Talaya Dendy and I are both cancer survivors and dedicated to encouraging and uplifting others facing this diagnosis. Be sure to join us for a free 30 minute interview-style webinar this Wednesday, December 9th at 7:00pm CT. Find out how a Cancer Doula brings comfort, reassurance, experience and information. And learn about how to get your JoyBoots back on after treatment so you can live your best life forward. Advanced registrations is free.
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Kelly Inselmann
YOGA & TALK with Laraine Herring
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YOGA & TALK with Nanette Labastida
YOGA & TALK
with Nanette Labastida
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.
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Seek Your Sanctuary
What is sanctuary to you?
I think of a safe place, where I am welcome exactly as I am. No need for performance. I can set down my burdens and extend my legs and catch my breath. I notice what’s happening around me because for just a moment, I can let down my guard. No need to scan for danger.
I think of entering an ancient space, with cool walls and floor and with a cozy place to lie down. I think of a community sanctioned spot, a chapel, a temple, a park, or a safe house, a friend who is always home and has something cooking.
I know the people in the sanctuary are holding a space for me and devoted to a higher consciousness than we what I live in during much of life. I know the space is one that was created for safety and for aligning with a higher purpose that includes compassion for the human experience and reverence for the sacredness in each of us.
I have the image of grandmothers taking me in, washing my brow and comforting me, caring for my wounds. Protecting me. A place to go when no one else understands. Here, they hold space for me to love myself again. Here, I surrender the need to know what the future holds and the notion that I must be in control.
I hope you feel our Joyboots for Cancer Survivors group is a sanctuary, a place where friends surround you, where everyone understands and offers compassion, where everyone cares for you and is eager to be by your side. I hope you find sanctuary in my gifts to you, like this meditation. Rest in a space of openness- to learn, rest, heal, care and be.
An Invitation to Seek a Place of Rest
In The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully, Frank Ostaseski, the co-founder of the Zen Hospice Center, shares what he has learned through his work with people facing grief and loss, s well as his own life experience and spiritual practice.
He distills a lot of wisdom into the Five Invitations. They are principles that show us how to wake up more fully to our lives and appreciate life’s preciousness.
I suspect many JoyBooters will relate and enjoy delving into his ideas and stories. In these days of societal stress and polarization, and for people facing the challenges of illness, recovery, or loss, one invitation stands out to me this week:
The place to rest might be physical or how you feel in the company of a love one. It may even be available to you in your own breath in which you let go with each exhale. If you don’t let go, you can’t fully take in your next breath or be fully present to the next moment.
Here are a few nuggets he teaches about the breath:
- Breathing is a living process, constantly changing and moving in cycles- inhale, pause, exhale, pause. Each breath has a beginning, middle, and end. Every breath goes through a process of birth, growth, and death. Breathing is a microcosm of life itself.
- While we might believe otherwise, there is nothing boring about being with the breath. When we open to the miracle of breath and sense directly the process of oxygenation, we appreciate how, through a creative collaboration with our blood, air reaches every cell of our bodies.
- The breath invites us to rest, restore, and be revitalized.
I invite you to practice letting your breath to breathe you. Click here to practice with me. Notice how the breath moves your body and the path it follows as it enters, nourishes, and leaves you. Each moment is totally new. Each breath is unique, purposeful, and essential to life….
From Anxious to Grounded
We’re living from one day to the next with additional layers of stress, worry and anxiety. Things may feel overwhelming, out of control and uncertain. Learning to be okay in the present moment, a witness to your life experience, is one of the benefits of practicing yoga and meditation.
When you bring your awareness to the present moment, you activate the part of your brain (the frontal lobe) that regulates and soothes emotions. You also increase the possibility of feeling compassion for yourself and others.
Cutting edge psychotherapy recognizes these 3 elements from yoga and meditation that help you come into the present moment, lower anxiety, and tolerate acute stress and post traumatic stress:
Feeling grounded
Feel connected to your body, your breath, and to the physical space around you including the floor and the earth.
