Let’s face it, perhaps we are getting more used to change as everything does seem to constantly be changing. A great learning that we can’t be attached to anything being a certain way.

The question we would like to pose here is have we and how have we evolved in our relationship with change? Are we still playing out the same patterns of feeling nervous, anxious, stressed when we are asked to adapt or have we ‘deepened’ in our relationship with change.

And you know what?  It is okay if you are feeling those things as for many of us these are ingrained patterns or behaviours that have been with us, in our body, for a very long time.

What we would like to share with you today are ways to support you further during change. Once we have implemented these tools, they are with us for life. We can then keep applying these, consolidate them, confirm them to help out in all of the different situations in life that call us to respond to change.

It is in times of change or the unknown that we are offered the opportunity to either react to what is going on or respond in a way that allows us to grow, expand and evolve .

Reactions are fairly obvious as we can feel the tension that arises in our body when we do react (101 guide to dealing with reactions). We may walk around feeling unhappy with what we are being asked to do such as stay at home and be in lockdown. The other option we have is to respond to the change in a way where we remain open and perhaps not just remain open, but ‘deepen’.

So, what do we mean by the word ‘deepen’? It may sound a bit out there for some of you, but practically it is a simple concept.

What to ‘deepen’ means is rather than engaging in thoughts of what is going to happen next, allowing stress to creep in, getting caught up in emotions and perhaps even aligning to what can feel like mass hysteria, ‘deepenening’ means to consciously not choose those ways of being, but to make another choice.

That choice is to stay with a quality of connection that comes from your inner-most, no matter what. This becomes the focus, your primary focus, and we let go of any attachments as to how things unfold. This becomes an observing, allowing and learning.

To deepen means rather than let your attention be on and allowing yourself to be distracted, stimulated, unsettled with all that is going on outside of you, you develop a very solid connection that is inward and towards your inner-being.

And we all have an inner-being. It isn’t anything out there or special, it is innate within us all. Our inner-being is that place that we connect with and to when we allow ourselves to be still. It is our inner-heart, that divine spark that is within us all – always untainted. We often forget that it is there because we can get caught up in the roller coaster of life.

It is through our connection with our inner-being that we can, through surrender, feel ourselves and stay settled. And this settlement allows us to be in life, yet not be affected by what is going on around us.

To surrender requires us not to control life, or try and work everything out, but it calls for us to have a more tender and loving relationship with our body and allow it to guide us through life. To stay with the body and to hold a consistent awareness of operating/living life from your inner-being and make all of your movements from this place. And because it is an inner movement, it has no limits, the depth is as deep as the universe itself.

Although we may not enjoy being in lock down, we can choose to use this time wisely … and deepen.

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The practice of Esoteric Yoga, The Yoga of Stillness was unlike any other yoga class that I had attended and I must say it was a game changer for me in that I experienced everything that I had always been looking for in yoga, but had not yet found up until that point.

The practice was far simpler than anything else I had ever done in any other yoga class before. The practitioner instructed me to be with my body and to connect with my being. What was offered was an enormous amount of space for me to do this with gentle reminders to come back to my body. The focus in Esoteric Yoga is for the mind to settle into being with the body (conscious presence) and it is through this settlement that we become aware of the being that resides within the body.

A large component of the practice is about being still, that is no movement and deepening into the body through the feeling sense. It involves only a few simple movements, such as sitting up from a lying position, lying back down, a bending of the knee and opening and closing the eyes. These movements are divinely designed and follow a particular order to support the body to the return to its innate state of being, that is stillness – the union of our body and our being.

What is emphasised in these classes is that stillness isn’t about ceasing movement and just being physically still. We learn that we can walk this feeling of stillness and take it into our daily movements. The simplicity of not much movement in the class allows one to reconnect to this quality and then it is about expanding that quality and bringing it into our daily life in all that we do. Esoteric Yoga provides the pathway to reconnecting to this feeling of stillness, it certainly isn’t about leaving it on the mat.

The word esoteric means connecting with our inner-most and the practice of Esoteric Yoga, The Yoga of Stillness is about returning to this place, that part of us which is innate and deep within us all. This part of us is within the inner-heart and is never tarnished or scarred, no matter what we do and we always have a choice to return to it if we so choose.

