The Yoga & Talk series features Joybooter stories and words of encouragement to nurture, heal and inspire— and in doing so, helps us to get to know one another, stay connected and to remind us that we are never alone in our healing journeys.
I heard about Sarah before I ever met her when a friend told me she was an economist who used to work for Governor Ann Richards. Her powerful intellect, compassion, and depth leave an impression. When she was in yoga teacher training, I remember an intensive weekend with a visiting teacher where I saw Sarah sit up in the very front day after day doing every exercise and mediation full out. And I knew that she was still in treatment. Her commitment and desire for knowledge and experience are inspiring!
If you’d like to join in the 40 day meditation she references, click here.
Share a little bit about yourself.
I still want to change the world. I worked as an economist and then got (even more) interested in politics as a way to make things better. Political activism can be very stressful and abstract so currently I volunteer with my therapy dog Sammy, serve on our neighborhood association board and look for other service opportunities to “make it real.” Current hobbies are hiking and reading and when I’m in the mood, cooking. My wife Suzanne and I have been together 34 years (we were the first LGBTQ couple to be married in Texas). We have two lovely adopted daughters, Dawn who is 22 and Ting who is 18. These 3 women have brought bucketfuls of joy into my life.Share a little bit about your cancer experience.
I had emergency surgery for a rare ovarian cancer five years ago. Chemo and multiple surgeries followed. I joined a Stage 1 Clinical Trial in January of 2017. It is a miracle that I am still here. My trial, so far, holds my cancer in check. Cancer has taught me to be grateful for opening my eyes each morning to a new day: I’m here! Cancer has also taught me how valuable and deeply nourishing relationships with family, friends, and sometimes, even strangers, can be and that we should tend to, and strive to enrich these relationships. I strive to support others with love and compassion, this has become the central life-affirming action I can try to take each day.How has it benefited you to be part of the Joyboots community?
I love Kelly’s quiet leadership and the environment she creates. Her leadership echoes throughout the Community so we can follow her lead and affirm to each other, “It really is okay to be exactly how you are in this moment — to feel and acknowledge the joy, the fear, the hope, the sorrow…. just be with and honor your experience in the moment.” I look so forward to participating in the Weekly Yoga and Online Sanctuary Communities and getting Kelly’s emails.What is your meditation practice like?
One day I will have a daily at-home practice (again). The week Kelly’s class started the 40-day RA MA DA SA “challenge,” it re-started my daily at home practice (keep your fingers crossed). In addition to doing Kundalini Yoga (sometimes at home and more often at Flow Yoga) I attend a meditation group at Seton Cove on Wednesday mornings. On Monday nights, I participate in a Power of 8/Healing Circle with friends, a form of group meditation for me. I need structures like these to maintain a consistent meditation (and yoga) practice.
How has yoga and meditation benefited you?
I feel like these practices have made me a different person. I also fee like yoga and meditation have deeply benefited my health and my ability to experience joy and to try and “not sweat the small stuff.” I particularly enjoy singing along to Kundalini mantras in my car — its the best part of driving around Austin these days and makes me a more patient, friendly driver. The first time I heard Mul Mantra, I knew KY was really something special!
What practices have benefited you the most?
I participated in the Level 1 Kundalini Teacher Training program last year. It was an opportunity to take my practice deeper. Thanks to Spotify, I have a pretty good library of mantras, which I enjoy playing around the house or in the car.
What are you still struggling to cope with?
I have scans every two months. Its pretty anxiety producing sometimes. I live closer to acknowledging death as an unavoidable part of life than I ever have before. For the most part I have been fairly symptom and pain-free since my diagnosis. I wonder how I will handle my decline and if I will find the same unexpected inner and outer resources that have blessed my journey so far.
What brings you moments of joy?
I love the outdoors, just being outside in Nature on a beautiful day makes my soul sing. I love hearing my daughters and their friends laugh together when they are home. Or just being with our pets and with family, hearing about Suzanne or Dawn or Ting’s daily exploits. I enjoy reading something new and learning something valuable from what I read.
