One of the reasons why we don’t address the root cause is because we do not want to feel the choices that we have been making or the pressure or strain we have been putting ourselves under. We become caught in our emotions, we react and feel hurt by what others say and do and often we don’t take responsibility for the part we play.

We then choose to bury what we are feeling and ‘get on with life’.

There are a myriad of ways in which we can bury our feelings and I could write a whole article on this alone. Food is a big one – alcohol, sport, staying caught in emotions, pushing our bodies and hardening them. In fact any activity or movement that we do in a way where we disconnect from our body and do not honour the true delicateness and tenderness that we are has the potential to bury what we are feeling.

When we bury our feelings we push those feelings that may be just on the surface, deeper into the physical body so that we don’t have to face the pain or hurt of what is actually there. As human beings, we get very good at doing this and find all sorts of ways to distract ourselves from feeling our bodies and we therefore stay caught in the mental activity of our minds.

So having understood what our hurts are and why it is not good to bury them, how then do we work with this?

Here is a simple guideline that can support you to reconnect to what is going on in your body and become more familiar with addressing your hurts.

1. Nominate the hurt when you feel it without blame. Let yourself acknowledge that the incident/person/event that has happened has actually deeply affected you and that you feel hurt by it. At this stage it is important to do this without blame. You are simply nominating what is there.
2. Feel where this hurt resides in your body. You may feel a tightness in your chest, in your lower back, in your jaw. In fact, it could be held anywhere in the body. Make this exercise physical so that you feel how the hurt affects your body rather than staying in the thought process in your mind of “he said, she said” etc.
3. Stay with what you feel, without judging or trying to fix it. Simply let yourself be with what it is that you are feeling. Practice self-acceptance and that this is a process that you are going through. Let yourself truly be with what is there without fighting the urge to not go there. Stay out of the mental dialogue that may be running in your mind and stay with the sensations that you are feeling in your body.
4. Notice if there are any patterns or behaviours that you go into to stop yourself from feeling the hurt. Try to avoid using those things as medications (chocolate, alcohol, coffee) and instead let yourself be with what you feel (as explored in point 3).
5. You may like to seek support from a friend or a practitioner so that you can see the situation more clearly. Be careful to seek assistance from a person who will not allow you to ‘wallow’ or go into blame, but who will reflect a steadiness and openness so that you can go deeper within and learn that this is a healing process for you and for you to see and own your part in it.

The way to heal our hurts is to not bury them but let them come to the surface so that they can come up and out of the body. If we over ride what we feel, pretend that they are not there and push them back down – we bury emotions deeper into the physical body and at some point this will show up via an injury or illness.

 We are all deeply sensitive human beings. Let yourself be and live in with your sensitivity. This is not weak, but in fact our true strength and power.

For further reading, here is a great article We are Not our Hurts by Jean Gamble, Psychotherapist.

Donna Nolan offers Esoteric Healing, Connective Tissue Therapy, Massage , Yoga/Meditation at the Balgowlah (Northern Beaches) and Cammeray clinics. She has a love of working with people to understand the root cause of their ill or injury and works with these modalities to support her clients to return to true health and wellbeing. For bookings contact Donna donna@yogaandhealing.com.au

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December is upon us and once again doesn’t it feel like it has come around quickly?

As we enter into the end of year festive holiday season, it is a great opportunity to pause and reflect on the choices (our lifestyle choices and all others) we have made throughout the year and how all those choices have affected the quality of year we have had, where we are at and how our bodies are feeling.

One of the biggest realisations that we have had this year is the power and joy of self-appreciation, and how when we cultivate self-appreciation in our life – not so much for what we do or achieve, but rather for who we are, what we bring, our qualities, commitments and values – how this grows and opens up a flood gate of appreciation not only for ourselves but for others, all the small things in our lives and the world around us.

We personally have embarked upon a program where we have buddied up and shared via text message with each other twice daily something that we appreciate about ourselves. It can be something as simple as appreciating the quality in which we choose to walk or put ourselves to bed, to allowing more space in our day to simply be or our growing ability to refuse engaging in self-sabotaging activities or thoughts. Our daily appreciation can be anything that we truly value and appreciate about ourselves.

