September Offerings

Greetings, September! Did this month sneak up on anyone else? Ready or not, here it is.

School is back in session, the earth is showing her dry spots and many of us are noticing the changes in our schedules and in our lives.

I'm no exception.

This week marks several new classes, times and locations for classes for people with cancer. As some of you know, teaching people with cancer is my calling and my privilege. I am incredibly honored to add these new classes to my schedule. I hope to see some of you there, if it is appropriate for you to be there. Please help me spread the word to those who need these practices during some of their most challenging times.

Namaste,
Lorien

Stanford Cancer Supportive Care Program has moved its yoga classes to a new location! 

We are now holding yoga classes 3 days a week at Samyama Yoga Center, located at 2995 Middlefield Road in Palo Alto. This new center is very luxurious and has welcomed our program with open arms. On Mondays, Denise Wendler (my first yoga teacher) will lead the Restorative Yoga class, which is open to students in any stage of their cancer journey. On Wednesdays, I will lead a Gentle Yoga for Cancer Recovery class, which is the next step from restorative and invites movement and includes some (optional) standing poses; this class is designed for those through their more active phase of treatment through recovery. On Thursdays, I will lead a Yoga Basic for Cancer Survivors class, which offers a bridge for those students who are through treatment and would like to eventually step into any other yoga class with confidence and safety. All classes meet 1:30-2:45pm and are open to survivors as well as caregivers and are offered free through Stanford's generous donations.

Cancer CAREpoint has a newly remodeled space and yoga classes!

The Cancer CAREpoint resource center, located at 2505 Samaritan Dr., Suite 402, in San Jose, has expanded to include a space for yoga classes. In addition to the weekly Tuesday classes held at Breathe Los Gatos Yoga Studio, we are now offering a weekly Wednesday evening class at the resource center. This class is designed for students who are working during their cancer treatment, or those who are through their active treatment and returning to work. The class meets Wednesday 6:00-7:00pm and will include breathing, stretching and some standing work. In October, there will be an additional Thursday morning class, taught by Linda Toenisketter. Classes are meant for survivors and are free (but we will gladly accept donations).

The Tao of Scheduling

The cyprus tree surrenders to the flow of
the coastal wind, growing with the Tao

The Tao (pronounced "dow") is a Chinese philosophy that encourages us to live in harmony with nature, each other and with our situation. If we resist what is happening, who we are and ignore the life surrounding us, then we may feel like we are trying to wade upstream against a strong current. "Going with the flow" is another way to describe this. Change happens. Digging in our heels and saying no doesn't stop the river from flowing.

With that thought in mind, I want to tell you about changes that are coming to my schedule. Some of them are more temporary than others (really, it's all temporary, if you take a big enough perspective, right?). I advise you to breathe deeply, go with the flow and stay open to "the way", the Tao. If the following list is at all confusing, send me an email at yogabylorien@gmail.com, and I'll explain it all. My schedule page will reflect these changes as soon as September rolls around.

Mondays in July and August

Between now and the middle of August, I will be subbing the Restorative Yoga class for the Stanford Cancer Supportive Care Program. This class meets 1:15-2:30pm at Avalon Art and Yoga in Palo Alto, and it is offered free of charge thanks to generous donations to the program.

Wednesdays in September

I will be moving my class for the Stanford Cancer Supportive Care Program to its new location starting in September. My Gentle Yoga for Cancer Recovery moves to Samyama Yoga Center, located at 2995 Middlefield Road, will meet each Wednesday 1:30-2:45pm, and is offered free of charge thanks to generous donations to the program. This class is designed for students who are ready for gentle movement, stretching and short strengthening sequences. It is open to people with cancer and their caregivers.

I will be offering a new class, specifically for cancer survivors. The Yoga for Cancer Survivors class meets on Wednesdays 6:00-7:00pm at the Cancer CAREpoint Resource Center, located at 2505 Samaritan Dr., Suite 402 (near Good Samaritan hospital). This class is designed for students who are through the intense phase of their treatments and wish to practice balance and strengthening poses. Check with www.cancercarepoint.org for more information.

I will no longer be teaching the evening Yin Yoga class at Breathe Los Gatos on Wednesdays, starting September 4. As much as I have loved building this class and sharing it with everyone, it is too late in the day for me to be teaching, and I find I am no longer a night owl.

