Monica J. Foster
BellaOnline's Disabilities Editor

Yoga, an ancient Indian practice which involves moving the body and training the mind to achieve balance and well-being, can be beneficial for individuals with disabilities or chronic health conditions through both physical postures, meditative visualizations and breathwork. It is an Eastern form of relaxation and exercise that has become increasingly popular in various forms here in the West.

If you are not comfortable with yoga, explore other mind and body-linked practices such as meditation or Tai Chi. The most important thing is to begin connecting your mind and body in whatever way works best for you and your disability's challenges.

As for yoga, each pose can be modified or adapted to meet the needs of the student. Yoga postures can be performed while seated in a chair or wheelchair. Look up yoga studios and practitioners in your area, as well as call your rehabilitation centers to see if they incorporate yoga in their work. You might be surprised what's out there for you.

Having mentioned the benefits of yoga practice, it should be noted that yoga is used to complement an individual's already established medical care, therapy program and exercise regime. Yoga should not be a replacement for any of these things and a doctor should be consulted before pursuing a yoga practice.

The overall health perks that can be gained include:

•Digestive system - Bending and stretching poses help move and stimulate the digestive system

•Cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary systems - Specific types of yoga can be a good form of aerobic exercise that increases one's heart rate. The practice of pranayama helps expand lung capacity and heart strength.

•Lymphatic system - This is a primary component of an individual's immune system. It relies on muscle activity and body movement for circulation.

Physical activity and stretching develops strong muscles that continually encourage lymph movement. Regular practice stimulates the lungs, diaphragm, and thorax.

•Skeletal system and muscular systems - Various postures encourage the individual to keep his or her body in proper alignment. Regular yoga practice strengthens the muscles and increases flexibility.

There are also various developmental benefits as well. They may include:

•Developmental milestones being are reached.

•Enhanced motor skills.

•Increased body awareness and orientation.

•Sharper focus and concentration.

•Encouragement of learning, creativity and imagination.

A welcome advantage to yoga practice is that it does not require any fancy equipment. Yoga can be practiced indoors, outdoors on the grass, or even on sand at the beach. Typically, a yoga mat or rug is used. Latex-free and eco-friendly mats are also available for folks like myself who have spina bifida and are more sensitive to latex. Yoga props such as blocks and straps aid in practicing postures safely, as well as help the individual go deeper into a pose. An eye pillow and a light blanket can be used during deep relaxation.

Your development as a self-aware individual with a disability and the growth of your caregiver (both professional and personal) are intertwined on a very deep level. Mind-body work such as yoga promotes the best outcomes for everyone involved. Yoga practice emphasizes the role of both the individual with a disability or chronic illness and the caregiver or loved one in the healing process. Also, it enhances your bond and mission to working together for one purpose -- your overall well-being.

Yoga creates an inner capacity for survival, grace, and acceptance, no matter the circumstance of your disability or chronic illness. Whether you are new to your disability as an injured veteran, born with your disability or are a parent wanting to establish a deeper relationship with your child who has special needs, yoga goes beyond the body to the heart and spirit's connections to each other forming the whole person. The practice, when kept constant, builds discipline, stamina, focus and patience in those who take on this mode of mind-body connection.

smcmanis@sacbee.com
Published Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009


To see Kim Wagaman on a yoga mat – her supple spine stretched, her limbs angled with apparent aplomb – is to witness a body perfectly aligned and in harmony with itself.

She's a yoga instructor, after all, so such flexibility is a given, right?

Not in her case. Wagaman, 34, who grew up in Carmichael and teaches classes at the Yoga Solution and elsewhere in Sacramento, once was so restricted by scoliosis that she spent most of her teenage years in a neck-high brace.

The curvature made her spine look like a winding country road, veering right in the upper thoracic region, swerving left in the lumbar area. She also had a smaller curve high in her neck and was showing the beginnings of kyphosis, a rounding of the shoulders.

"I made a conscious effort to hide the back of my body," Wagaman recalls. "I'd enter a room at a party and position myself with my back to the wall. There was all this insecurity and denial. And there's this drive to fix the issue."

In Wagaman's case, that drive put her on an unusual path to confronting the condition. Her parents already had ruled out spinal-fusion surgery as too invasive.

So as a junior in high school, Wagaman chose to send the cumbersome "Milwaukee" brace, which she had worn 23 hours a day, to the back of her closet and look for more promising alternatives.

