The Dream and the Dollar

March 25, 2025 by Kelly Inselmann

In 2023 I attended a fundraiser for the Central Texas Food bank and in a moment of dissociation from my bank account, I bid on a week at a resort in Mexico. I won, along with a whole bunch of other people, because it turned out that they were that they had a lot of vouchers to promote the place.

Finally, last week, I went to the resort near Cancun. Taking my 17-year-old daughter and her friend who were very excited to be able to take lots of photos on Spring Break and share them on social media like their friends were doing.

Last Monday, we picked up my daughter‘s friend and drove 2 1/2 hours to Houston, where my sister kindly gave us a ride to the airport. Airline ticket prices have gone up so high that it was hundreds of dollars less expensive to fly out of Houston than to try to make awkward flight connections starting in Austin where we live.

We arrived and checked in to a beautiful spot. It had been 25 years since I had last been to Mexico. As a child, my parents loved Mexico and we went with church groups to Cozumel several times, and my family would also stay in old colonial hotels in the interior. Hotels in Mexico taught me that true luxury is staying in a historic and beautifully crafted building where you can walk straight down the stairs and right down a path onto a beautiful beach. It was old school luxury. Nothing technological, but beautifully maintained rustic spaces and great service and lots of beauty. And the sea and the pool, which for me as a lover of all things water (being a true Pisces), is my absolute favorite.

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Joy Boots for Cancer Survivors

Encouragement, companionship, community and support for cancer survivors.

Invitation to Join JoyBoots Yoga and Talk Community

January 31, 2025 by Kelly Inselmann

JoyBoots for Cancer Survivors is a program at the intersection of mental health, emotional wellness and the cancer experience.

I have 30 years of experience helping people recover from anxiety, depression, and trauma, and 17 years as a cancer survivor and caregiver.

As a clinical social worker and yoga therapist in private practice in Austin Texas I’ve offered cancer survivors yoga classes and therapy groups on a weekly basis for 15 years.

Join me in this JoyBoots community re-boot. No matter where you are in your own cancer or caregiving experience-whether 20 years out from treatment, or recently diagnosed-there is something for you in my 6 Principles for Emotional Health and Healing that I share in class and in posts.

Paid Subscribers (6$/month) have access to live JoyBoots Yoga and meditation classes on Wednesdays at 6pm CT (and recording).

To keep reading, consider being a JoyBoots subscriber.

Joy Boots for Cancer Survivors

Encouragement, companionship, community and support for cancer survivors.

Softening into the New Year

January 17, 2025January 8, 2025 by Kelly Inselmann

Anger Shame Fear Sadness

Can you accept these feelings when they arise?
Ask yourself: Can I have the feeling of softening towards my very human feelings, no matter what they are?
Can I soften towards my Self for experiencing these feelings?
This is the beginning of compassion. A softening. A tenderness.
I took a week off over the holidays and then was back with clients the first week of January.

‘Tis the season’ for talking through family disruptions, sharing feelings, setting boundaries, as well as learning results from scans and diagnoses.

There’s a theme I’m noticing in myself and from the people around me and that is…can we soften?

Especially, can you soften your attitude towards yourself?

And your expectations of yourself?

To keep reading, consider being a JoyBoots subscriber.

Joy Boots for Cancer Survivors

Encouragement, companionship, community and support for cancer survivors.

Living Well is an Art and a Practice

January 17, 2025December 17, 2024 by Kelly Inselmann

This year I needed a little tree and a BIG angel. And one who brings a bit of fierceness and strength.

It’s not just people touched by cancer who can move from one day to the next with additional layers of stress, worry and anxiety. It’s part of the human condition. Though the cancer experience (like other traumas) brings existential questions and your own mortality into stark relief.

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.

To keep reading, consider being a JoyBoots subscriber.

Joy Boots for Cancer Survivors

Encouragement, companionship, community and support for cancer survivors.

How to Put your JoyBoots On

January 17, 2025December 9, 2024 by Kelly Inselmann

Even before the term “toxic positivity” was coined, as I was going through treatment for breast cancer in 2008, I couldn’t stand the expectation that people with cancer should be cheerful warriors.

As a therapist and meditation teacher, I knew that repressing or disowning true feelings of shock, sadness, anger or fear does not keep these feelings away.

On the contrary, if you can’t name or express what you are feeling, and if you put on a happy face just to make others comfortable, the repression adds stress and inflammation to your body.

To keep reading, consider being a JoyBoots subscriber.

Joy Boots for Cancer Survivors

Encouragement, companionship, community and support for cancer survivors.

How does yoga help the healing process?

April 2, 2024March 11, 2024 by Kelly Inselmann

When you step into a yoga practice that is really attuned to your physical and emotional needs, you feel safe, you can deeply relax, and the mind can go into a neutral space to interrupt usual patterns of worried thinking or self judgment.

In order to heal there has to be a moment of neutrality, an opportunity to become the observer of your experience instead of thinking you can control everything.

Yoga allows people to observe how much pressure they put on themselves and experiment with letting it go, even if just for the duration of the class. It helps them move their bodies to discharge anger, fear and pain.

Kundalini Yoga is known as the yoga of awareness and uses movement, breath work, mantra, and meditation to help you connect to your body, mind, energy and true Self.