Being the Observer
Be the witness to what you are thinking and feeling, instead of being captured by every thought or feeling, pulled into reliving the past, or worrying about the future.
Allowing Everything
Once you notice the thought, feeling or sensation, give it permission to be present. Imagine it has the right be here. Don’t try to push it away. Allow everything to simply BE, just as it is, in this moment.
Healing occurs more readily when you are able to feel grounded, recognize the relative safety of the present moment, feel your feelings, and speak your truth. We can all benefit from taking time to be present and from giving ourselves the gift of time and space— to breathe, to feel, to be.
Join me in this yoga video to practice together: http://www.kellyinselmann.com/videos/move-the-body-balance-the-mind-warm-ups/
Exploring the Effectiveness of Meditation on Post-Treatment Chemobrain
Last year, I collaborated with Ashley Henneghan, NP, PhD, to test the impact of Kirtan Kriya )mantra meditation) on chemobrain and I shared this article detailing the research with you last week.
Daily meditation is a challenge for almost everyone! As soon as you sit quietly, your mind is flooded with unresolved issues and unprocessed feelings. Sometimes it can even be overwhelming to contend with them. Meditation is not always a peaceful experience, especially as you are still coming to terms with a traumatic experience.
There’s a recently published study that highlights how women’s brains “age” as they go through chemotherapy – which is just about the best description that I can relate to. I felt like my body and brain were aged 20-25 years post treatment.
I remember searching the library at MD Anderson in 2008 for studies or data on ”chemobrain” so I could understand what I was facing. My doctors didn’t seem to understand that my cognitive impairment was real and couldn’t solely be attributed to depression or anxiety.
At that time, they were just beginning to discover that chemotherapy does indeed cross the “blood/brain” barrier. Intuitively, I knew that my brain was part of my body so why wouldn’t it be impacted?
To learn more, check out this great article written by Ashley Henneghan, RN, MPH, Associate Professor at the University of Texas School of Nursing.
If you’re affected by chemobrain and want to experience the benefits of Kirtan Kriya meditation, you can read more about how to do it here. I’m also happy to share a video meditation with you here.
Meditation’s Impact on Chemobrain
Kirtan Kriya is a meditation that can help us thrive through “interesting times,” bring stability to the mind and calm to the nervous system.
I collaborated with Ashley Henneghan, PhD, MSN, RN, and the UT School of Nursing to test the impact of this meditation on people experiencing “chemobrain” and I’m excited to share this article detailing our research which was recently published in the September 2020 Journal of Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice.
Ashley and I met several years back when I participated in a study she conducted regarding the prevalence and impact of chemobrain on breast cancer survivors. Results from her earlier studiy showed:
- Perceived cognitive changes following breast cancer treatment are multifactorial and that higher stress levels, loneliness, daytime sleepiness, and poorer sleep quality are linked to worse perceived cognitive functioning. Also, stress, loneliness, and sleep quality may affect cognitive functioning through a shared psychobiological pathway.
- Interventions targeting stress, loneliness, and sleep quality may improve perceived cognitive functioning in breast cancer survivors.
Ashley is also a yoga and meditation practitioner and we began to discuss the possibility of collaborating to research mantra meditation as an effective intervention for cognitive impairment after chemotherapy (aka chemobrain).
Based on research conducted at UCLA showing that Kirtan Kriya reduced inflammation and improved memory and cognitive function, and from my own experience practicing and teaching it for 20 years, I suggested we study it’s possible impact on people suffering from chemobrain.
Ashley is a leading researcher on quality of life and wellness after cancer and always has several studies happening at once. Nevertheless, she found a way to get funding from the National Institute of Nursing Research of the National Institutes of Health . We completed a pilot study on the feasibility of studying the cognitive benefits of Kirtan Kriya on post-chemotherapy breast cancer survivors.
I was delighted to teach the meditation to our participants, explore questions and/or resistances to daily practice, and to check in on them regularly.
