this kind of recurrence scare. I also know I am lucky to be, for now, cancer free. Some get the other kind of news when they go in for follow up. I wish courage, strength, and comfort for those survivors, as they traverse further tests and treatments.

I am grateful for every day. I am open to what each day brings, and I greet it with love instead of fear. I am courageous. I am a survivor.

 

 

 

 

“Everything in your life is there as a vehicle for your transformation. Use it!” -Ram Dass

Hi friends! I thought I’d elaborate on this quote a bit. It is one of my favorites, and even serves as wallpaper on my phone, so I can be reminded of it daily.
I read several studies recently about mental/emotional qualities of breast cancer survivors in predicting distress, emotional well-being, and how well they coped with their disease and treatment. One (of many) interesting quality that was associated with less distress and better emotional well-being was seeing the cancer experience as an opportunity, rather than some horrible catastrophe. An opportunity to learn something from the experience, to use the experience to better ourselves in our habits or behaviors, or even an opportunity to help others going through something difficult.
Thinking this way is SO empowering! As Ram Dass says, “Everything in your life is there as a vehicle for your awakening. Use it!”. Even the shitty experiences (and maybe those most of all) can be great opportunities for us to grow and transform into better, healthier, happier people. I know I learned a lot (and continue to) through my cancer experience (patience, surrender, humility, tust, how to ask for and accept help, just to name a few). I bet you did too! I love studying Yogic philosophy to help me cultivate a healthy mindset.
With love for all going through any trying transformation, 💕🧘🏽‍♀️🙏🏼🕉

“Good times, bad times, you know I’ve had my share” — Led Zeppelin

In breast cancer, as in life, there are always going to be some days which are “better” or “worse” than others. But one thing that yoga teaches us is that so much of this has to do with our own judgement of the situation, and how we choose to react to that judgement. Santosha, which is the 2nd of the niyamas (the internal practices or guidelines for our behavior as we relate to ourselves) in the 8 limbs of yoga, teaches us to find contentment or a sense of satisfaction with ourselves and our situations, despite external circumstances. This allows us to find peace, true joy and happiness, despite the fluctuations in our surroundings and material things, which of course are all impermanent. Practicing santosha, or contentment, allows us to break free of the suffering we put ourelves through by always wanting things to be different than they are. When we drop that attachment to things or conditions, and instead become open to receiving whatever life brings us, we open ourselves up for gratitude, growth, peace, and bliss.

Of course, some days truly are very difficult, and it can feel almost impossible to be content. This is natural. I mean, the first few days after each of my chemotherapy treatments were truly crappy (no pun intended, as I received Perjeta, which causes severe diarrhea!). But like everything, those sensations and side effects were temporary, and eventually subsided, leaving space for better days to come. This photo is from one of those better days, about 2 weeks after my first chemotherapy. My hair had begun to fall out, so I shaved my head. But I was getting my appetite and strength back, was feeling a little better, and decided to do some yoga. It felt amazing to feel good again, and I realized I would be able to get through this, knowing that the bad would come and go, with beautiful rays of light in between, illuminating all that I had to be grateful for.

I was grateful for the chemotherapy I was receiving, which is really a modern miracle, capable of curing many women with breast cancers that would have killed them just decades earlier. I was grateful for the supportive care medications that helped with the side effects, for my loving and supportive family, for peanut butter cookies that tasted like magic when my appetite returned, and so many other things that were truly good in my life.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama said “Unfortunate events, though potentially a source of anger and despair, have equal potential to be a source of spiritual growth. Whether or not this is the outcome depends on your response”.

So don’t worry if you have some rough moments. We all do, and it is natural when going through something difficult. But try to remember santosha, and find some level of contentment, despite all circumstances. Remembering the things in your life for which you are grateful is a great practice to help you cultivate santosha. Listen to some music that you like, take in a little nature, or practice some calming breathing exericises (more on this in the Pranayama video coming soon). As you feel the contentment creeping in and replacing more negative emotions like anger or frustration, you will feel the peace and joy expanding in your life. And the next time something difficult comes along, you will find it easier and easier to minimize the negative effects of those difficult experiences. And maybe instead of Zeppelin’s “Good times, bad times”, you’ll feel a little more like Louis Armstrong’s “What a wonderful world”.

Sending my love and light to you, as you progress through this cancer journey. Namaste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Changed but not broken