What is something you’d like to share with the community to help them along their healing journey?
It’s really the little things that matter. Each day, try and make it a priority to surround yourself with people and experiences that bring you joy and make you happy.
I deeply appreciate those who paid it forward by helping me and I love sharing whatever information I can that might be helpful to caregivers and survivors. It has been particularly gratifying to me to help women and caregivers who are newly diagnosed and want to learn from my experience.
If you wish to connect with Sarah, you may send her an email at sgoodfriend@gmail.com.
Do you get frustrated with physical changes or limitations after treatment for cancer?
Do “limitations” leave you feeling diminished?
As humans, we all face physical limitations related to being mortal and facing our own mortality is a realization that brings all kinds of feelings – fear, grief, anger, denial, acceptance. But just as we must face certain limitations related to our human existence, there is also the potential for limitless possibility.
How do we move through the world and keep taking action once we are so aware of our limitations, vulnerabilities and imperfections?
“The first way that I think about it is through my public health work. It’s about the idea that we’re all so incredibly limited and yet there are ways that we string together and are almost unlimited as groups of people. It’s magic when that happens- when you all start pulling together and then you eradicate polio from the world, which we’re almost on the verge of doing.”
I love this wisdom from Dr. Atul Gawande where he describes how connection and community create a synergistic effect that give us the feeling of growth and possibility, where creativity and new ideas emerge, and where we keep each other motivated and accountable to our missions in life. This is when the seemingly impossible can happen. The point here is that as humans we are are all indeed imperfect, limited and uncertain of the future. When we lack connection we feel alone and more limited, but among a healthy community, we can help each other grow, expand, and heal.
In my Healing Well Course, we explore Principle #4: Finding the Gifts in Limitations. For some people, the cancer experience is the first time you find you can’t push past your limitations caused by illness or treatments. You are given an unavoidable opportunity to discover the potential gifts of limitations. How can you work with your limitations to benefit and even enhance your life? Are there family or friends with whom you need to practice setting healthy limits to prioritize your own healing?
For deeper healing to happen, to push beyond our limitations, I believe community is essential! I’m leading a free 40 day meditation challenge, a challenge by CHOICE and INSPIRATION, NOT obligation. You can participate as much or as little as you like and start anytime. Doing meditation in a supportive community and also taking the Healing Well Course are great ways to move beyond real and perceive limitations created by the “new normal.” I hope you’ll join us in the free 40 day meditation challenge here.
Elizabeth draws me in with her depth of understanding about human nature and her deep concern about the state of society, Originally from Ingleside, Texas, she is unmistakable with her silver hair, strong opinions, and irreverent wit. She offers support and deep empathy to many friends and loved ones and she is not afraid to speak up and help others do the same. Her tender heart and ability to access the meditative space are some of her hidden superpowers. Check out the blog post I wrote featuring my favorite quote from her: http://www.kellyinselmann.com/monday-morning-videos/prioritize-self-care/on-falling-apart/. She references it at the end of her interview below.
Share a little bit about yourself.
I am a seeker, a partner in love, a mom to three wonderful daughters, a grandmother to adventuresome grandchildren and a great grandmother of super young souls. And a retiree from a heavy participation in the human rat race.How has it benefited you to be part of the Joyboots community?
Connectivity and mindfulness. I have truly learned to calm my mind and the value of movement, meditation, and the search for authentic self.What is your meditation practice like?
My goal is daily but the reality is four to five times a week, unless I count breath of fire at the traffic lights or the “sat nams” in line at the grocery store.
How has yoga and meditation benefited you?
There are numerous benefits. My anxiety is certainly brought down with mindfulness and my lymphedema symptoms are diminished by the movement.
What practices have benefited you the most?
Meditation in combination with yoga.
What are you still struggling to cope with?
Anxiety. No way to determine the ratio related to PTSD and the wonderful little pill to block the estrogen, but the struggle is real.
What brings you moments of joy?
