Yoga For Every-Body

It is Wednesday afternoon in a dance studio in the Kinesiology and Health Studies building at the University of Regina. The lights are low, music is softly playing, and occasionally a deep yawn or a sweet laugh can be heard as energy is released. This is the adapted yoga pilot project that is being offered by Rebekah Lindenbach and Ruth Blaser to the Astonished! Teaching and Learning Centre (A!TLC).

This is what Rebekah wanted to share about the adapted yoga pilot project:

I have been doing stretches, breathing exercises and meditation since I was about 7 years old.  Ruth (my Auntie) has been doing Yoga for a few years, and sometimes a lot of it.  She says it helps her.  I think it does.

Ruth and I were listening to an interview with Bruce Kramer who lived with ALSThe podcast is called Forgiving the Body: Life with ALS. Bruce Kramer talks about feeling connected to his body and to others by doing Yoga, even though he couldn’t move.

Then we read a book by Matthew Sanford who was Bruce Kramer’s Yoga Teacher.  His book is called Waking, A Memoir of Trauma and TranscendenceMatthew Sanford is a Yoga Teacher and he is paralyzed from the chest down.

Ruth and I are learning that Yoga can help everyone no matter how your body moves or doesn’t.  So far we know that yoga is about using the breathe to focus our minds, relaxing, practicing no judgment of what we or others can or can’t do, and being quiet together.

As one of my PATH goals I want to learn and teach others how to practice simple safe Adapted Yoga and see what happens. Ruth is on my learning and teaching team.

Thanks to everyone at A!TLC for being willing to participate in the Adapted Yoga Pilot Project.   
B+W Photo by Jennifer Hunchak

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