At the end of that first class I had experienced something different within my body and my being that was somewhat familiar to me, yet it felt like it had been a very long time since I had experienced this, perhaps lifetimes. I had read and heard it described many times in a yoga class or a course, yet had never actually felt it before. It was a deep settlement, a feeling of returning home.

The practice itself was challenging, not due to anything being hard on a physical level, but because of the level of connection to my body that I was being called to as guided by the instructor. There were no postures or breathing practices that I could escape into. The cues were always asking me to be with my body, for the body and being to be at one.

What I experienced was that the more I chose for my mind to rest with my body, to accept what it was that I was feeling and to not try and escape what was there, the more there came an unwinding of the momentum that I had been living in until I felt a settlement and the being and the body uniting as one.

This was what I had always thought and read yoga to be about and I was surprised that I finally experienced this with such a simple practice. I had always thought that the pathway to feeling this union needed to be much more complex.

This class gave me a marker in my body as to what it feels like when I choose to reconnect to me. As I got up and went back out into my day to day living, I wasn’t able to hold that connection like I had felt it in the class, but I had a reference point as to what I now knew was possible to live.

Union, described as the practice of yoga, was no longer something that seemed unachievable or foreign, it was something that was very tangible.

In this class I had felt it in my body and I knew it was only a matter of time before I could live more of this in my day to day life. This ultimately is the goal of yoga, to not just leave the practice on the mat but to bring it into our daily lives, otherwise the practice is something that we use for relief, to make us feel better, rather than a practice that supports us to reconnect with our soul.

Donna Nolan teaches Yoga, Exercise & Massage and is a Bodywork Therapist. She has a love of supporting people to connect to their body and being, in stillness and in movement. Contact Us

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Yoga is the practice of connecting to the innate preciousness, tenderness, beauty and stillness that we already are and resides within us all.

Yoga for breast cancer is about re learning as a woman how to connect to our inner beauty and stillness – to live a life of true joy and harmony.

As women, could it be that we have moved so far away from the essence of who we are, that we have forgotten how to tend and nurture ourselves – that we have forgotten who we really are?

Perhaps we have got caught up in the midst of life. We may have identified ourselves through the roles we play such as; the mother where the children come first no matter what, the friend who is always there to support others, the wife who cares for the family but puts herself last, the career woman who strives to be equal to any man – just to name a few examples.

Could it be that we have forgotten that we are delicious, we are tender, we are beautiful?

Could the roles we play, stop us from feeling who we really are?

Stillness is an energetic quality that we can all connect with and that is inside of us all (both men and women). It is a deep sense of connection with self where there is no doing, just a sense of being. Within this, lies a quietude – harmony within and contentment without any lack or need.  Once this energetic stillness is felt, it is a matter of taking this quality into all that we do (taking stillness into motion), but the key here is to connect with the stillness before going into motion.

To re connect to our inner-most part of ourselves requires us to work through the hurts (or emotions) that we hold onto that occupies lots of space in our minds and body. We can do this by allowing ourselves to stop and feel what is really going on rather than distracting ourselves with all of our ‘doing’ (motion). These hurts, which we identify with, are what stop us from feeling the essence of who we truly are.

We can re connect by making the choice to feel our body and develop a connection moment to moment that is gentle, loving and tender.

When the mind and body are with each other in whatever activity we are doing in a gentle and loving way, we are practising conscious presence.  As examples, when we walk, we can be with our body through feeling our feet on the ground and feeling our hips and shoulders swaying, when we sit at the computer and type, having an awareness of sitting within our body and feeling our finger tips tap at the keys. When conscious presence is developed and stillness is the energetic quality that we live from, this is yoga (union).

Conscious presence can be developed through making the choice to bring the qualities of gentleness and tenderness into all that you do.

If we took the time to stop and feel, we may notice that there could be anxiousness in the body or a quality of raciness that stems from living in a way where we are rushing around with too much to do, pleasing others, putting everyone else before ourselves. Perhaps we have been caught up in thinking that this is what makes a ‘good woman, a good mother, a good friend or wife’.

What if as women, we put how we are moment to moment and the quality of energy that we live in as the most important before we actually did anything? Would this not change how we live? Would this not allow us to make self loving choices that support us? And as we learn to truly support ourselves, would this then not allow us to naturally support others?

Could this quality of living from stillness be true yoga for breast cancer?