Thursdays in September

I will be offering a new class for the Stanford Cancer Supportive Care Program at its new location, starting in September. The Yoga Basics for Cancer Survivors will meet each Thursday at 1:30-2:45pm at Samyama Yoga Center, located at 2995 Middlefield Road, and is offered free of charge thanks to generous donations to the program. This class is designed to move those post-treatment back on their wellness path, preparing them to step into any yoga class with confidence.

Announcements

• In addition to the above shake-up of my schedule, I'll be leading a 1-day yoga teacher training at Breathe Los Gatos on August 3 this workshop will teach how to meet a cancer survivor's needs within the context of a general yoga class. If you are a yoga teacher, you will need these skills at some point, no matter what class you teach. More and more people are living with cancer these days. If you are a survivor and you'd like your yoga teacher to get this training, please let him or her know about it. Click HERE to find out more.
• Please share my blog with others, and invite them to sign up. This is one of the best ways I have to get news out to you all!
• Remember, if you can't make it to class, you can always pop in my DVD, Healing Yoga for Wellness, available at www.amazon.com, Breathe Los Gatos, Pacific Healing Arts, Cancer CAREpoint resource center and Kaiser Mind-Body-Wellness center.
  

Reflections on Teaching Yoga in a Chronic Pain Program

Artwork from:
http://criticalscience.com/chronic-pain-
psychosocial-interventions.html

This population is really limited... Some of them are addicted to prescription narcotics... Some of them have mental health challenges... They could be in a pain flare.

Do you think you can help?

The questions made me pause. Could I help? As I had been taught to do in yoga, I took a deep breath and checked in. I knew I wanted to help, but did I feel like I could be of service? The answer that came back was yes, so I laid out ideas and plans, and my interviewers glanced at each other and smiled at my enthusiasm. I was in a room filled with medical professionals who were redesigning their pain management program and wanted yoga, among other healing modalities, on the menu. I mentioned my own experiences with chronic pain, dating back to when I was a pre-teen, and how yoga had helped me. I was so full of idealism in that interview, and I was totally underprepared for what I was about to undertake. I’m grateful for that idealism, because I might have been scared off if not for it.

On my first day, there were 8-10 people in the room, and their pain was as diverse as them. Some could sit in chairs, and some could only sit for a few minutes; some preferred being on the ground, and some turned green at the thought of getting to the floor and back up again. We had chairs, a few padded mats, a few bolsters and some foam blocks. I had planned a yin yoga sequence, but realized quickly that this was not going to work. I started to worry,

what could I ask these people to do that wouldn’t hurt them?

I went through my yogic toolkit, and realized that all of these people could help themselves through pranayama. Good thing yoga isn’t solely about the body!

What they each had in common was that their nervous systems were stuck in a fight-or-flight mode because of their pain. As Dr. Palermo wrote in her post, pain triggers the stress response, and continual pain leaves the switch to the stress response fixed in the “on” position. My tool for the nervous system is always the breath. They might not all be able to get to the floor, or stand, or sit up, but they could all breathe. So, we started there.

Slowly, I eked out a sequence that supported most, if not all, of them. Together we found options for anyone who experienced pain or struggled to breathe during any part of the practice. I used Kelly McGonical’s book, Yoga for Chronic Pain Relief, as a guide, and I asked them to befriend their bodies and establish a relationship that wasn’t based on fear and pain. We joke about being less of a dictator and more of a coach of our bodies. Over and over, we emphasized – together – that the shape of the pose wasn’t the priority; the attitude, breathing, and observing were what really mattered.

When they weren’t doing yoga with me, they were practicing qi gong, walking or chair dancing, learning about their brains, their emotions, their diet and their habits. The team consists of psychologists, physicians, a pharmacist, a nurse, a Traditional Chinese Medical practitioner, a physical therapist, a Feldenkrais teacher and myself… a very well-rounded and holistic combination of providers.

Over the last year I’ve notices some patterns arise in the hundreds of patients that have come through the program. In the first few weeks, the patients are very fixated on their bodies and their sensations. The questions they ask me are indicative of this perspective: Am I doing this right? Is there a yoga pose for this body part / pain situation?

But at some point, the patients realize that 

it’s not about their body or their pain, but their relationship to both. 

For most people, that realization happens during the third week of the program, but some figure it out right away, while others report back months later that they now understand.

Pain and stress are on one side of a coin, with relaxation and service on the other, and emotions running along the edge of it. The tools that we offer them are mindfulness, compassion, presence, perspective and community; we use these tools to flip that coin from one side to the other. Some of the tools are packaged as yoga, and some are not, but the foundation is all the same.