For her, the better way turned out to be yoga. In her early 20s, Wagaman started practicing poses and movements with Jennifer Sadugar, founder of the Yoga Solution in east Sacramento. That led Wagaman to study under Palo Alto-based yoga master Elise Miller, the leading practitioner of yoga for people with scoliosis.

Over time, Wagaman found that tweaks to standard yoga poses – a change of hand positioning, a more pronounced shoulder twist, a deepening of breath – not only eased pain but strengthened muscles around the spine and led to better structural alignment.

The weight bearing down on her left leg no longer is heavier than on her right side. One hip no longer is higher. Wagaman has trained the right side of her rib cage to return to a standard position.

Her spinal curve hasn't gone away, of course, but Wagaman firmly believes her adherence to yoga has delayed further complications and has taken away whatever bodily limitations she had.

Now, with a 500-hour yoga teaching certificate, Wagaman offers Yoga for Scoliosis workshops. (The next four-week series starts Jan. 10 at the Yoga Solution.) A big part of the classes involves mastering variations on classic yoga poses, such as the downward-facing dog, the triangle and the puppy pose. But there also is an emotional component.

"A lot of us have the concept from our society and culture that we're deformed, not right as we are," she says. "We try to work through that. You have to accept that your practice is going to be different than others' in terms of poses and expressions.

"As your awareness becomes more finely tuned, you begin to sense where you are in space, feel more keenly what your body is doing."

Sacramentan Mary Lau, 54, who has had severe scoliosis since high school and suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, says taking Wagaman's classes over the past year has helped both conditions. She says the 51-degree curve in her back has improved by 8 degrees in a recent measurement.

"It really makes a difference," says Lau, a retired scientist with the state Environmental Protection Agency. "I have an S-shaped curve that pinches one of the nerves in the lumbar spine. So a lot of those stretching poses, like the puppy pose, will help my pain. Doing that for a few minutes will give me relief and put pressure off the nerve."

What might surprise some students, Wagaman says, is how subtle changes in the poses can ease pain.

Take the standard puppy pose, a spine-lengthening movement in which one begins on all fours with arms extended to the front and moves the buttocks toward the heels while dropping the forehead toward the mat.

"For scoliosis, I'll have people walk their hands over to the left and then draw the hips back and drop the right side down a little bit and breathe into the left side," Wagaman says.

The standard triangle pose differs more significantly. After spreading the legs, those with right thoracic scoliosis will steady their left arm on a chair and, instead of reaching up with their right arm to stretch, will bring their hand to the rib cage.

"You'll try to draw the ribs in toward the body," Wagaman says.

A downward-facing dog pose has the most subtle change. When arms are extended in mid-pose, you "swivel the right palm out to draw that side of the scapula (shoulder blade) in," Wagaman says. "It's sort of an 'aha' thing. Students with scoliosis will feel a lot more comfortable that way."

Comfort and healing, of course, are precisely what Wagaman's scoliosis patients seek.

"This yoga is the best form of pain management I've tried," Lau says.

YOGA FOR SCOLIOSIS

What: Instructor Kim Wagaman will lead a four-week Sunday series on Yoga for Scoliosis

When: 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Jan. 10 to Feb. 7 (no class Jan. 17)

Where: The Yoga Solution, 887 57th St., Sacramento

Cost: $70 by Dec. 30, $80 thereafter

Information: (916) 383-7933

For information on other classes Wagaman teaches: www.yogaquest.wordpress.com.

Active Isolated Stretching has had impact across nation
Stretching has long been considered an important part of maintaining a limber and healthy body. However, most men and women, whether they are pro athletes or an average exerciser, neglect stretching. In addition, how one should stretch is a constantly changing issue.

Working thousands of hours to develop a foolproof stretching method, Aaron Mattes, a registered kinesiotherapist and a licensed massage therapist, created Active Isolated Stretching, or AIS.

"I heard about Aaron through a friend of mine who had tennis elbow," said Sun Valley resident Kiril Sokoloff. "I was told Koby Bryant goes to Aaron after every game for four hours."

Sokoloff said Mattes is an extraordinary physical therapist and has a passion for healing. Mattes' method is used by professional and top athletes, and has been adopted by physical therapists and trainers at Zenergy at Thunder Spring.

