Peaceful Poses

Check with any fitness facility – most likely there’s a lengthy list of yoga classes where followers can find their bliss, from hot power vinyasa and high cardio to slow flow. Yoga is a discipline that dates back to ancient India: poses, controlled breathing and meditation working in concert to tone and increase flexibility, relax and energize.

But there’s another style of yoga that’s being embraced by a particular group of people who are on a tougher path: gentle yoga for cancer survivors.

New Albany-area resident Sharon Thomas, 53, registered yoga teacher and owner of Healing Hands Yoga studio, has instructed numerous gentle yoga classes, where poses are modified to accommodate recent surgeries and functional limitations. She’s currently studying to become a certified cancer exercise specialist, learning about the 25 most prevalent cancers, their surgeries and the best targeted exercise therapies.

Cancer is deeply personal for Thomas: In 1996, she lost her dad to brain and lung cancer. She dedicated her 50mile bike ride in this year’s Pelotonia to him. And she has a sister-in-law who is a breast cancer survivor.

Ten years ago, Thomas took a Hatha yoga class to change up her fitness routine and quickly became hooked. Deeper into her study, yoga’s healing potential became obvious to her. “You’re totally into the body, aware of the breath,” Thomas says. “You understand how the mind, body and spirit are connected.”

It’s a connectedness that many in the medical community are acknowledging. And they’re recommending yoga as a vital part of integrative medicine.

“How patients tolerate and complete cancer treatment is related to their mental well-being,” explains Patrick Elwood, hematologist/oncologist and president of The Zangmeister Center. “Yoga can help them navigate the treatment.”

At Haven of Hope, the cancer-support foundation at Zangmeister, gentle yoga classes are offered free of charge to cancer survivors. Thomas, who volunteered as an instructor there for several years, says the yoga is Hatha-based but modified for restricted mobility. “Perhaps they have lymphedema, with painful swelling and fluid retention around the lymph nodes,” she explains. Poses can be adjusted for comfort.

Ellen Schofield, cancer exercise specialist and Haven of Hope’s gentle yoga instructor, marvels at what gentle yoga can do. “It empowers (practitioners), gives them some control over their health,” she says. “Besides, it’s a great support group. Nobody cares if you have no hair, or how you do your yoga.”

Breast cancer survivor Nancy Small, 65, of Columbus has been attending Haven of Hope classes for 18 months. She saw immediate results. “You’re with other survivors, having a good time,” she says. “The chemo makes you tired, but this gets you moving, gets you out of that ‘blah’ mood.”

Whether poses are executed standing or sitting in a chair, participants can still regain strength and flexibility. Even a simple queen’s pose – propped up Barcalounger-style with blankets and blocks – can be restorative as it opens up the chest area.

“Cancer is very stressful,” Schofield says. “When a patient goes in for another round of blood work, they’re worried about what the doctors are going to find. Pranayama – the breathing – really works. It calms the brain, eases anxiety.”

Researchers are attempting to quantify yoga’s benefits. In clinical trials at The Ohio State University’s Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, professor of psychiatry, is measuring yoga’s effect on mood, fatigue levels and the immune function in 200 breast cancer survivors.

Persistent fatigue in cancer survivors, explains Kiecolt-Glaser, is most likely due in part to inflammation. It’s the fatigue and pain that “often limit … physical activity, both during and after cancer treatment,” she says. “Yoga offers both psychological and physical benefits.”

During the course of the study, which is scheduled to end later this year, KiecoltGlaser is tracking specific markers in participants’ blood, and expects yoga to reduce inflammation.

Thomas teaches the study’s twiceweekly sessions. Using strict protocols designed by Marcia Miller of Yoga on High, the small classes are designed for women who’ve been out of treatment for breast cancer four months to three years. They need to “get the parts moving again, relieve stiffness,” says Thomas. “After a mastectomy and radiation, the shoulders, for instance, are tight.”

One participant, Kirsten Kerr, 35 – who underwent a bilateral mastectomy, che mo and radiation for Stage 3 breast can cer – has already noticed improvements. “I’m stretching on a regular basis now,” says Kerr, “and enjoying the anti-stress benefits of the breathing.”

On a Thursday morning in Thomas’s private studio in the lower level of her home, New Albany residents Sandy Mendoza and Tom Butler arrive for an advanced yoga class. For the next hour, accompanied by soft, Zen-inspired music, they strive to “quiet the monkey brain,” as Thomas puts it, stay present in the moment and incorporate long, slow inhalations to open up the spine.

With the grace of a dancer, Thomas, in dark gray cropped leggings and green Tshirt, moves from cat cow to an alternat ing sunbird pose, from chair pose to the warrior II, stretching, aligning. Abs, arms, legs and spine get a tough work over.

During the savasana, or final resting period, the students recline, positioning tiny lavender-and-flax-seed pillows over the eyes. They breathe deeply, quietly. Lights are lowered. Sounds of a waterfall mingle with Chinese bamboo flute.

This challenging session, designed for healthy participants, becomes accessi ble to almost anyone – cancer patients, the elderly – with modified poses and, if needed, stacks of blankets and blocks for support, straps to aid in stretching the legs. “The goal is peace and calm,” Thomas says. “And for cancer patients, it’s all about regaining ownership of the body.”

Rhonda Koulermos is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at laurand@ cityscenemediagroup.com.

By Kathryn Meyer