Yoga for breast cancer is not about fancy postures or breathing practises, yoga for breast cancer is about re connecting back to this stillness that innately resides within us all. When this is developed we are then living in yoga.

This article is inspired by the Work of Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine and the modality of Esoteric Yoga.

Donna Nolan offers Breast Cancer Support programs, Gentle Yoga, Meditation, Counselling and Esoteric Healing Cancer Support sessions to assist people through cancer at  the  Cammeray and Balgowlah clinics.. For more information Contact Us. Other related articles My Unfolding to Understanding the Root Cause of Breast Cancer, My Reflections – 5 years from Breast Cancer, Top 5 Tips to Support you through Chemotherapy, Tips for Self-nurturing during and beyond Breast Cancer.

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1) Rest and relax

Your body needs to recover. There is a lot going on in the body with all of the various drugs doing their thing. The part you play in the treatment is just as important, so rest as much as you can. Don’t push yourself to do all of the things that you normally do.

If you have never nurtured yourself before, now is the time to start

You will experience fatigue from the treatment and therefore stopping and taking a break to recover is super important. Ask family and friends for support during this time to assist you in what needs to be done day-to-day (refer to point 5).

2) Listen to what you body needs at any given time, moment to moment

This point follows on from the above one. Listen to what your body is telling you. Listen to it intently and honour your body in this delicate process. If it is telling you that you are tired then rest. Listen to what it wants to eat, what it doesn’t want to eat. Notice what zaps your energy and do less of this.

As your energy levels drop due to chemotherapy, learning how to conserve the energy that you have is paramount in your healing process. This can be developed by being aware of how you are with your body and being super gentle and tender with yourself.  For example, when walking, feel your legs and your hips, as you pick up a glass, feel your hands on the glass. By choosing to be with your body in a gentle way you can begin to develop a loving relationship with your body.

3) Introduce gentle exercise into your day  

If you have followed the above two points, you may end up spending quite a bit of time in bed or on the couch. It is also important that when you do feel well enough to, to bring some gentle exercise into your day. Some days it may be plenty to get up and walk from room to room, other days you may make it to the mail box, other days it may be several kilometres. Listen to your body and what you are capable of on any given day.

Gentle stretching and strengthening exercises are important to support you and your body through the treatment. Seek out a qualified practitioner to help develop a program specifically for you.

4) Look after your organs

Chemotherapy not only affects the cancer cells but it also affects the good cells – which is why you can feel unwell through the treatment. Your kidneys and liver are two vital organs that have a lot of work to do whilst you are going through treatment. The kidneys are like your battery pack and your liver is what helps you to detox the chemicals.

You can assist your organs during chemotherapy by; not drinking alcohol as any drop of alcohol will give the liver even more work to do, eating nourishing food, not drinking caffeine and limiting your sugar intake.

5) Allow people to support you. You deserve it

Chemotherapy is a tough time – you don’t have to do it alone. If you have always gotten on and done things by yourself, now is the time to change this pattern.  Ask family and friends for help, they will want to know how to assist you. Get in touch with what you are feeling and learn to express without holding back how they could be of useful.

If at times you don’t feel up for visitors, that’s OK too. Tell them that you prefer to have some time alone to rest but you would appreciate them dropping off a meal (which they could leave at the front door). Accept that others are there to help you if you let them – it is a win win situation. Learn to receive back from others.

Donna Nolan was diagnosed at the age of 33 with breast cancer in 2008 and underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

At Yoga & Healing we offer Cancer Support sessions, Yoga, Meditation, Esoteric Healing, Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy, Yoga retreats and Counselling.  Sessions available at the Yoga & Healing Cammeray, Balgowlah and Balmain clinics. Contact Us to book a session or for more information.

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In essence, yoga is about how to be with our self in any given moment in a quality of energy that is true in connection.

Sometimes, it can be difficult to ‘be with ourself’. This may be because when we start to re-connect, we can experience an array of feelings that we may not want to feel –  such as anger, anxiousness, hardness, raciness or frustration.

So what do we do when we become aware of  these strong unwanted feelings in our bodies and it doesn’t feel pleasant?

What I have found is that if I allow myself to ‘just be’ with these feelings, they are then able to pass through my body. I feel the feeling for what it is, without going into the story behind the feeling. If I keep feeling it as a sensation and if I’m able to just stay with that sensation, it can change.