"It is active isolated stretching, which is very focused on breathing," said AIS-certified therapist Winston Purkiss. "It is a short stretch hold of no more than two seconds. This is the most effective stretching method ever introduced to me."

Purkiss said Mattes is based in Florida and his AIS method came to Sun Valley because of Sokoloff.

"The method has received a research grant by the National Institutes of Health," said Purkiss. "My wife had a stroke and was unable to use her right arm. Sokoloff flew her to Florida to meet Aaron and she was able to drink from a glass. It is not a miracle cure, but it is a method that continues to be effective."

The AIS method is about movement. Mattes created stretches for people to do alone and with a therapist. The AIS method is in a book for $35 available at Mattes' Web site, stretchingusa.com. In addition, Mattes has a variety of inexpensive materials and stretching apparatus available on the Web site.

"You feel more energy through this method of stretching because of the oxygen going through the body to the tissues,; Purkiss said.; AIS helps Parkinson's disease patients, people who are wheelchair bound, stroke patients, people with bunion problems, people with cerebral palsy and those who have had replacement surgery for hips and knees."

Sokoloff is working on bringing Mattes to Sun Valley next June to expose more people to AIS and to do a full training seminar presented by Zenergy.

Lots of people in the valley do a lot of running, biking and a great deal of exercise and need to stretch properly," Sokoloff said. "My wife is pregnant, and she has been doing AIS and has not had any pain. We plan to have work done on our baby too. I believe in AIS. Young children can advance mentally and physically with stretching."

Valley resident Pat Schott, 45, is a full-time painter and avid cyclist. He said he was suffering from back pain and hamstring issues and was almost crippled when he ran into AIS therapist Diane Calvero. Calvero gave Schott AIS sessions at Zenergy, which sold him on the benefits of stretching.

Schott enjoys cyclocross racing and mountain biking; during cyclocross season he is racing every weekend. He said he is up and down ladders all day and the combination of his job and cycling does not do well for the body.

"It's the same breathing as yoga but different," Schott said. "AIS is quick and the results are immediate. I highly recommend AIS."


Appointments for AIS sessions can by made at Zenergy. They cost $85 for members and $100 for non-members. To make an appointment, call Personal Services Manager Mollie Holt at 725-0595, ext. 124.

Caroline Phillips
24.06.09 One woman has thrown away the wheelchair to which she was confined for two years.

She suffered from ME (chronic fatigue) for 15 years and now, confounding medical orthodoxy, is symptom-free.

Another patient says he endured asthma intermittently for 30 years - and is now cured.

Improbably, both say their transformation is down to yoga. They are not alone, because many major health benefits are now being claimed for the discipline.

The number of people practising in Britain has tripled in the past decade and now the first NHS yoga facility in a primary healthcare centre has opened in London's Kentish Town.

"It specialises in yoga for diabetes, back pain and breathing difficulties," says its founder, biochemist Dr Robin Monro, also founder of the Yoga Biomedical Trust, which runs clinical trials into yoga and offers lessons.

A recent study showed that yoga can significantly lower levels of triglycerides - the fats in your blood which if elevated can lead to heart disease.

Another concluded that yoga can increase brain gamma-aminobutyric levels, which when lowered are associated with depression, anxiety, epilepsy and even Alzheimer's.

It's also known to lower blood pressure, cholesterol levels and improve memory, sleep, energy, gastrointestinal function and tolerance to pain. In some instances, chronic pain can be eliminated.

Jo Manuel is a practitioner who helps sufferers of illnesses from muscular dystrophy to Parkinson's.

In 2004, she founded the Special Yoga Centre and launched Yoga for the Special Child, a unique service in Britain for disabled children.

For a small, charitable facility in Kensal Rise, it punches way above its weight - Jo's techniques have been adopted by all New York's special-needs schools.

It was to the SYC that Samantha Cameron took her and David's late son, Ivan, who suffered from cerebral palsy and epilepsy. "Sam said yoga helped her son relax and find more peace in his body," says Jo.

Last month SYC held a charity art auction and raised a whopping £100,000 - with artists from Marc Quinn to Sam Taylor-Wood personally donating works - to fund its work.

Television presenter Gaby Roslin said: "I've watched Jo working with autistic children. I'm astounded by what she achieves with kids who can't normally even make eye contact or sit still."

The centre teaches several forms of yoga, from ashtanga to kundalini, in general classes and has 40 instructors.

