Jnani Chapman is affiliated with Commonweal, a nonprofit health and environmental research institute located in Bolinas, California which conducts programs that contribute to human & ecosystem health. Commonweal's Cancer Help Program offers a week-long residential support program for people with cancer.

The session opened with a reflection technique, The Witness Practice, recommended for beginning yoga work with cancer patients. It is "designed to focus attention on how the body is feeling, enabling us to attend to whatever is happening in that moment."

As a yoga teacher or yoga therapist, being able to love, forgive & accept your SELF may be the greatest teaching/example we can give our students.

"Fixing is the work of the ego. Serving is the work of the soul." ~ Rachel Naomi Remen

How to communicate with those we love who have cancer: Whenever we don't know what to say ... Say, "Honey, I love you SO much."

Question arose ~ Could exercise be "bad" for cancer patients? That is, make cancer spread faster? Answer: No blood flow helps general health. It is important to keep in mind that physical exertion is stress. The body needs recovery time. Exhaustion after exertion results in depletion.

Teach how to breathe with additional focus on extended exhalation. Poor exhalation fails to rid the body of gaseous waste.

Jnani shared a thought-provoking piece written by Rachel Naomi Remen on the difference between service & helping. "Helping is based on inequality ... helping incurs debt. Service is a relationship between equals ... When I help I have a feeling of satisfaction. When I serve I have the feeling of gratitude."

"Accept what is, and know that things change."

Posted by Pamela Walsh on January 19, 2009 03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am sitting in my last workshop of the San Francisco Yoga Journal Conference, a one day intensive on yoga and cancer. The session is being led by Jnani Chapman, a Registered Nurse and yoga practitioner for over 34 years. She has specialized in yoga as an integral practice for cancer treatment and care for the last 23 years.

Jnani has generously agreed to allow me to set up my computer in the corner of our room and blog "live" throughout the day. So for the next 8 hours or so, I hope to share several shorter posts (which are more likely to be typo-riddled, I'm afraid.) Hopefully, it will useful & interesting.

If you happen to actually be reading this sometime during the day of the workshop -- that is on Monday, January 19 -- and are particularly interested in this topic, your invited to concurrently follow my Twitter updates.

My deepest gratitude to Jnani and my fellow workshop participants for allowing me to share our experience.

Posted by Pamela Walsh on January 19, 2009 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Judith Lasater always starts her classes on time. I learned this at the first workshop I took from her, a restorative training session in Dallas a year ago. I will never forget her words, "We start class on time to honor the practice. We end class on time to honor our students." And she always does.

So today as we gathered in the Grand Ballroom and rolled out our mats for her 2 hour workshop on Yoga to Save Your Knees, I turned to the woman next to me and casually remarked, "She always starts on time." At exactly 12:30, a bell chimed, and Judith called us together.

In addition to being the queen of restorative yoga, Judith Lasater received her education in physical therapy. An Iyengar-trained yogi, she has taught for over 30 years, and authored a number of books. You might say, this girl knows what she's talking about.

She opened the class with a simple statement, "Pain is not good." Over the next 2 hours, Judith led participants in experiential exercises punctuated by group gatherings to closely observe alignment details and adjustments. From the orientation of the patella to the arc of the Achilles tendon, Judith urged us to be aware, pay attention, and make the subtle adjustments that can mean the difference between pain and ease.

As she explained the anatomy of the knee in clear and concise language, she shared this key insight: "The knee joint is the "prisoner" of the hip and the ankle." Understanding anatomy is key to our practice, and to that end, Judith Lasater has written a new book for yoga teachers to facilitate that understanding. Yoga Body: Anatomy, Kinesiology and Asana will be released in May 2009 and is available now for pre-order.

The workshop flew by as participants engaged in the exercises, asked questions, and diligently took notes. The class ended much too soon, but EXACTLY on time. As I watched the line form to ask this yoga master more questions, I realized I probably wasn't the only one about to pre-order her new book.

Posted by Pamela Walsh on January 18, 2009 01:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)