We Can be Heroes...

Photo credit: San Deigo Shooter

This morning I saw something that made me smile: a truck was stalled at a stop light and several people worked together to get it across a very busy intersection and off to safety. A woman was steering and several men were pushing, while the pilot's car was following closely behind. Even as the truck made its way through, more people were running onto the scene to help push. Everyone was smiling!

As a kid, I experienced stalled cars quite a bit. I was the pilot in some situations, long before I could actually drive. I learned how to "pop the clutch" before I was 13 years old! I don't remember total strangers stepping out of their cars or off the streets to help us (maybe that's the perspective on my youthful memory), so when I see people banding together to help each other - strangers, even - it warms my heart.

We all want to be helpful. The people who worked together to move that truck this morning were smiling because they enjoyed being useful, even if it was something hard. And, sometimes it's not so very hard to help.

It certainly is easier to help when there are more of us working together to accomplish something, like pushing the car.

This Friday, I'm reaching out in the yoga community again to see if we can't push a car a little ways, metaphorically speaking.

One of my mentors, Tari Prinster, will be in town from NYC. She's bringing with her a film called "Yogawoman," which is a documentary about the changing face of yoga and the power that yoga gives us to change our world. Tari is a featured teacher in the film.


"Yoga was brought to the west from India by a lineage of male teachers. Now there’s a generation of women who are leading the way. They’re strong, they’re inspiring and they’re radically changing peoples lives. From the busy streets of Manhattan to the dusty slums of Kenya, YOGAWOMAN uncovers a global phenomenon that has changed the face of yoga forever. Through rich personal stories, the film reveals how yoga has utterly transformed the lives of thousands of over-stimulated, overscheduled, and multi tasking modern women. It illuminates how yoga has transformed the lives of women in prison, cancer survivors, and those struggling with body image, allowing them to give back to others with full hearts and creative minds."

We're asking for $10 donation, which will go towards the Kelly Considine scholarship, a program that has already funded yoga training for two yoga teachers and four cancer warriors in its first year! We hope to fund even more scholarships next year to help more survivors live longer, healthier and happier lives. If you are unable to join us but would like to make a donation, go to: theretreatproject.org.

YOGAWOMAN film screening

Friday, April 4 8:15pm

$10 suggested donation

Downtown Yoga Shala, 450 S. 1st Street, San Jose 

Note: give yourself lots of time to park, it will be San Jose's First Friday festival.

A Little About... Tari Prinster

In April, I will be sharing my passion for working with people with cancer, and training others who want to use yoga as a tool to help those on the cancer journey. When I stepped on this path, I struggled to find information to help me develop my yoga classes, so I began collecting information. Years later, I'm calling on my experts to help me explain what we've discovered along the way.

Even though she is based in New York, I have been fortunate to study with Tari Prinster on two different occasions, and was so happy to discover someone else who believes that yoga for people with cancer is specific and that it can include more movement-based yoga. I found myself nodding my head almost the entire way through the first weekend training that I did with her!

Since then, I've taken her Level 1 training, and we've discussed how we can support each other and people with cancer from coast to coast. In April, Tari will be joining my training and offering two different lectures out of her own training that really blew me away when I experienced them. Here is more about Tari:


Tari Prinster became a yoga teacher after her diagnosis of cancer. Since then she has used yoga as a powerful tool to manage the daily challenges of cancer treatments, as well as the side effects and lifelong vulnerabilities they create. She developed a unique, carefully constructed system of yoga poses and sequences based on the specific needs of cancer survivors. Tari’s book, Yoga for Cancer: A Guide to Managing Side Effects, Boosting Immunity, and Improving Recovery for Cancer Survivors, published by Healing Arts Press, will be in book stores Fall 2014.

In 2003, Tari began teaching yoga class for cancer survivors at OM Yoga Center in New York City, and offering workshops and retreats. With that grew the need and interest in a yoga teacher certification utilizing her researched methodology. She has since trained over 450 yoga teachers from all over the world to meet the physiological and psychological needs of this special population.  y4c©, Yoga 4 Cancer classes are designed to address the needs of cancer survivors and patients, provide safe healing yoga, and the important opportunity to bond with others ‘touched by cancer’.

Tari launched The Retreat Project, a non-profit, funding annual retreats for low-income and under-served populations endeavoring to encourage and cultivate access to the transformative power of yoga.
www.y4c.com

Tari is a regular presenter at industry conferences like Yoga Journal Conference, Yoga Service Council, Texas Yoga Conference, and International Alliance of Yoga Therapist Conferences.  She has had numerous articles published in MindBodyGreen, Organic Spa Magazine, YogaCity, and Yoganomymous. And in October, 2012, Yoga Journal published a feature story on Tari’s work.

Tari’s work with cancer survivors gained her a featured role in the full length movie YogaWoman along with industry celebrities like Shiva Rea and Sean Corne that has been shown across the US and many international markets. Tari has been a leader in her work:

• Founder of yoga4cancer, LLC (y4c)
• Founder and President of The Retreat Project (501c3) whose mission is to help underserved and low income women with yoga and other modalities.
• Director of Women’s Cancer Survivor Program, OM Yoga, NYC (2005-2012)
• Yoga Ambassador, Foundation for Living Beauty
• Board Member and Yoga Program Director for The Libby Ross Foundation
• Advisory Board Member, YogaBear

Welcome, Tari! We are so honored to have you share your knowledge. If you want to know more about this training, click HERE.