There are special classes for adults with everything from ME to MS and sessions for pre-natal teenagers. Jo's speciality, a hatha-based practice, is the one she uses to treat 350 special-needs children a week.

Jo believes yoga has a positive effect on even the most serious illnesses. Fiona Agombar, a former high-flying executive and author of Beat Fatigue Through Yoga, is one of the centre's teachers.

"I had ME for 15 years, I was in hospital for months with appalling fatigue and muscular pain, and in a wheelchair for two years.

"The medical view is that after five years with ME, you don't get better," she says. "With yoga, I've become symptom-free. Last year I went trekking in Nepal."

So can yoga cure any illness? "MS, for example, isn't going to be stopped by it," says Jo. "But it can slow the degeneration and help sufferers manage the pain. I also see Down's children meeting their developmental milestones earlier than those who don't do yoga."

Dr Monro believes more investigation is necessary if yoga is to be accepted as a part of everyday healthcare.

For Jo, however, success is measured in smaller steps, such as when the mother of one disabled girl who attends SYC told her recently that thanks to Jo's yoga classes her daughter had slept properly for the first time in nine years.

Special Yoga Centre, The Tay Building, 2A Wrentham Avenue, NW10 (020 8968 1900, www.specialyoga.org.uk).

Pamper Evening 26 June, 5pm-10pm, £5 entry fee, treatments from reflexology to Indian head massage.

For donations visit www.justgiving.com/syc/donate

By Megha Satyanarayana
Detroit Free Press


DETROIT — When Alayna Kurek panicked one day about forgotten homework, the 9-year-old stunned her school counselor by using a yoga breathing technique to calm down.

That stress-relief method is a reason Sherri Kurek said she takes her two children, Alayna and Olivia, 7, to classes for kids at the Yoga Studio of Shelby.

"It’s the one thing they stick with," said Kurek, an in-home transcriptionist from Shelby Township, Mich.

Alayna gets exercise, going from downward-facing dog position to cobra to frog. And her improved confidence shows when she teaches her classmates how to pretzel up, Kurek said.

Karen Lutz, who teaches child yoga classes at Providence Hospital in Novi, Mich., said, "A 4-year-old — they have a short attention span. They really don’t care where their feet are." But as younger yogis mature, she said, "They want to know, ‘Where do my feet go?"’

University of Michigan pediatrician Dolores Mendelow says yoga, if done properly, is a suitable alternative to tumbling and team sports for getting stressed-out, sedentary children socializing, exercising and building discipline.

"It requires practice, patience and accepting of self-limitations," she said.

Second-grader Mya Sornig, 8, practiced a new sun salutation recently in Jane Schwab’s class at Yoga Studio of Shelby. In a circle with the Kurek sisters and studio owner Lisa Tokarz’s two children, Schwab, a retired schoolteacher and certified yoga instructor, said, "Lift your left toe like you’re warming your toes in the sun."

Mya pushed her left leg into the air, and wobbled, which mom Jennifer Sornig of Sterling Heights, said is a reason to trek to the studio. A physical therapist, she knows a strong abdomen can stave off back and posture problems.

A preliminary study of pediatric health benefits of yoga, published in 2008, finds motor skills and concentration improvements, on top of better posture and breathing.

At Providence Hospital, yoga is integrated into strength-building exercises for children with Down syndrome and cerebral palsy, who often lack muscle tone and breathe weakly. Parents help, said therapist Annmarie Dempsey.

"The younger kids, with most yoga poses, we try to find a name that relates to the pose to make it fun," she said.

Yoga stretching and body alignment can create a better athlete, said Michigan State University strength coach Mike Vorkapich. Players use back and arm movements to improve strokes and pitches, he said.

Listening improves too, said Jennifer Hayes, an MSU yoga teacher. She sometimes teaches without demonstrating postures. She hears this all the time: "Wow, this is harder than I thought."

WICHITA, Kansas – Yoga is often used for exercise and relaxation, but now doctors are recommending it for children with special needs. It’s just one example of new approaches to old medical problems. What’s meant to be a workout is just fun for six-year-old Jami. She has cerebral palsy, which caused her muscles to constrict and tighten. So, her doctor recommended yoga. "I was surprised-- I guess more hopeful that it would work,” said Jami’s mother Patty Moulds. “It kind of makes sense when you think about yoga is stretching."

