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.
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?
“…A handful of animal studies in the mid-2000s showed that chemotherapy drugs could get through the blood-brain barrier. Shortly after, a surge of neuroimaging studies provided biological evidence: Brains of chemotherapy patients had to work harder during memory recall than those of cancer patients who did not receive the drugs (Clinical Cancer Research, Vol. 15, No. 21, 2009). ‘The interpretation was that their neural networks had been altered, making the brain work much harder to do the same tasks, Kesler says.” (Cognition and Cancer Treatment)
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.
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?
“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 gives 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. As humans, we 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.
If you’re not already a member of the Joy Boots for Cancer Survivors Facebook group, I hope you’ll join us right now. And if you know someone who could benefit from the healing powers of community, I hope you’ll share this post and ask them to subscribe.
Carmen expresses gratitude and appreciation so readily, for her friends, for our Wednesday yoga class, for each day. She can be found taking the bus around town and sharing her spiritual depth and wisdom with others.
Share a little bit about yourself: I was born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. I arrived in Austin, shortly before I turned 29. My hobbies are reading, writing, listening to music and taking walks in the park.
Share a little bit about your cancer experience. It was overwhelming! Until now I can’t explain how I could get ahead of such experience. I have no doubt that there is a Superior Force that watches over all of us! Cancer was a life teacher for me. My perspective of the things has changed for good, and also brought me many blessings. One of them, is that it has given me the opportunity to meet wonderful people who I otherwise would never have dreamed of knowing. From that time, I only remember the love I received!!
How has it benefited you to be part of the Joyboots community? A lot! The first yoga class in my whole life was the first class I had with Kelly, one week after I finished the medical treatments; and for me it was like an oasis after the storm.
What is your meditation practice like? I meditate in silence at least 10 minutes a day, 5 days a week. One day I do guided meditation for 25 minutes and on Sundays I do one hour of silence meditation.
How has yoga and meditation benefited you? To live in the Here & Now, focus on conscious breathing, calm anxiety & stress and above all, to understand that the health of my body depends on my emotional & spiritual balance.
What practices have benefited you the most? Yoga, meditation, Pilates, weights and walking. They complement one another.
What are you still struggling to cope with? My emotions!
What brings you moments of joy? Learning something new every day, watching the sunrise every morning, hearing my favorite song, meeting new people and counting my blessings.
What is something you’d like to share with the community to help them along their healing journey? Nobody is alone. We are all in this together.
WILD CARD:What is your favorite saying, quote or personal motto?
Gratitude!
If you wish to connect with Carmen, you may connect with her through email at carmen_cm@live.com.
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.
As I shared last week, I learn so much from you and your experiences. Whether you are also a cancer survivor, a loved one, or an oncology professional, could you do me a quick favor?
I’m about to offer my Healing Well: Reconnect with Your Life After Cancer course again and could use some feedback before I finish it up.
Would you be able to help me by answering a few quick questions based on your own hard earned experience? It should take 1-2 minutes): https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NYLHP8B
“You have given me the strength to carry on and find happiness and light.” Suzanne Cowper
Sometimes people ask me why I want to work with cancer survivors. They wonder why it doesn’t bring me down. It may seem strange, but I usually have the opposite feeling from my work with people faced with cancer or those who have been through treatment.
I generally feel so uplifted and encouraged by the strength of the human spirit, the poignancy, the depth and the humanness we all share. I also like being with people who can deeply understand what it’s like to consciously face their own mortality and carry on, even while living a day to day existence. I get to see people experience the whole range of normal human emotions– the
shock, the fear, the anger, the ecstatic experience of the present moment, the appreciation and gratitude for the gift of life and their blessings. I get to see immense courage which always includes such touching vulnerability.
All these experiences that people have, they bring with them to the yoga mat and to counseling sessions and I get to be inspired by their courage and touched by their vulnerability. I’m deeply moved by the common humanity we share and the different stages of emotional shock, anger, fear, gratitude and wonder we all experience. I get to witness and share in people’s moments of awareness and healing no matter what is happening with the cancer in their bodies.
I had a friend who came with me often to chemo. Her prayer with me as we would begin the treatments was “Thank you for this breath. Thank you for this moment.” I hold this with me today as the highest prayer, simply to be present and aware and show gratitude for this moment, right here, right now. True healing is not the same as cure. Cure is something else. To me, healing is about coming in to reality and accepting it while maintaining appreciation of the gift of this present moment.
When faced with a life-threatening illness which draws you into a confrontation with your own physical vulnerability and mortality, your system is awakened. First, you are in shock, but then you remain very alert. You are alert to your fear, the side effects, ideas of the future, the urgency to take action, your desire to protect loved ones. More than ever, you have the opportunity to be very alert and sensitive to what is most important.
I want to be around people who have been awakened. I want to surround myself with those who, even though they would not have chosen this path, are using this path to connect to their own hearts and pulse of life. The people I’m drawn to are those who have the undeniable strength to carry on, seek happiness and light even when rummaging around in the darkness of difficult moments.
So many people have reached out to me during my husband’s illness with love, encouragement and deep understanding. They have shared their own experiences of surgery and treatment with great advice and deep empathy for my husband and me. I learn so much from the Joybooters who come to my classes and groups. I get as much energy as I give and learn at least as much as I teach from the brilliant minds and warm hearts I am connected to.
“I feel that since my diagnosis of cancer, I’ve had an accelerated learning curve about myself and the rest of the universe.
I miss my ‘old self’ but I know that I am living life to it’s fullest and enjoying every breath.
Breath. It really is everything.”