We have been committed and doing this daily for over a month and there has been much beauty in the unfolding nature of this program. It is very simple and offers much richness and rewards in opening up appreciation of yourself and then to others. The key was to do it consistently and daily so that self-appreciation naturally becomes your new normal.

It seems that numerous studies have been conducted on the benefits of appreciation including around brain functioning, corporate efficiency and as a health tool. What we have learnt from our little experimentation is

1. Self-appreciation is not about being positive nor is a mental construct, rather it is a sensation that is felt in the body

2. The importance to actually express, voice out to someone our self-appreciation

3. There is always something to appreciate about ourselves each and every single day even on the days when we are feeling a bit down and out

4. When we appreciate ourselves, we then automatically appreciate others and our lives more

5. It is heart opening and it felt deeply supportive to our health and wellbeing to appreciate ourselves and others on a consistent basis

You may want to experiment with giving yourself and all in your life this gift of appreciation in December and feel the difference in how you see yourself and others. A great way to end this year and prepare you for the new cycle that lays ahead as we approach 2016.

Alexandra Plane and Donna Nolan offer Yoga, Meditation, Cancer Support sessions and Esoteric Healing at their clinic in Balmain  Northern Beaches (Balgowlah) and Cammeray. Contact them for enquiries or bookings.

You may also like to read Donna’s blog Appreciation – A Pathway to Love

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Year to year it is always interesting to observe the changes in my life since the diagnosis I had of breast cancer in 2008. In the years leading up to the breast cancer, I was convinced that I was self-nurturing by practicing yoga, meditation, having a good diet and exercising regularly. However, although I thought I was doing all of the right things to be healthy, what I hadn’t considered or was aware of is the push, the drive and protection that I had been living in and therefore the fact that how I was approaching everything in my life came laced with a hardness and lack of trust. Therefore there was no true self-nurturing in my life and there wasn’t a quality of connection and gentleness in how I was with myself.

As women there has been and is a tendency, a drive to have it all – the career and family, being everything to everyone. Our focus has been on ‘doing’ and ‘achieving’, putting everyone else’s needs before our own, thinking that this is self-less, but it has led me to ponder at what expense has this come? In all of “the doing”, have we not lost our connection to the innate qualities that we all hold within as women – those qualities of gentleness and stillness?

Since breast cancer and through the Esoteric Healing Modalities I have come to understand that the most important thing in life is not what we do or what we achieve but the “HOW” we go about it all. The “HOW” being the quality of being in which we choose to approach or attend to everything in life. The other realisation I’ve come to is that unless we learn to self-nurture we cannot truly support another. The foundation of love for ourselves must be there first of all. As an example, if we are feeling tired or exhausted it is easy to snap at our partner, friends, work colleagues or the kids compared to if we have honoured our needs and supported ourselves we are then less likely to react.

By changing how we treat our body in a truly caring way, we develop a self-loving relationship that becomes a foundation of love from which we live. Life then feels very different, there is a stillness and a connection that comes from deep within that we are able to feel as we go about our daily deeds.

A woman’s breasts on an energetic level are her self-nurturing centres. What I have come to understand is that the cause of my breast cancer was a lack of self-nurturing.

Before breast cancer I was not truly honouring the precious woman that I am which is the same preciousness that is found in every woman equally.

With breast cancer (and other cancers) on the rise is it not time we question why illness and disease have and are exponentially increasing despite the amazing advances in medicine and technology? Could it be that we have lost the connection to the innate qualities of the woman, we have forgotten the preciousness of who we are. In all of the ‘doing’ we have left behind our connection to our essence which can only be felt through a deep honouring of ourselves.

Disease stems from a dis-connection from our body. When we as women learn to truly self-nurture I feel that the current trend in breast cancer may change.

So this month, as you see pink all around you, don’t just think pink, feel your own connection, your own quality of connection in all that you presently are doing.