Announcements:

• Sunday, June 23rd: Lorien will be offering restorative yoga demonstrations as part of Kaiser's Seeds of Hope Cancer Survivor Day. See Events page for info.

Lorien's Healing Yoga for Wellness DVD is out! How to get your very own copy:

• Order from Amazon for $27.95, plus tax and shipping 
• Stop in to Breathe Los Gatos and get it today for $30, plus tax
• Buy it directly from Lorien for $27.19 (tax included, no shipping, you must pick it up in class)
• Coming soon to eBay, Kaiser Santa Clara, local yoga studios and many more...

Living With Cancer, Without Fear

This week, I'm sharing an email from a student who is a breast cancer survivor; she wrote this as a response to the New York Times op-ed piece of Angelina Jolie's that describes her double mastectomy, a course of action the actress chose to take to reduce her risks of getting breast cancer (she currently does not have breast cancer).

Please read this, even if you don't have cancer, even if you don't have breasts, because her underlying theme is universal: intention matters.

"Caving into our fears and living a life in their shadows, feeling afraid, alone and powerless is the festering wound that all women are asked to heal. How we do that, is different for every one of us. For some of us it may mean letting go of our breasts, for others it may mean keeping our breasts and talking to them every day, or employing an infinite number of alternative healing practices.

There really is no salvation in following one approach over the other.

There is no guarantee in any particular choice. As always, it is what we do with it that makes the difference. 

If we cut off a piece of our bodies, bargaining to be somehow made less vulnerable, to be 'in control', to not ever need to fear anymore, we miss the mark. But if we make the same choice with the intent of facing our fear, and coming out of the shadows that have been haunting us, maybe for years, if we use the same surgery to confront our mortality, with the intent to die TO the fear (instead of from it), the same choice can be an incredibly self-empowering marking and initiation.

The same is true for other, more alternative choices. We can diet and exercise all we want, as long as we do it out of fear of developing cancer or having a recurrence,

we are still acting out of the same fear, and suffering. 

(Mis)using any healing tools to try to separate and insulate us from our fear, simply won't do. Fear is a fierce force and unless it is met at a deeper level of ourselves, it won't budge and we will continue to worry and obsess - whether it is about the cookie we ate or the day we missed our run…. And needless to say, fear, and stress (and worry about being stressed!) only keep the wheel of our suffering spinning.

The bottom line is, whatever choices we make, on any given day,

the healing lies in facing our fear AND surrendering at the same time. 

We may think we would feel better if we could only get rid of our fear, cut it off, squish it down, tie it up, box it up, control it, if only we could be safe from it. And yet, paradoxically, all these attempts only do what wind does to the flames. Truly, our salvation lies in turning toward it, in facing our fear, not fighting it, not even fixing it, but surrendering it.

It has been said, that true courage only comes in the face of great fear. So let us USE the fear we all share, the BIG fear of our untimely dying (is it ever timely?), that for many women comes in the face of breast cancer, to FIND our courage, to die to all that hurts or hinders our healing and wholeness, to let go of all that no longer serves and step into the uniquely precious life that has been waiting for each one of us since before we can remember.

Life is vulnerable.
Life in this body is terminal.
Everything is impermanent.
Don't waste another day (or hour or breath) in the shadows of your fears. 

Instead, use whatever tools are calling out to you, to step into meeting your fear and finding the COURAGE that is your birthright. Step out into the bright light of your daring, as the heroine that you are, bold and empowered by responding TO and not from your fears, and held and supported by the community of our brave hearts beating, honoring those that have come and gone before us and inspiring those that will follow in our footsteps to live this one precious, wild life with courage, compassion and grace."

Fascia, Our Body’s Infrastructure

As a yoga teacher, I get asked many questions about pain. A common one is:

Why does an injury in one part of my body present pain in an entirely different part?

Logic would dictate that the area where you feel pain is the site of the injury or issue, but that doesn't always occur. 

If you’ve never experienced sensation that originates far from where it presents, then try this: open your mouth and place your right hand on your lower jaw bone; slide your jaw into your hand, but resist against it with your hand… and notice where you feel the sensation. Yes, there’s some feeling around the connection of your hand and jaw, but mostly you’ll feel this along the left side – the side where your hand isn’t. Why is that?

To answer that, think of Spider-Man’s costume, a tight second skin with a web design all over it. When he moves, the lines of the webs shift and move with him. Now, picture that web design under your skin, not on top of it. Each line of the webs are connected to each other, so when one spot tightens, tangles or is knotted (as in scar tissue), the rest of the web is affected - and the web is extremely sensitive. 

