parkinsons and yoga

July 16, 2013
July 16, 2013

Kid’s Yoga

It’s not really yoga, but it is an example of opening up to how one can, as B. K. S. Iyengar says, endure what we cannot cure:  NEW! For Kids: “A Treasure Hunt for Mama and Me is an excellent example of offering ways a child can work to adapt to and accept a parent’s chronic or serious illness.” – Midwest Book Review   “For families coping with parental illness such as Parkinson’s, this is a very enjoyable and helpful read.” – Cathi Thomas, MS, RN Small Horizons (an imprint of New Horizons Press) Ages 5 up $9.95               Available at your local bookstore or on Amazon
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March 30, 2014
March 30, 2014

Yoga and Parkinson’s

Thank you to Helaine of the Parkinson’s Unity Walk for the honor of posting a guest blog. The motto for the Parkinson’s Unity Walk is ‘Make Every Step Count.’  I might add ‘Make Every Breath Count’: Click to view blog post on Unity Walk site:  Yoga and Parkinson’s
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June 1, 2015
June 1, 2015

I’m Back with a Twist

Life happens. Still, I practice yoga. With a teenager in the house (translated: grocery shopping and parenting have shifted to overdrive, much like his hormones), speaking engagements, and an upcoming move to the other coast, I need to practice yoga. Add that my Parkinson’s clocks in at a full decade, it’s no surprise that life has interrupted my writing and posting about yoga practice. The shift in my practice reflects the changes in my symptoms, (which includes less “on” time). During the increasing “off” times, I turn to yoga. I’ve learned a great deal about how the body moves, adjusts, compensates, peters out. I’ve added modifications in classes, slowing not in approach but in this awareness. I talk it through to students, wondering at times if I’m talking too much. The answer came last week after a wordy explanation of a twist. The synergy in lengthening and contracting seemed an […]
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June 21, 2015
June 21, 2015

Grapefruit Yoga

During class one morning, a woman asked if I could define yoga in one word. I considered the array of descriptions, musings and translations. After a deep breath, I answered, “Awareness.” The word-nerd in me smiled at the perfect match I’d made: Awareness. It’s recognizing the moment for what it is. It’s focusing on how we move. It’s aligning mind and body. I was so satisfied with my response that I shared it with other classes, interspersing Awareness tidbits between poses. “Bring attention to the moment,” and “Witness each bend and reach,” plus “Notice the ‘aha’ moments.” So much we can do with awareness! Early one day, my phone chirped its appointment-reminder tone. I checked it, checked the time and rushed to find footwear and brush my teeth. I didn’t remember making an 8:00 a.m. doctor appointment for that day, but that’s what had blinked at me from my screen. […]
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July 29, 2015
July 29, 2015

Opting for Art

In combination with moving to the other coast, it made sense to purge, downsize, cleanse as well. Who needs all this space, all this stuff? All that’s involved with simplifying is actually quite complicated. The closer the moving date gets, the more I’m relying on yoga to soften the edges of all there is to do. The saying, “We’re human beings, not human doings” doesn’t shorten the packing lists or clean the house for showings. Then again, nothing I “do” will make the perfect couple step forward, people I’ll feel good about handing my house to, folks I can trust will continue to feed the birds. Nothing I “do” will make my meds work better so I can “do” more. In areas where I have no control, “doing” more isn’t going to grant me control. Yoga practice brings me back to an awareness that I can control how I respond. I […]
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March 1, 2016
March 1, 2016

Insta-Like

I click the Like icon routinely on friend’s Facebook posts or their comments on mine. It’s a rare moment, however, when my internal Like button gets pressed and that immediate, undeniably warm sensation whooshes in and says, Yes. Good. Life is better because that person is here living it, too. In yoga, our awareness opens us, teaches us to step back from our egos and witness the Like in all. Well, I’m not there, yet. Maybe after the election. In the meantime, there are people such as Meg Bernard. I haven’t met her, have never spoken with her, don’t know where she lives. Still, she has a message and such likeability worth sharing. Almost makes me want to staple her name to a stick and stand on the street corner urging you to read Meg’s blog (click to read her blog) and cast your ballot for more people like her.
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September 1, 2018
September 1, 2018

Got Parkinson’s? Get Exercising.

The Wednesday class is back from summer vacation and it’s better than ever. It’s Live! Online! Free! Click here for info. Sponsored by the Northwest Parkinson’s Foundation/NWPF. Yoga is good for you. Not only that, it’s fun. It’s also a form of exercise, and exercise is good for you. Especially if you’re living with Parkinson’s. I’ve known it for years. Now studies even say so. Check it out: the Michael J Fox Foundation says so, too. No one should walk their Parkinson’s journey alone. Whether you’re convinced you can’t do yoga or you’re an experienced guru (or anything in-between), if you’re living with PD, yoga can help relieve symptoms. Join this live, online class with viewers from around the globe (including the instructor) who are living with PD. You’re not alone. See you on Wednesdays!
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February 15, 2019
February 15, 2019

Snowvasana

I know snow. I know that the stinging kind is never good. And while the puffy flakes call out for snowshoes, snowmen and snowball tossing, it piles up. I grew up in Buffalo and spent two decades in New England. I know how to prep and dress for blizzards, play and drive in squalls and clear a path through the aftermath of a Nor’easter. The reason I now live on the other coast derives from knowing snow, from having too much first-hand experience with it. Last week, the flat flakes began floating down from our western skies (“It doesn’t snow here”). It started sticking (“And if it does, it’s no more than a dusting”). Weather reports launched into increasing numbers of inches on the ground and days that schools would remain closed (“If we ever get too much, we wait for it to melt”). Once the sideways snow softened, the […]
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May 9, 2019
May 9, 2019

Inhale and Hold for Five

This Is So not Yoga A Promise For more than five years, neurologists have been promising an inhalable form of the Parkinson’s gold-standard medication. No lengthy trials were needed to test the medication itself – the inhaler uses the Levodopa of the Carbidopa/Levodopa combo so many of us already swallow numerous times per day. The delivery system (a puff like an asthmatic’s remedy) however, needed to pass safety and efficacy trials. Early on, the Michael J. Fox Foundation gave two grants of more than a million dollars to the study. Still, the years ticked on. Burger or Bust The reason so many of us continued to be hopeful about the elusive inhaler was because it would send the medication into the bloodstream without having to go through the stomach and intestines first. Maintaining a steady level in the bloodstream is essential – drop too low and symptoms become severe and […]
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