Instructor Sheryl Haynes uses several yoga poses to strengthen Jami’s lower back and leg muscles. "Since she's a tippy-toe walker, getting stretched out back here, the calves and tendons back through here -- we're working on things that do that,” Haynes said. She also works with kids who have Down’s syndrome and other developmental delays. She uses nursery rhymes practice their language skills at the same time.

It’s modern therapy based on an ancient exercise. Another unusual treatment that more parents are turning to for help is at a chiropractic clinic, where the doctor claims he can cure colic. What's more, he says it only takes a few weeks. Colic affects one in five babies, causing uncontrollable crying. "Constantly from morning until night, into the wee hours of the morning,” said Rachel Murphy of her baby’s crying. “It was 24 hours she cried." But Ella was treated by Dr. Dennis Scharenberg, who believes he knows what causes colic. He says a weak valve between the babies’s small and large intestines leads to painful indigestion. "And when I strengthen that muscle, it stops leaking, and when it stops leaking, the colic is gone,” Dr. Scharenberg said. “It's gone and it doesn't come back." He simply messages the muscle for about 20 minutes several times a week. "After about three treatments, we noticed a significant improvement -- a lot less crying, more sleep at night,” said mother Crystal Jones. All of the moms say they were skeptical at first, but desperate enough to give it a try. "It's like it's too good to be true, but it is, and it works,” said mother Jennifer George. So, why don’t other doctors do it? Dr. Sharenberg says it’s a technique he developed himself and actually volunteers his services to get the word out, hoping it will bring help for the helpless and peace of mind for parents.

By showing how yoga can help disabled students, one enthusiastic teacher has made the discipline standard practice. > By John H. Tucker

Inside the gymnasium of P.S.811x, in the East Morrisania section of the Bronx, Martha Gold weaved her way around 50 yoga mats, adjusting the poses of her students. "Hug your knee, give it a big kiss, and say 'I'm perfect just the way I am,'" she chirped, eliciting a chorus of giggles.

For most New Yorkers, yoga, with its deep stretches and wicked bends, can be difficult. But at P.S.811x, which enrolls children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities, it's uniquely challenging. With limited range of motion, many of the students here can't eat or dress on their own. Several are confined to wheelchairs.

On this day, however, the room was astir with moving limbs as the students took to their mats. After a decade or two of working its way into New York's mainstream, yoga is now flowing into the city's District 75, an umbrella classification for the classes and schools that serves students with brain damage, autism and other developmental, behavioral or psychological disabilities. Physical therapists at these schools are beginning to discover the benefits of the practice, and some estimate that nearly half the schools offer a yoga class. Not long ago, that percentage was close to zero.

The advantages of yoga for healthy people are well-documented: increased strength, flexibility and relaxation. But for the child with developmental disabilities, the benefits are perhaps greater. Heightened sensory awareness, vocalization skills and breathing capacity are just a few.

"A lot of these children have a reduced respiratory system,” said Joe Cattelona, a physical therapist at P.S.138m, a District 75 program in East Harlem. “Yoga gives them better oxygenation to the blood, which circulates to their brain and allows them to breathe in ways they don't normally do."
By prompting the brain to release serotonin and dopamine, yoga also helps lower the heightened anxiety that's characteristic of children with cerebral palsy, said Susan Flynn, an occupational therapist at P.S.10x in the Bronx.

Last month, Mayor Bloomberg frightened education advocates by announcing that budget cuts could lead to the elimination of 14,000 education jobs. Some feared that the city’s physical education programs — which include District 75 yoga classes — might also be impacted. But because of the newly approved stimulus package, which is expected to endow the city with more than $1 billion for education — including a large portion for special-needs education — many of those fears have been put to rest.

Even if education cuts were made, yoga programs and other physical education classes wouldn’t have taken much of a hit, said Director of Fitness and Health Education Lori Rose Benson. A reason for this, she said, is that her office is largely funded by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, in a collaborative effort to fight childhood obesity.

Under the seven-year chancellorship of Joel Klein, “a significant” amount of money has been injected into the department’s physical education budget for the first time in decades, said Benson. The money has gone toward equipment, training programs and — in the case of District 75 — a newly appointed physical education director and new outreach efforts with Special Olympics officials.
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The surge of yoga within District 75 — which comprises 56 schools — is primarily thanks to Gold, a physical therapist who arrived at P.S.811x, also known as the Academy for Career and Living Skills, several years ago. One day she introduced a number of poses to four able-bodied students in class. A few weeks later, six others joined. Eventually, the sessions outgrew the classroom.