“For some people in class, this is the first time they have tried yoga, but they are with a tribe of others who have walked through fire. To be in that environment and to know your teacher and fellow students know what it’s like and are still doing the practices together and rejoicing is powerful.”

~ Judy, Program Participant

JoyBoots & Research

March 11, 2024 by Kelly Inselmann

Kirtan Kriya is a meditation that can help as we live through interesting times to bring stability to the mind and calm to the nervous system.

I conceptualized and collaborated with Ashley Henneghan, NP, PhD, on testing the impact of this meditation on people experiencing chemo brain and I’m excited to share this article detailing the research.

I met Ashley in 2016, by helping her recruit JoyBooters for her study on the prevalence and impact of chemo brain on breast cancer survivors at the University of Texas School of Nursing, where she is now an Associate Professor and Researcher, and Founder of the Henneghan Lab: Cognitive Health Initiative for Cancer Survivors.

We were both yoga and meditation practitioners and began to discuss collaborating to research meditation, specifically Kirtan Kriya, as an effective intervention for cognitive impairment (chemo brain).

Based on prior research from UCLA showing that Kirtan Kriya reduced inflammation and improved memory and cognitive function, and from my own experience practicing and teaching it, I suggested we study its measurable impact on people suffering from chemo brain. See this recent article from UCLA: https://www.uclahealth.org/news/new-understanding-power-yoga

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 for a pilot study on the impact of Kirtan Kriya on post-chemotherapy breast cancer survivors.

My role was to teach the meditations, explore questions or resistances to daily practice with the participants, and check in on them regularly.

Interestingly, the study also found that perceived cognitive changes following (breast) cancer treatment are multifactorial. 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 also improve perceived cognitive functioning in (breast) cancer survivors.

These are difficult challenges. JoyBooter programs can be a powerful tool to address many of these symptoms through community, yoga movement, processing traumatic moments together, and learning meditation tools.

Check out more research articles and resources at Henneghan Lab: Cognitive Health Initiative for Cancer Survivors.

Research Opportunity on Survivorship (with compensation)

March 25, 2024January 29, 2024 by Kelly Inselmann

Many of you know what it’s like to be in the infusion center, walking in with mixed feelings of trepidation and hope. That’s kind of how I have felt moving into 2024.

On the hopeful side, my updated version of the online course Healing Well: Reconnect with Your Life after Cancer is almost finished and I’m feeling proud! It has most of what I’ve learned and taught over the past 30 years as a psychotherapist and yoga/meditation teacher (with 16 years as a cancer survivor) and it offers a framework for validation, resilience and healing you don’t find elsewhere.

I’m so ready to share more widely these valuable tools for reclaiming your time and life. My experience has taught me that we humans need MORE support and connection, not less, in order to feel emotionally healthy, content and joyful.

Speaking of tools, many of you participated in the 2019-20 study conducted by Ashley Hennegan, PhD, RN, FAAN, and me on how meditation can positively impact cognitive function after chemotherapy (AKA chemobrain) and other side effects from cancer treatment. You can see the published study here.

Ashley continues her groundbreaking research into survivorship at the University of Texas at Austin and has asked for our help recruiting participants to finish collecting data. Who’s in? There’s even compensation for participating. The eligibility info can be found here.

And fellow Joybooter, Rakefet Laviolette, LPC Associate, is also offering a new Group for Caregivers. Details can be found here.

Please share these resources widely.

Kelly’s JoyBooter Yoga on YouTube Channel

July 17, 2023 by Kelly Inselmann

Miss doing yoga with Kelly and the JoyBooters Class?

There are lots of videos you can try at Kelly’s YouTube channel….

https://www.youtube.com/@kellyinselmann486/videos

And soon enough, our classes will be back on a weekly basis beginning at the end of August 2023.

Stay cool, people.

One Breath at a Time,

Kelly

How DO You Heal Emotionally after the Trauma of Cancer? The 6 Principles

March 25, 2024July 10, 2023 by Kelly Inselmann

Over the years, I’ve received many messages from people who heard an interview I did with Dr. Ann Kelly (shared below) at Therapist Uncensored about how hard it is to heal after the trauma of having cancer. And I explain the six keys to unlocking the healing process.

In September, 2023, new classes, therapy groups, and an online course will begin to help you learn and practice skills based on these principles.

Be sure you are on the JoyBoots community mailing list so you know when they open up!

Interview:

https://therapistuncensored.com/episodes/tu63-living-with-cancer-the-six-principles-of-emotional-healing-with-guest-kelly-inselmann/

Cancer sucks, no way around it. If you have it, had it or are supporting someone who does, this episode will be nourishment for you by bringing your mind and body into the healing and recovery process for cancer and trauma is so important.

Fighting cancer is often traumatic physically, emotionally and relationally. Podcast host Dr. Ann Kelley joins therapist and Yoga Instructor Kelly Inselmann (LCSW, C-IAYT,CGP) as she shares her personal journey through cancer recovery and describes her passion and process in supporting others to find hope and healing while in this compromised state.

They discuss how modifying the six principles of emotional recovery into the basic principles of yoga can have an immense impact on well-being and recovery.