Help! Advice needed

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Hello Everyone,

I would really appreciate some help from people on this forum.

I am 29 years old and have just been diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma.

I have been looking into different things that I can do to keep my energy levels up while I undergo my chemo treatment. It looks like Yoga may be of some benefit to me.

Does anyone have any information or advice regarding Yoga during chemo, like what type may be suitable for me? Also as I am not supposed to go near crowds can anyone suggest a video or book that I may be able to purchase that will help me do it at home.

I thank you very much for reading my post and would be very grateful of any information you may be able to give me.

Thanks;)

#2

With determination to do yoga in your fight you are already half way through the success. The rest is not a cakewalk but not impossible either.

Yoga practice will enable your mission on three levels - recover the body, restore the emotions and rejuvenate the soul. Done whole-heartedly, no challenge is an obstacle.

I am not a yoga asana teacher; but there are many excellent teachers out there. (I can recommend one,Lori Brucato at loribru@fuse.net) You will need to know some simple poses that can be done unaided. You need to learn some breathing exercises oriented more towards rhythm.Finally, you will have to quickly cultivate your own mode of meditation more to reflect on your life and planning to crack old habbits. Habbits create reflexes in place of responses and rob us from developing will power. Additional help from “reiki” may also be considered. (Lori will help in each of these.)

Ask friends like us to pray. Then, the ordeal will be just an event to live through. God bless you.

#3

Hi Mum,

I think yoga would be great for you too. I don’t know your activity level or exactly what you might need so this is just what you made me think of for you, you would have to decide if it is right for you or not. The 2 DVDs come to mind for you from Yasmin Yoga. There are some clips on youtube. Volume 1 is an hour long active yoga practice for if/when you are able to be that kind of physical, if that is what you seek. It’s just a lovely slow flowing feel good yoga. Volume 2 is restorative yoga (calmly holding relaxing poses) for if/when the energy level is lower or you just want it more gentle. Depends on what you are looking for and what you might want or need at different times.

I wish you the best.

#4

Welcome to the forum! I’m sorry it has to be under these circumstances, but we are glad to have you.

  1. To start out with, it might be beneficial to join a video site like yogaglo.com, which has a pretty low monthly rate (they have a free trial too) and you can choose from a variety of classes depending on how you feel each day. I would recommend the classes listed under restorative, and very gentle beginner classes like the beginner’s series ‘Basics’ by Steve Espinosa. The reason that I use this site most frequently though is for the guided meditation classes by Harshada Wagner. They are extremely varied and there are a lot of them, but in your case you might benefit from the ones related to anxiety, pain, and chronic illness. There are also a few that are led meditations/visualizations on the changes you want to see, which can be very powerful. If you are feeling weak and join the site, stick with these very gentle approaches.

  2. You’ll want to hit up Amazon.com and do a search for yoga and cancer, or yoga and cancer. There are so many I don’t even know what to recommend, but I’ve watched the movie ‘Crazy Sexy Cancer’ about five times and read the book. I love it and I can say that it definitely helped some friends who were going through what you are going through.

  3. I also recommend ‘The Heart of Yoga’ by TKV Desikachar.

  4. Take up chanting, if you feel comfortable with it. Learning them will help to focus your mind and the vibrations will hopefully relax you. If you are religious, chanting in your own faith - or you can try to chant / sing along with some well known cds you can get on amazon, like Krishna Das’ “Live on Earth for a is Limited Time Only” is one of my favorites outside of my collection of yoga sutra chant recordings. There is a very short, 5 dollar (I think) book on audible or the apple itunes store called ‘Strength in the Storm’ which is a spoken excerpt of a book by Eknath Easwaren. He describes how he uses simple mantra chanting as a meditation to reduce his stress and help him through the difficult times. Myself… I find it to be the most effective form of any practice - so it is with the highest recommendations that I tell you to look into it and see if the use of mantra or chanting could also help you relax your body and give it more freedom to heal.

Please let us know if any of this helps you, or if you have any questions or need more direction or just someone to talk to. If I think of anything else I will update right away. :slight_smile: Best of luck!