Sometimes I find that the feeling can be just too intense and I’m unable to stay with it for any period of time. My mind might be busy and the story behind the feeling is too much. I react, perhaps there is judgement or a want for things to be different. That is OK as well, as I know that feeling will revisit my awareness and perhaps next time I am more ready to connect and allow myself to simply just feel what is there to be felt.

However, if I am able to connect with the feeling, locate and feel it in a certain area of my body, stay with it, sometimes it shifts like magic.  I feel a shift in the energy and then sometimes, it disappears. The shift in my body leaves me feeling clear, light and sometimes joyful.

I have found the more I allow myself to feel what is going on in my body without reacting and as it shifts, I am then able to feel the loveliness of me.  As that which was covering up the loveliness of me shifts, I am left with feeling a deeper connection to me. This is yoga and healing.

By Donna Nolan

Donna Nolan offers private yoga/yoga therapy, group yoga classes and offers Esoteric Therapies in Sydney’s Northern Beaches, Sydney city and Cammeray.  Contact us at info@yogaandhealing.com.au

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For us, the practice is first of all about our connection. We spend the first 7 – 10 minutes of every class guiding people to re-connect with their bodies via feeling different body parts and also through gentle breathing to assist them to come back to the essence of who they are. It’s then about taking this connection into movement with the qualities of being steady, comfortable, gentle and at ease.

What we also find important here is honesty. How does my body feel in each movement, how is my breath? Am I truly able to still stay connected to the essence of me (which I connected with at the beginning of the class whilst lying still) in movement? If I am really honest, this is quite difficult. But if I’m unable to hold this quality of movement, am I practicing yoga or am I just exercising the body? Something to ponder….

So if yoga is about our livingness in everyday life – how do I then take yoga off the mat?

Could we consider some simple tools such as – how do I walk? Am I stomping in anger, or rushing ahead with my mind to get somewhere? Or can I be present with my body as I take each step gently? Can I feel my hips as I move? How are my shoulders? My fingertips?

How am I as I stand up and sit down from my chair? Can I feel my legs? Can I sit down on the lounge with a tenderness of being with all of me?

These are just a couple of suggestions. Now just imagine  – you can apply this to everything you do and start to build the quality of how you are in each moment. And how would this feel? It starts to feel lovely in your body as you develop a new sense of how to be with yourself. It’s beautiful, it’s tender – it’s yoga.

Donna Nolan and Alexandra Plane share Yoga and work as Esoteric Therapy Practitioners. They offer group, corporate and private classes and practice in a clinics in Cammeray, Balmain (Inner West) and on the Northern Beaches. Contact them at info@yogaandhealing.com.au

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So what is Yoga and Healing and why are they important and how can they work together?

The word ‘Yoga” means union (our connection) and is about how we live moment–to-moment to bring a quality of presence that is harmonious to our self and then to others. It’s about the choices we make and the energy we choose to live from that brings about a living state where we start to experience who we really are  – the’ real me’.

From my experience, the ‘real me’ is one where I am free from conforming to certain belief systems or ideals. As an example being free from conforming to the should’s and should nots because we have been led to believe that this is the way it is. Free  from having to be a certain way to fit in but to experience a sense of connection with my body in all that I do and where I am able to express what I am feeling from my body. Where I can start to experience a state of joy and even wonder. Not that I can hold this all of the time, but day-by-day as I choose to be the ‘real me’ this continues to grow and deepen. Perhaps one day, I will experience yoga in all that I do… this is my goal in life anyway.

“Healing” is about bringing honesty to how we have been living and then making different choices to support ourselves. When we start to shine a light on those things that keep us from being the ‘real me’, we can start to heal them. For example, if I notice that I consistently feel upset when a friend acts in a certain way – could it be that I need to look a bit deeper as to why I am reacting the way I am? Rather than always blame the other person as it is their fault, what if I took self-responsibility as to how I react? Could there then be room for healing?

I have experienced that the more that I am able to work on those things in my life that need healing, the more I am able to start to live “Yoga”. This is why I love what I do – Yoga and Healing, they go hand-in-hand.

Donna Nolan teaches Yoga and assists people in their healing via the Esoteric Therapy modalities and Massage. She teaches and has a clinic in Cammeray and in Balgowlah (Northern Beaches) and also takes yoga classes at Warriewood (Northern Beaches). Contact Donna at donna@yogaandhealing.com.au

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