Finding Time to Exercise Even With Cancer

Exercise, eat right, exercise: we hear it all the time.  

The message is on the radio, in newspapers and magazines and on TV. It's every where. I have always been an active person and gone to the gym frequently. Then I got married. Then I had kids. Then I got breast cancer. My life of working out began to go down hill rather quickly after I got married. It happens. Life gets busy with work, friends and kids.

It's easy to see why in such a fast paced, who-can-do-more world we end up putting ourselves and our health on the back burner. Yet we keep pushing, trying to accomplish more.  At what expense? While sitting in the cold, sterile chemo room, I had a lot of time to sit and think. Twenty plus people in one room, all hooked up to various forms of chemotherapy. I listened to the woman across the room from me talk openly about the fact that she is dying.  

What I discovered was that I was making myself and my family stressed out.  I wasn't doing this on purpose, but I was doing it. Things had to change. Knowing first hand the tremendous benefits of yoga, I searched for yoga classes that were tailored to cancer patients. I came up with nothing. I was eager and anxious to begin working out again, to feel the sweat dripping down the side of my face, and the euphoria from exercise.  

Then, out of the blue, a friend told me about Sarah, who was opening her own yoga studio to include a yoga class for cancer patients. I was thrilled and the smile on my face was ear to ear.  Sarah and I exchanged several emails about the yoga class. Finally, in September, I met Sarah at a yoga workshop that she was holding in her studio.  She was cheerful, bright, attentive and sweet. Her studio is serene, peaceful and calming. When you walk in, you instantly feel a sense of calm wash over you. Your eye can't help but notice the large Buddha head that is surrounded by candles. Or the alter in the corner with a dozen or more candles of various sizes in candle holders made of glass, iron and wood. When I'm there, I don't want to leave my new found sanctuary. 

Sarah's debut yoga class for cancer "thrivers" will be held at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 18.

The class will be taught by Debbie, who is a 10 year breast cancer "thriver."  My girls and I are excited. I hope that this too will become their sanctuary. I made a promise to myself that I will take care of me and make myself a priority. My life depends on it.

How will you take care of yourself today?  

The Practice Yoga Studio is at 111 W. Avenida Palizada in the 12 Old City Plaza (Blue Danube) in San Clemente. Website: lovethepractice.com, e-mail: sarah@lovethepractice.com