Nancy Kirby, Austin, TX
Stopping to take a breath, focusing on long, deep breathing can support you as you move forward with your healing. You likely already know that deep breathing is the foundation of most meditation practices, but it benefits your mind and body in many ways you may not have considered.
By breathing deeply, you allow your diaphragm to relax, your rib cage to expand and create more space for the lungs to fill with life. This increases oxygen in your blood, eventually helping your heart rate to slow down, creating feelings of calmness, peace and relaxation.
Deep breathing also detoxifies your body and releases toxins. Roughly 70% of toxins in our bodies are released through our breath. Carbon dioxide, as an example, is a natural waste product of your body’s metabolic process.
So what other benefits can you experience from practicing deep breathing?
Strengthening the lymphatic system
Calming the nervous system
Lowering and stabilizing blood pressure
Reducing feelings of anxiety and stress
Now that you know how deep breathing can benefit your mind and body, let’s practice.
Sit in a comfortable position, lie flat on the floor, your bed or yoga mat- somewhere you’re comfortable.
Relax your shoulders and your back. Really tune into every part of your body to make sure you’re not feeling tension anywhere.
Breathe in through your nose until your lungs feel full. Experience the air moving through your nostrils into your abdomen, making your stomach expand.
After you have cancer, you begin to re-think your priorities in life.
Which relationships are most important? How do you want to spend your free time? What has been left undone?
What must you say “no” to in order to say “yes” to what really matters?
You may have some physical limitations: fatigue, pain, insomnia, other side effects. You may be dealing with “chemobrain” or struggling with anxiety or depression. Making adjustments so that you can get through each day.
After cancer, I became adept at looking through my weekly calendar and crossing out non-essential activities in order to have more unscheduled down time.
Because: first things first. I need time to just “be” and not feel constantly rushed.
What will enable you to live and enjoy the best life you can? It’s a good question for everyone to ask themselves, cancer or not.
Recently, Michelle came to our weekly yoga class and shared that she was feeling well enough to get a part time job. She was very excited for the new opportunity. But, she announced, she’d taken the job on one condition. She told her boss up front that every Wednesday she had to have a little extra time for her lunch hour so she could go to yoga class. Because she’s determined to prioritize her health and emotional well being and the weekly yoga helps her do so.
First things first.
Where can you set limits in your life this week to protect your energy and free up valuable moments of your life?
Do you ever feel like you are losing yourself by being overly focused on what others want from you?
How do you remember to take a breath, feel grounded in the present moment, and act from your most authentic self?
Mantra, it’s sound and meaning, can be an easy and effective tool.
Sat Nam is a mantra from kundalini yoga practice which translates as True Self or Truth is my Identity. I say this to myself several times a day to direct my mind to focus on what is essential in this moment.
Inhaling, I think Sat. Exhaling, I think Nam.
When I meet a new client, speak to my daughter’s teacher, connect with a friend, bring up a difficulty with my husband, I remind myself to focus on the Higher Truth of this moment, which I can enjoy more if I feel grounded and compassionate towards myself and others.
Sat Nam reminds me that I’m not in control of the behavior of others.
Feeling grounded and connected to your sense of Self is an important concept for everyone, but can be especially useful to cancer survivors. To continue prioritizing your own healing, you have to be willing to put your own physical and emotional needs NEAR the top of your list if not at the very top!
I often hear from clients and yoga students that Sat Nam is a practice they carry with them.
Jennifer shared that she says it to herself as she swims laps, moving in the rhythm of her backstroke, creating her own meditation in the pool.
Leslie reminds herself of Sat Nam as she goes through medical procedures and has to keep still. It’s a relaxing mental focus and reminds her of the wellbeing, feeling grounded, and self acceptance she experiences after yoga class.
Anna has always been shy and reluctant to assert herself with her husband and family members, preferring peace (or at least no conflict) to talking about her needs, ideas, and opinions. But at what cost to her? After her experience with cancer, she decided to make some changes. Recently she has begun taking a deep breath, thinking Sat Nam, and then taking the “scary risk” to speak her mind more often. She’s been shocked at the willingness of others to listen and care about what she needs.
Sat Nam reminds you of the path of assertion and healthy boundaries.
Mantra is a tool to cut through automatic thoughts and momentarily choose a neutral mindset that is non judgmental and open to possibilities.
My teacher Dr. Gurucharan Khalsa said, “Everything in the world makes a sound. The question is: Who is in charge of the sound?”
When you recite mantra, you vibrate the sound of your own voice in the present moment. When you speak your truth and assert yourself, your voice has an impact.
Ancient sound technology in the form of mantra in Sanskrit or Gurmukhi, has many benefits:
Stimulates the vagus nerve to help you relax.
Helps your mind focus on an uplifting message.
Your tongue touches meridian points in the upper palate which correspond to the brain and glandular system and create a state of emotional wellbeing.
Activates the frontal lobe of the brain which controls emotional stability, executive functioning, and compassion for yourself and others.
The vibration itself creates chemical changes in the brain which help the body and mind feel peaceful and even blissful.
From a spiritual perspective, chanting helps you align with the Divine in yourself and in the universe.
Interrupts the negative thoughts or worries that may be on “auto-pilot” and transforms your state of mind.
For people with PTSD, high anxiety or a trauma history, meditating with mantra can be an easier way to practice meditation because it gives your mind something to focus on and interrupts negative cycles of thinking.
Studies show that mantra meditation can help lower inflammation in the body (Kirtan Kriya, UCLA Study)
Can improve memory, sleep, and symptoms of depression and anxiety.
The ancient sages describe Mantra as a seed, which when ripe, flowers the Divine within you.