My Mom bought me this beautiful figurine two years ago when I was sick during chemotherapy because she knows I love fairies. If you look closely you can see that one wing has a crack across it at the upper aspect. She apologized that it was broken, but I honestly thought that it was, in fact, perfect for me. I was feeling a little broken at the time; bald, sick, and knowing that I had a bunch of surgery ahead of me that would leave my body scarred and not quite the same. A little like a fairy with a broken wing.
Interestingly, a few months ago I realized that I have a partially “winged” scapula on the right side, which was the side of my cancer. It turns out this is a potential side effect of mastectomy and axillary node dissection, in which a nerve is damaged that controls a muscle called the serratus anterior, connecting the side ribs to the underside of the scapula (or shoulderblade). The result is that the scapula doesn’t move properly, and in some positions it protrudes like a wing off of your back. Some people have significant pain in the shoulder and upper back as a result of the dysfunction of these muscles and the scapula. I am lucky in that mine is not as dramatic as some people’s. And clearly many women have other complications much worse than this.
This serratus anterior paralysis is likely permanent for me, since it is still present nearly 2 years after surgery. But this is just one of many examples of a situation in which yoga has helped me in my recovery. Not only do the asanas themselves help me to strengthen surrounding muscles, so I am as little affected as possible. But the body awareness that we learn from practicing asana makes me much more aware of what is going on in my body so I can do more to try to keep the area in proper alignment. I have been fortunate enough to have very little pain associated with it, and I think that is thanks to yoga. Finally, focus on my favorite of the niyamas (part of the 8 limbs of yoga), santosha, or contentment, helps me to remain content despite all conditions. A deep, and abiding sense of contentment keeps me from feeling frustrated or upset about anything that happened as a result of my cancer treatment. Instead, I feel grateful that I am able to do what I can do, and I find the changes in my body are just a new challenge that gives me different things to focus on in my practice.
With santosha in my heart, I look at my little fairy, and now I think I am not broken at all, but instead just beautifully changed. Thank you, to yoga, for that.

About Us

Leona grew up in a small town in Indiana, and was interested in medicine from a young age. She went to medical school at Indiana University School of Medicine, and then completed both her internal medicine residency and medical oncology fellowship at the University of Arizona. She then joined the faculty of the University of Arizona, Arizona Cancer Center, where she specialized in the treatment of breast cancer and worked in breast cancer clinical trials. She then joined a private practice group in Tucson, Arizona to bring specialized breast cancer care to the community practice setting. She loved the practice of oncology, and was passionate about her 10+ year career helping women (and a few men) through breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. But she decided she needed to make a change in her own life, and retired to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in 2015, in order to slow down and simplify life, hoping to take better care of herself, have more time for yoga, healthy eating, gardening and other activities. See our post “Our back story” to hear about the ironic turn of events that happened next!

Aside from her interest in yoga and breast cancer, Leona enjoys spending time with her husband, relaxing on the beach, exploring all of the beauty and charm in Mexico, loves all animals- especially cats, and looks forward to visits from her family.

Our back story

It felt like the most ironic turn of events of all time when I found out I had a stage 3a breast cancer. As a medical oncologist, who had specialized in the treatment of breast cancer for more than 10 years, I knew that breast cancer could affect anyone. But somehow I thought, in some cosmic way, that it wouldn’t affect me. I mean, I had dedicated so much of my life to helping women fight this disease, I couldn’t possibly also get the disease, right? Wrong. At age 40, a large tumor developed in my breast and spread to local lymph nodes, and aggressive chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation ensued.

I had been an active yoga practitioner for 7-8 years before breast cancer, and had known that it helped me with many things (chronic back pain resolved, I felt more energy, stress eased, muscles toned). And I had always thought yoga would be helpful to my patients, for complaints like weight gain or anxiety, which commonly accompany breast cancer treatment. But I had no idea the depth or the breadth of the benefit that yoga could have for a breast cancer patient until I went through it myself. I truly believe that yoga (including much more than asana alone) got me through my cancer treatment and helped me recover to a place where I feel much stronger, healthier, and happier than I was before I had cancer. It is easy to think that cancer has to change us for the worse, like we will have physical limitations, weaknesses, or vulnerabilities as a result of the disease and the treatment. But yoga has taught me that with the proper perspective and approach, a breast cancer diagnosis (which seems so scary and horrible) can actually turn into a wonderful opportunity for growth and optimization of health in body, mind, and spirit. Your “new normal” can be the best version of you yet!

Study of the yamas and the niyamas helped me get my mind right, in the way that I thought about my situation during and after my cancer treatment. For example, focusing on santosha helped me find contentment instead of frustration with feeling sick during chemo or when the result of my breast reconstruction wasn’t perfect. Svadhyaya, or self-study, helped me to think about what I was learning through the experience, like patience or humility or how to ask for help. Asana practice was huge in restoring my range of motion after bilateral mastectomy, reconstruction, and radiation left my chest wall and shoulders very stiff and sore. Losing my yoga practice was one of my biggest fears, and a slow and steady return to asana allowed me to prove to myself that I could get back to full strength and activity, which was so empowering. Pranayama calmed my mind when I felt fear about the potential long term outcome of my cancer, or when I was going crazy anxiously awaiting test results. And mantra meditation literally took chemotherapy-induced abdominal pain away, getting me through some very tough days on the couch. I have since learned more about the underlying mechanisms by which yoga achieves some of these things, now coming to light through scientific research. There is fascinating research showing that yoga has anti-inflammatory effects in the body, and does amazing things like shift the balance of our nervous system toward rest and healing, and away from conditions of chronic stress.

In these ways and more, yoga can support us through the breast cancer experience, helping us connect to our true selves, to a place of peace, of gratitude for every day – including the tough ones, and of reverence for the beauty that is this life. I hope to help others examine how yoga might benefit them in their journeys. This site will hopefully allow me to reach anyone who is interested in learning more.