That web is called fascia, which is a type of connective tissue. These tissues range from light, easily affected “fuzz” to ropey, dense fibers. The following video shows some of the fascia in the forearm.

As the video shows, this web of fascia provides a container for nerves, blood and lymph vessels. When the fascial web contracts, we experience constriction on the nerves, in the blood vessels and the lymphatic system. Too much of this contraction may affect our systems in the following way:

• pain response and coordination
• circulation
• immune system

How do we loosen, untangle or release the adhesions in the fascial body? Massage is one method. Passive resistance through gentle yoga poses can also help, as well as tools that reduce overall stress, such as mindfulness and breathing exercises.

The next time you feel a pain response, ask yourself,

Where does this really come from?

You may be surprised by the answer, or you may not if your "Spidey-sense" is alert!

Announcements:

• Hear Lorien's interview on the Transformational Power of Yoga Telesummit.
• Next Kaiser Restorative Yoga for Cancer Survivorship 6-week series begins June 12 (ends July 24, no class July 3). Call 408-366-4284 to register.
• Tuesday, June 4th: Lorien will be offering gentle yoga demonstrations as part of Stanford's Cancer Survivor Celebration week. See Events page for info.
• Sunday, June 23rd: Lorien will be offering restorative yoga demonstrations as part of Kaiser's Seeds of Hope Cancer Survivor Day. See Events page for info.
• Stay tuned: Lorien's Healing Yoga for Wellness DVD will be out in June...

What Yoga is...

I have practiced yoga for 14 years. Early on, I was introduced to shalabhasana, or the locust pose, as a means to help my back. In every attempt to practice this pose, my legs were heavily earthbound, no matter how much flexibility I gained in my back or strength in my legs. After a while, I began to tell myself stories about this pose:

My arms are too short.
I'm not strong enough.
This pose is not for me.

I began to modify the pose whenever a teacher would offer it in class. I avoided teaching the full pose. I identified with what my mind told me, and embraced the justifications for rejecting the pose.

Last week, I stepped into a yoga class that changed so much for me. The teacher was visiting from India, and he and his wife taught several classes at the studio where I teach. I had heard great things, but had little expectations as I began this journey with him. He asked us to use our breath in a very different way, and then to explain why it was challenging to us. We all had stories about why we couldn't do what he was asking us to do; he neatly and succinctly exposed these stories as false - like removing training wheels, then pushed us to try more.

And then came shalabhasana.

He asked me why I wasn't lifting my legs. I gave him my stories, and he - kindly - refused to believe them. He then explained how I needed an experience to prove it to myself, and that I would then be able to practice the pose forever after that. By adding a small prop, I was able to lift my legs skyward with minimal effort. And so I tried it again. And again, but without the prop. My legs joyfully rose. I tried it the next day, and had the same experience, as well as the days after. So, what happened?


Did he magically transform my arm length, my strength or change the pose so that it was "for me" now?


No. He reminded me what yoga is. From Yoga Sutra 1.2 (Gary Kissiah's The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali),

"Yoga citta vrtti nirodhah: Yoga is the cessation of the misidentification with the modifications of the mind."

My mind had modified reality to fit a concept of my ego: this pose is not for me. I misidentified with this story; I believed it... for a long time, too. By pushing us with our breath, and then giving me an experience that I was convinced I couldn't have, I realized how much I was believing that wasn't necessarily true.

This all happened just 2 days before my Kickstarter campaign was scheduled to end, when I wasn't sure that I could raise the $18K to make the video project a reality. After the class, though, 

I started to doubt my doubts. 

Maybe they, like my thoughts about locust pose, were wrong.

It turns out I was right about being wrong. We reached our Kickstarter goal, raising over $18K, thanks to all of you!!! Since then I've now been wondering, 

What else have I been modifying and misidentifying? 

What have you?

Announcements:

• Hear Lorien's interview on the Transformational Power of Yoga Telesummit.
• Next Kaiser Restorative Yoga for Cancer Survivorship 6-week series begins June 12 (ends July 24, no class July 3). Call 408-366-4284 to register.
• Tuesday, June 4th: Lorien will be offering gentle yoga demonstrations as part of Stanford's Cancer Survivor Celebration week. See Events page for info.
• Sunday, June 23rd: Lorien will be offering restorative yoga demonstrations as part of Kaiser's Seeds of Hope Cancer Survivor Day. See Events page for info.
• Stay tuned: Lorien's Healing Yoga for Wellness DVD will be out in June...