In 2004, Gold and three colleagues began offering weekly workshops for other special-education professionals in the city. The workshops eventually reached 200 therapists and teachers, many of whom immediately began implementing programs with their own students.

"After that, it spread like wildfire," recalled Katherine Deats, who co-taught that workshop and is now a yoga instructor for two District 75 schools in Manhattan. "These kids have such a hard time succeeding in anything," Deats said. "But they can go to yoga and succeed. If you can breathe and chant, you succeed."

Gold, a Queens native in her later 30s, is a slight woman, shy, with jet-black hair, siren-red lipstick and a penchant for bright velvet jumpsuits. Popular among fellow teachers, she's known for the enormous audio speaker she rolls to and from yoga class each day like a worn-out suitcase. She greets colleagues in the hallway by clasping her hands in prayer, bowing down and politely saying "Namaste," a Sanskrit greeting of deep respect. The teachers return the gesture.

Luis Quintana, the school’s assistant principal, said he’s grateful for Gold's vision. "I see a decrease in aggressive-violent behaviors among the children immediately after her class," Quintana said.

"Martha is one hard-working woman who puts her heart and soul into helping children," said Debra Krasinski, a Columbia University professor and physical therapist, who each year invites Gold to give a yoga workshop to her doctoral students.

Gold also runs her workshops for other physical and occupational therapists, special education teachers and nurses across the city. She offers training sessions to members of the District 75 PTA, as well as educating skeptics who worry yoga is too religious for their children. "It's not religious, it's spiritual," says Gold, who one day wants to open a studio where able-bodied and disabled children can come together to practice yoga in order to learn the value of acceptance.

"If you take the physical body and all of its limitations out of the equation and get down to the level of the soul, we are all equal and ideal," she said.

Movement strengthens the brain

Professional development days let teachers keep learning, from educators and the community. Later this month, they’ll have an opportunity to take a workshop with yoga instructor Melissa Verton Rinvold of Blue Eagle Yoga in Vernon.

Verton Rinvold will demonstrate movement techniques, not yoga, that are designed to make the brain stronger, smarter and more balanced, which makes the body healthier and more functional. The movement can be done in the classroom without any special equipment and some teachers are already using it as part of the 30 minutes per day of physical activity now required for all students.

“Athletes have long known about the benefits of yoga for recovering from injury and building strength and endurance. I have adapted the principals and written an illustrated manual that is so clear that the exercises could be used in groups, as part of individual station training or as preparation for taking part in sports,” said Verton Rinvold, who calls the program Smart Movement.

“There are also benefits to the brain. The movements connect with breathing and the cross co-ordination circuits the brain to work harder and become more creative. This is much more than exercise, it is training the brain. When I have done presentations to children and young people, I have found that they are interested in learning how their bodies work and what they can do.”

Verton Rinvold, originally from Chicago, began practising yoga when she was 17 to recover from a car accident and found that it also improved her concentration in her pre-med studies at university. She decided instead to pursue her interest in dance and art and studied yoga when she moved to San Francisco. While she studied many forms of yoga, she specialized in Raja yoga, the oldest form, which concentrates on the importance of breathing leading to flexibility and endurance. She also studied kinesiology, anatomy and homeopathy at university levels.

She has also worked with children with asthma, autism, cerebral palsy and brain damage.

She has worked with adults with a variety of needs, including physical and mental challenges, psychological issues, recovering from illness or injury and conditions like fibromyalgia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“I am so passionate about my work because it works. With the proper training, the body can support what is decided in the mind. I impart these powerful principles, tools and techniques that have for thousands of years claimed specific cures and approaches for health and well being,” said Verton Rinvold, who moved to Vernon 10 years ago, where she teaches groups and individuals as well as leading workshops and co-ordinating yoga/dance projects for community organizations. She also designs programs for sports teams and is working on a series of manuals with yoga for specific conditions.

“Breathing is the essence of life that enhances all aspects of life. It’s empowering. It’s something I do regularly to make me happier and healthier. When people take these tools and use them, they really work but they have to do the work and apply the principles. I’ve never not seen it work.”

For more information call 250-503-0255 or e-mail blueeagleyoga@yahoo.ca.