HEALTH + WELLNESS
THE EVOLUTION OF
EMBRACING EASE BY MICHELE J. RUSINKO (SHE/HER)
O
n a Friday afternoon, just before 5 p.m., I received a phone call from my primary care doctor. She said, “You have breast cancer — invasive lobular breast cancer.” She told me to expect a call from the Andreas Cancer Center. Almost immediately, the phone rang again, and the friendly voice on the other line needed to arrange appointments with an oncologist and a surgeon. I stood in my kitchen and felt all sensation drain from my body. I’ve spent my career teaching dance and somatic sciences to college and university students. With a deep, welldeveloped sense of interoception, I trusted my body to guide me. Hearing this diagnosis pulled the plug on my circuitry.
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“[M]y previous training in dance, somatic sciences, and yoga, combined with my personal experience undergoing cancer treatment, positioned me to help others facing the aftermath of mastectomies.”
The following morning, I got up, put on my yoga clothes and walked to the St. Peter Yoga studio. My friend, Kelly, was teaching that day. She knew about my diagnosis. Kelly said, “I am surprised you are here.” I replied, “I had to be here.” I did not know how to think of myself as a cancer patient. I only knew I needed to
feel what was going on in my body to make good decisions. My yoga practice became my pathway back to felt sensation. The following year brought two surgeries, an aggressive course of chemotherapy, biological therapy, and hormone therapy. Whenever possible, I crawled over to my mat and did what I could. “You have excellent range of motion and very few adhesions. Whatever you are doing, keep doing it,” observed my medical team. I thought, "I am doing what you should be teaching people to do!" One morning, lying on my mat feeling weary, I tried to move the stiffness out of my arms, shoulders, and chest. I thought, “All I want is comfort and ease in my body.” I realized how my previous training in dance, somatic sciences, and yoga, combined with my personal experience undergoing cancer treatment, positioned me to help others
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