Donna Nolan offers Cancer Support Sessions which are complementary to medicine. For further reading My Reflections – 5 years on from Breast Cancer,  My Unfolding Path to Understanding the Root Cause of Breast Cancer,  5 Tips for supporting you through chemotherapy and Yoga for Breast Cancer.

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The focus for our last couple of blogs has been around our sleep and evening rhythms, therefore in this blog we felt to bring some awareness around the importance of establishing a nurturing, self-loving morning rhythm when looking at deepening our health and overall well being.

The quality we choose of how we are with ourselves upon waking can set ourselves up for the type of day we are about to embark upon. Have you ever noticed that if you get out of bed grumpy or racy, then that can easily become the flavour of your day?

Here we are sharing some simple rituals that can support you when waking up and how establishing a caring and nurturing morning routine can make a real difference to how you feel into your day. These simple and practical tips offer support in how to start the day reconnecting with yourself and how to hold this connection into your day ahead.

1) Upon waking, pause and spend a moment re-connecting with you, your breath and body. How are you and your body feeling?

With the busyness of our lives, it is common and easy to jump out of bed and race straight into the day. Or even upon waking, turn our phone on and get caught up in emails, Facebook etc before we even land our feet on the ground.

What if, upon waking we created space (just a few minutes) to be with ourselves and held a gentle conversation with our body through awareness of feelings/sensations and a commitment to keep our mind with us/our body (conscious presence). Then and only then, get out of bed, holding and nurturing this precious connection with self. Could this be a different start to our morning that would lay a solid foundation for a more harmonious, gentle and joyful day?

2) Meditate a few minutes upon waking when/if feeling out of sorts

Having checked in with your body and how you are feeling, if there is a raciness in the body, mind and/or physiology, nervous tension or an emotional overwhelm – sadness, anger, frustration etc – 3 to 5 minutes of Gentle Breath Meditation will help you come back to a precious place of centredness, gentleness and support the clearing of stress/disharmony held in your body. You could also enjoy our 13 minutes free online body awareness meditation .

3) Enjoy being organised and getting ready with ample time

Allow yourself plenty of time to get ready so that you don’t end up rushing. Is it really worth sleeping in those extra 15 minutes, then to have to rush to get out of the door and deal with the created nervous tension? Planning in advance for your day ahead, getting up earlier and making a priority to take the time and be gentle/present with yourself in your daily preparation (preparing breakfast, showering, getting the kids ready, exercise etc) offers a deep support for carrying a connection with yourself into the day ahead. Being present in what we do allows for spaciousness in our life that can be tangibly felt in our body.

4) Develop awareness around what and how you eat for breakfast

Is coffee and/or sugary food a must to get your mood picked up and your brain functioning? Are you gobbling breakfast before you zoom out the door or on the go to work? What about experiencing making breakfast a nurturing moment for both your body and whole being and observe how this can support you through your day.

5) Nurture, celebrate yourself and have fun getting dressed

Be present and enjoy getting ready and dressed for your day – for you . How often do we dress in a hurry in an effort to rush out the door, to impress, or cover up how we are actually truly feeling? If we come back to everything being energy (which it is), what if we took the time to be precious, tender and playful with ourselves as we dressed in the morning for our day ahead? When we put energy into truly caring for/honoring ourselves as we get ready, it feels lovely and this loveliness naturally nourishes us throughout the day.

The way we feel in the morning is strongly linked with the quality of our sleep, our evening rhythm and all the daily choices we make – you may find it valuable to revisit our prior blogs on those topics. 

It is not about getting it all perfect at once, rather about ongoingly developing our awareness and commitment to ourselves. Celebrate each baby steps you take to develop a loving foundation from which you begin your day. It is precious and powerful.

Donna Nolan and Alexandra Plane offer Yoga/Yoga Therapy, Meditation, Esoteric Healing and Massage at their clinic in Balmain, Cammeray  and Balgowlah

Contact them for enquiries or bookings.

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We come across many clients in our clinics and at our yoga classes who have difficulty sleeping, insomnia being the most common form of sleep disorder complaint. They may find it hard to know how to get to sleep, or they may be able to get to sleep however then wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to fall back asleep.

Good quality sleep is super important for our overall health and wellbeing. 