The energy that comes from the power of group practice and the sharing of time and space and experiences. Noticing the intricate beauty of people and nature, rather like the space between words or musical notes or my steps – those things I once did not know were there. And, of course, the great healing sound of laughter. And not forgetting the healing of tears and their ability to cleanse the soul. And good people, good food, and music.
What is something you’d like to share with the community to help them along their healing journey?
I say this often, mostly to myself. How can we pull ourselves together when we have not allowed ourselves to fall apart?
What if doing it together beats doing it alone? For deeper healing to happen,
I believe community is needed!
You are cordially invited to a daily meditation to take you through the Holiday season and beyond.
Yesterday, I was thinking about WHY I’m so attracted to group work even though I’m a MAJOR introvert. It’s because being part of an ongoing group means you get to cut through the small talk and get down to what you are really thinking and feeling. You can give and receive energy and support.
I was also thinking about my life and how off balance I have felt in 2019. I came to the same conclusion I always do: daily meditation practice is essential. It enhances my daily life, mental health and physical wellbeing.
With the topics of community and daily meditation on my mind, I taught my Wednesday Wellness Yoga class today where one woman shared how hard it is to do the practices on her own.
Practice IS hard to do on your own. There are SO many distractions. Creating space for yourself can be hard.
Someone else said she was setting an intention to “let the universe in” to a difficult situation that she knows she can’t control. As cancer survivors, we are all familiar with feeling like things are beyond our personal control.
And so as the class was lying in sivasana, I decided to initiate a 40 day community meditation. The class had a very positive response! And we’d love you to join in.
We are going to challenge each other to participate in a 40 day meditation. This is a challenge by CHOICE and INSPIRATION, NOT obligation. You can participate as much or as little as you like and start anytime. It’s completely free.
How will it work?
1.Each day, STARTING TODAY (or whenever you open this email), you are invited to begin and continue during the 40 day period as often as you can. Daily if possible!
If you decide to participate even for one day, reply to thisemail so I know to include you in the Facebook group (email and Facebook name) or in a group text if you don’t like Facebook (phone number and name)
2.We are going to be using the RA MA DA SA Sa Say So HUNG Meditation from the Kundalini Yoga tradition. This meditation is for healing through compassion and being open to miracles to work in your life – in other words, allowing the Universe in! The meditation is simple and melodic.
3.Suggested times for meditation: 3,7, or 11 minutes up to 31 minutes. You can set a timer.
4.You could also simply have the mantra playing as you work, drive or sleep.
Sit for a few moments/minutes afterward and practice inviting the Universe in. Be open to healing and offer yourself compassion.
Step Four
Say “Sat Nam” to honor your True Self.
Step Five
If you wish, share in the facebook group or text that you completed your practice for the day. You can write up to a sentence or more or simply say “did it!” When you share that you have done your practice, you will inspire and remind others.
Step Six
Be kind to yourself. If you forget, just start again. If it’s not right for you, that’s ok!
Step Seven
Invite your friends. Anyone can join. The more the merrier!
This mantra taps into the energies of the sun, moon, earth, and the Infinite Spirit to bring deep healing. It is important to pull the navel point powerfully on the first Sa and on Hung. Note that the word Hung is not long and drawn out. Rather, it is clipped off forcefully as you pull in the navel. Chant one complete cycle of the entire mantra with each breath. Then deeply inhale and repeat. Remember to move the mouth precisely with each sound. Try to feel the resonance in the mouth and in the sinus area.
Mental Focus: Healing for yourself or someone else. Letting go of your need to control. Allowing the Infinite in.
Time: Continue chanting for 3, 7, 11 or 31 minutes.
To End: To end the meditation, inhale deeply and hold the breath, as you offer a healing prayer. Visualize the person you wish to heal as being totally healthy, radiant, and strong. See the person completely engulfed in a healing white light and completely healed. Then exhale and inhale deeply again, hold the breath, and offer the same prayer again. Exhale.
To complete, inhale deeply, stretch your arms up high, and vigorously shake out your hands and fingers for several seconds. Keep the arms up and hands shaking as you exhale. Repeat two more times and relax.