Chemobrain is a frustrating and often unexpected challenge. I’m happy to suggest Kirtan Kriya as a powerful tool to address cognitive functioning and quality of life. You can practice with me anytime through this audio recording I made for the Therapist Uncensored podcast:
https://therapistuncensored.com/episodes/tu64-mindfulness-meditation-with-yoga-therapist-kelly-inselman-bonus-episode/.
Or check out a video practice here: http://www.kellyinselmann.com/videos/kirtan-kriya-meditation/. You can also google Kirtan Kriya for many articles citing previous research and to find different melodies to accompany your practice!
Celebrating 10 Years ❤️
I completed a grueling year of treatment for Stage 3 breast cancer in 2008. I was overjoyed and grateful to be finished. What I wasn’t prepared for was how difficult it would be to get my life back.
I was struggling with numerous side effects of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation including lymphedema, osteoporosis, a broken rib, fatigue, “chemobrain” and the common experience of depression and fear of recurrence.
I returned to my work as a psychotherapist, but wasn’t seeing cancer patients and survivors as clients because my own experience was still too fresh. But when I discovered kriya, I recognized the benefits for cancer patients and survivors.
Kriya for Immune Fitness is a practice you can do daily, as I did, to increase your energy and regain focus. Doing it every day for over a year, I found it ideal for the following:
- managing mild lymphedema (in my arms and torso)
- increasing mental and physical energy and conquering fatigue
- consciously releasing tension, anger, pain and toxins
- getting both sides of my body moving to decrease aches and pains and increase circulation
- integrating the life changing ordeal I had been through
- drastically reducing the depression and anxiety I felt
Ten years ago, in September 2010, I was eager to share a kriya yoga series I felt had been key to bringing back my energy. I began offering a free weekly class in South Austin through a nonprofit. At the beginning I had very few students, sometimes none, but I would still show up and practice the kriya on my own.
Over time, I developed a friendship with a member of the IV League, a support group for women living with Stage 4 breast cancer. Together, we decided to offer my class immediately before their weekly support group at Casa de Luz, the macrobiotic center. For several years, the class was mainly folks from the IV League group – a closeknit and inspiring group of women.
One day, a woman from Capital of Texas Team Survivor joined us. She loved the practice, especially Lion’s Breath, and she asked if Team Survivor could co-sponsor the group, help advertise, and pay me a small stipend. I gratefully accepted and the energy around the class began to grow as more people learned about it.
Eventually the local YogaYoga studio allowed us to offer our free class in their beautiful space. When the pandemic hit in March, everything moved to an online format and we persisted, meeting virtually on Zoom each week. We average about 20 students per class and have hundreds who cycle in and out.
Sometimes people ask me why I like working with cancer survivors, assuming it would be sad or depressing. For me, it’s the exact opposite. As one Joybooter remarked, “We get to embrace life in it’s most VIVID, being truly aware of life and its beauty and fragility every time we get together.” I am inspired by the depth of feeling, connection and openness people bring to the class each week. I am motivated by the peace and stability of mind, pain relief, community and healing they experience.
I thank everyone that has participated or supported me and the JoyBooter community over the years. Together, we lift each other’s spirits!
Please join me in celebrating our 10 year anniversary! Share the Joyboots website and Joyboots Facebook group with friends or colleagues. Since classes are being offered virtually, people can join from anywhere in the world and it’s always free.
Mamma Jamma is an amazing organization that has provided over $2 million in support for local programs and services for breast cancer fighters and survivors. Thank you for donating to Mamma Jamma to support my class, Team Survivor and other organizations providing crucial assistance to cancer survivors. You can still donate through November 30th to help me reach my fundraising goal of $1000.
Yoga & Talk with Jeannie Ramirez
I love Jeannie’s poetic way of expressing herself! Let’s all tune in on September 15th to support the HAAM fundraiser. HAAM supports the mental and physical health of musicians in Austin. And Jeannie, I’m going to start working on that JoyBooter retreat in the Bahamas RIGHT NOW! Thanks for the inspiration.
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