We all know how much better we feel when we have properly rested with regular or even one good night sleep. It makes a world of a difference as to how we feel, relate to others and approach all areas of our day.

WHY falling to sleep or staying asleep can be a problem?

How we live throughout our day has a direct relationship on the quality of sleep we get at night. The majority of us – whether we are a busy mum, white/blue collar, students etc – live our days in intense busy-ness with our minds always racy, full of thoughts and with little body connection.This way of being holds a particular quality of energy that affects our body.

Then, when we go to bed, the momentum of our day is still there in the body (i.e this busyness of the day, its associated mental, emotional and physiological racy-ness, overwhelm and/or other disharmony). The body may be tired and wanting to rest, however the physiology is still stimulated, racy, and the mind still thinking of all that has been and may still be going on.

The above scenario is the most common one experienced by people having difficulty falling to sleep or staying asleep – putting aside the occasional jet lags, changes in sleeping environments, medical illnesses etc -. They can’t get to sleep or fall back asleep because their nervous system is overactive, their physiology still racy and their minds super busy, unstoppable with lots of thoughts and activity going on.

The key here to return to getting good quality sleep is to look at the quality of being/energy of how we are living throughout our day, as this directly affects the quality of our sleep.

If we can develop the habit to align, focus, place our mind with our body in all that we do throughout the day and hold a quality of gentleness, when we put the body to bed at night it is ready for sleep, and the mind too can follow, allowing our whole being to properly rest and rejuvenate.

This means developing conscious presence – ie. having an awareness of feeling our body in all that we do, say and think. When we develop this quality of being in our day-to-day activities, any stressful and disharmonious momentum already built in our body will begin to clear, and the draining, uncontrollable chatter of the mind will reduce and gradually stop.

Tips for developing conscious presence – mind and body in union together

1. Make the choice to put your attention with the activity that you are doing throughout your day as you are doing it. Rather than being lost in thoughts whilst you are doing something, give the mind something to do, a point of focus, that is, to be with the activity you are doing.

2. Choose to do the activity in a quality of gentleness. By giving yourself the task of doing it gently, it gives room for your awareness to expand and brings an energetic connection to the mind and body.  Maintaining an awareness of your body posture as you go through your day – keeping it open and alive  – will support your quality of awareness, gentleness and the prevention of various muscle tensions/ body aches.

3. Maintain an awareness of the quality of your breath and choose a gentle breath. Awareness of the breathing process is a simple technique that can be done anywhere anytime to develop/maintain body connection and is sufficient to kick an overall relaxation response in your physiology. A gentle breath in and out your nose will help to clear stress and disharmony built in your body, and bring you back to centered state of mind and being.

4. Choose a couple of activities to begin with that you can playfully practice conscious presence each time you do them. For example, every time you shower, eat, brush your teeth, pick up the phone, get into your car, stand up and sit down, open a door – the list is endless, make it fun, playful and loving. Do these gently and with presence, rather than mechanically and being checked out in your head. Once you have mastered a couple of activities, choose another to add to your repertoire and continue to build on the number of activities that you deliberately practice conscious presence with. This will gradually develop conscious presence over time throughout your day.

5. Try doing the Gentle Breath Meditation daily. This guided meditation will give you a marker in your body as to what it feels like to be connected with you and your body. Then take this feeling of connection into the next activity that you do.

Meditation is simply a tool for reconnection with self. Meditation is simple and only requires a few minutes. Learning how to meditate will help you bring yourself back when you are feeling completely off  – emotional overwhelm, anxiety etc.

Our Yoga Classes, Esoteric Healing Therapies and Massage Therapies are also a great support in assisting with sleep problems, your re-connection back to you and for developing conscious presence.

In our next blog, we explore our rhythms and cycles around sleep and how these can prepare us for a quality of sleep that is both deeply rejuvenating and healing. In the meantime, if you haven’t already, why not try playfully practice conscious presence in your daily activities, include the gentle breath meditation as part of your daily rhythm and see how that feels in your body? It is about developing our ability to make self-loving choices, not about discipline.

