Take a few minutes to reclaim and befriend your body, your energy and your day. People who have had cancer often adjust to significant changes, side effects, and managing discomfort. Acknowledge what it takes and how hard you try. This short practice is to appreciate your body, feel integrated, and whole.
yoga
On Asking for Help
“Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds’ wings.” RUMI
It can be hard to accept that you need help. But to survive and thrive, you must to be willing to ask directly for what you need and to accept what is offered with grace (not guilt). Consider that being a gracious receiver is itself a gift and can bring pleasure to the one who gives.
This yogic exercise embodies the natural rhythm of opening and contracting, giving and receiving. There must be balance between giving and receiving. Too much receiving and you are full, too much giving and you are depleted of energy and resources.
Be fearless and honest about asking the Infinite and your community for what you need to make it through the day or the week! And as you are able, pass it on…
Being in Nature
I’m in the Catskill Mountains this week enjoying nature. This video is a chance to practice being with the thoughts and feelings within you and appreciating nature.
Tips for Sleep
After my weekly Wellness Warriors Yoga Class, a new student asked for ideas to help her sleep. A four time cancer survivor, she says she falls asleep ok, but wakes around 3am and lies sleepless for hours.
Insomnia-it’s the worst! I would wager that the majority of cancer patients and survivors experience it, as well as many in the general population.
Yogic postures, meditations, and lifestyle practices can help foster sleep.
This week, I’m sharing three (of the many) that you can do next to your bed when you experience sleeplessness:
1.Forward Bends-forward bends help you relax. Come into a gentle forward bend and begin to breathe long and deep. Enjoy breathing and your ability to stretch, no matter how far forward you come. Stretch one leg at a time to protect your lower back if you have pain or concerns about lower discs.
2.Table pose. Place your hands under your shoulders and your feet beneath your hips. Press the hips up until they are parallel to the floor. Look up at the ceiling. Eyes can be open or closed. Breathe long and deep and stay with the posture until you can no longer hold the position. Come down from the posture and relax a few moments. Then resume the posture. Continue to release tension by coming into the posture with slow, deep breathing until you find yourself worn out and ready to meditate.
3.Meditation for Sleep
This meditation uses 2 mantras from Kundalini Yoga as Taught by Yogi Bhajan: Sa Ta Na Ma (Cycle of Life-Life, Birth, Death, Rebirth) and Wahe Guru (expression of ecstasy and connection with the Infinite).
You can sit up in bed or sit on the floor or in a chair.
It has 4 parts:
- First, take 4 even sniffs in through the nose. With each sniff, think to yourself one of the syllables of the mantra: Sa Ta Na Ma.
- Then, suspend your breath in and think to yourself 4 rounds of Sa Ta Na Ma.
- Next, exhale though the nose as you think to yourself Wahe Guru.
- Eyes are either gently closed or focused at the tip of your nose.
In this short video, I explain the meditation and postures for relaxation.
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=KBb-LW20U0U
Let me know your experience, questions, and need for modifications. Sweet dreams to you!
Balance the Brain
Cancer survivors need practical tools to integrate their treatment experiences and the many emotions they have. This kundalini yoga exercise creates a bilateral stimulation by activating both sides of the body in a rhythm. The effect is soothing and integrating of the nervous system and emotions.
Spinal Flex with Suspended Breath for Energy
Spinal Flex with Suspended Breath for Energy is the third exercise in the Kriya for Immune Fitness (#3) from Dying into Life.
Inhale through the nose, suspend the breath in. Press the tongue to the roof of your mouth as you suspend the breath, then begin the spinal flex. Flex until you can no longer COMFORTABLY hold your breath, then come back to center and exhale through the nose.
Continue at your own pace. If the flex feels too intense for you today, you could simply practice the breath exercise.
Detoxifying Breath with Spinal Flex (Immune Fitness #2)
Practice spinal flex with a special variation to discharge anger, stress, fear, trauma, disappointment, negative predictions and anything that no longer serves you. Exercise #2 from Kriya for Immune Fitness.
Inhale flexing forward, then make the sound “HUNH” from the belly as you exhale, stick your tongue out, and round the spine. You can practice this seated on the floor or in a chair with the hands on the thighs.
Take this opportunity to really let go! Don’t worry about imagining what you are letting go, just trust that your body knows and will release it.
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Spinal Flex for Energy (Immune Fitness #1)
Exercise #1 in Kriya for Immune Fitness. Spinal Flex helps cancer survivors rebuild energy and mental focus. It warms up the lower back and benefits the immune and lymphatic systems. It can be used as a daily warm up to stay flexible.
Please modify by going at your own speed, linking the breath to the movement by inhaling as you flex forward, exhaling as you round to the back. Feel free to sit in a chair with the hands on the thighs to do this exercise.
Breath Meditation for a Strong Nervous System and Calm Heart
This video is for cancer survivors, activists, and others wanting to strengthen their nervous systems and stabilize their minds. Kelly teaches Meditation for a Calm Heart.
What is Prana?
Prana is the life force energy we draw in through our breath and our senses. Cancer survivors strengthen their nervous systems and build energy by increasing prana and letting go of tension. This video gives a brief explanation of the concept.