Donna Nolan and Alexandra Plane teach Yoga, Meditation and assist people in their healing via Esoteric Therapies, Massage, Yoga and Meditation. Contact them at info@yogaandhealing.com.au

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Choose a time of the day when you can sit or lie comfortably without being disrupted. Begin with bringing your awareness to your breath. Start to focus on feeling your breath through your nostrils.

Feel the quality of how you are breathing and then begin to focus on making your inhale gentle.  Feel the breath come in through the nostrils, feel the temperature of the breath and continue to follow it into your body. Repeat this and continue for several minutes until you establish a connection of your mind being with your breath. Once you have established the inhale then turn your attention to the exhale. As you breathe out, make the choice to do so gently and ensure that the quality of how you let the breath out of your body, that it too, is gentle.

Continue with a focus on both the inhale and exhale and the quality of the breath. Once you practise this for some time being present with your breath and you feel the connection of being with yourself, then when you get up from your formal meditation practise and head into your day, choose to maintain this quality of connection that you have established with your body via the meditation. When you complete your formal meditation practise, continue to feel your body as you go into your next activity holding your connection in what it is that you next do.

The development of the mind being with the body is called conscious presence.

Once conscious presence is developed and practised throughout your day, the racy thoughts of the mind start to slow down. That part of your mind that is always thinking of the next thing to do, or that tantalises you and causes suffering, those thoughts begin to lessen. Of course, this takes time and practice, but the more this is practiced, the mind stabilises and becomes more clear.

Try it – and see how it feels for you in your body. Here is a link to free instructional audio download library of the Gentle Breath Meditation.

You may also be interested in reading our blog What is Meditation?

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People often associate yoga and meditation as being separate, however, they are actually the same thing. According to Patanjali (father/author of the Yoga Sutras) the purpose of yoga is to bring the mind to a one pointed focus. He then goes on to explain the various stages of ‘astanga yoga” (no, not the sequence of postures that was taught by Pattabhi Jois, but the eight limbs of yoga), which outline the necessary steps to take towards living in a state of yoga (connection with oneself).

The final 3 limbs of yoga, Patanjali discusses meditation in detail. So could it be that yoga and meditation are actually the same thing? To developing a connection with your being and your body that you can then take into your daily life.

Putting history aside, let’s delve into some practicalities on how meditation can support you in your day-to-day life.

Meditation isn’t something that we do for just part of the day be it 10 mins or 2 hours and then forget about until the next time you practise. Yes a formal meditation practise sitting for 10 – 15mins can be very useful to help us to learn to re connect, to focus our mind and body. But where the gold is in meditation is when it starts to become part of how you live throughout your day.

The practice of meditation in your daily life, is simply being with your body in all that you do. It is about developing an intimate connection with yourself.

And how do you build this connection with yourself? Here are some simple steps:

1) Connect with feeling your breath and make the choice to breathe a gentle breath.

You may notice that when you are upset, your breathing becomes a little more erratic. Making the choice to breath a gentle breath brings a different quality of energy into your body. One that is more true than the up and down emotions that we may feel. When we steady the breath and it is gentle, it is much easier for us to re connect with our innate essence (ie. without the emotional roller coaster that we may use to be riding).

2) Make the deliberate choice to be with your body in what you do.

That is placing your mind with your body in whatever activity that you are doing. This way, you are giving your mind something to do.

3) Feel your body as you do that activity.

For example, feel your legs as you walk, feel how your hips move, feel how your arms sway.

4) Become aware of your thoughts

As you start to go into following certain thought patterns, make the choice come back to your connection with your body so you are present with what you are currently doing rather than follow certain thought patterns that may not be constructive.

As you take meditation into your daily life, you will find a whole new way of being present with your body in what you do. This way you begin to enjoy what you are currently doing on a whole new level rather than thinking ahead or reflecting on the past. Read more on How to Meditate.

Donna Nolan offers private meditation tuition, Massage, Connective Tissue Therapy and Esoteric Healing in her clinic in Cammeray and Balgowlah. Contact her at donna@yogaandhealing.com for bookings.

Free guided Meditation Download Gentle Breath Meditation

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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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