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The practice of yoga calms the mind by providing a deep feeling of relaxation and balance. Did you know that the very basics of a yoga practice can be done during your “everyday” life at any place or any time?

When you find yourself caught up in the hustle and bustle this holiday season, give yourself the gift of “instant yoga” by practicing these quick and simple techniques…anywhere…anytime:

Staying Grounded During the Holidays: 5 Easy Ways to Take Yoga off of the Mat

Standing Pose

The next time you are in the middle of a busy mall and feel overwhelmed by the crowds, take a few second to ground yourself by standing with your feet hip’s distance apart, relaxing your shoulders and fixing your gaze straight ahead. Take a few release breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. This will reset your body and mind to allow you to continue with the remainder of your shopping!

Alternate Nostril Breathing

If holiday shopping gives you a headache, try inhaling and exhaling through each nostril by closing off one nostril and breathing in to a count of 8 and exhaling out of the other nostril to a count of 16. Do a few rounds of this ancient yogic breathing practice slowly for relief of stress and anxiety.

Shoulder Rolls

When lines at the cashier drive you crazy and cause stress, draw your attention to your shoulders and take a nice, long inhale bringing your shoulders up to your ears, circle them back and down. While you are at it, circle your neck around a few times while inhaling and exhaling slowly. You will feel a renewed sense of calm.

Lion’s Pose

Are those office parties making you tired of talking, smiling and socializing? Go to a quiet place and try this pose by opening up your mouth wide and sticking out your tongue. Making the sound of a roaring lion helps, too. Sounds funny, but this ancient pose is a great release for the facial muscles and really helps if you have been doing a lot of talking.

Meditate

The best way to get through the holiday season feeling happy, healthy and whole is starting each day with a few minutes of meditation. Just sitting silently with your eyes closed at any point during your day is very helpful to keep yourself in balance. Remember, it doesn’t have to be for a long period of time…even just one minute of silent meditation in the midst of a busy holiday season will go a long way!

Join Us for FREE Yoga Sessions

The Abramson Cancer Center offers FREE yoga classes to patients, caregivers and survivors every Tuesday and Thursday from 2 to 3 pm. Contact Fern Nibauer-Cohen by email at Fern.Nibauer-Cohen@uphs.upenn.edu or phone at  215-662-3919 for more information.

Fern Nibauer-Cohen is the associate director of program development in the department of radiation oncology at Penn Medicine. She received her certification to teach yoga from Yoga On Main in Manayunk, PA and has completed the level one certification of the “Teaching Yoga to Cancer Patients Program” from Integral Yoga. 

Sat Bir S. Khalsa, Ph.D

Sat Bir S. Khalsa, Ph.D. recently presented “Yoga Research: Past, Present and Future” to the Integrative Oncology Working Group of Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center. Dr. Khalsa is an assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Khalsa provided an overview of the evolving field of yoga research, especially in the areas of stress management and the use of yoga as a therapeutic intervention. As Dr. Khalsa explained, yoga research has been going on since the 1920s, and has been looking at everything from the physiology of meditation to the positive impact of a yoga practice on mood and anxiety.

The bottom line is that there is significant evidence on many levels that mind-body practices such as yoga elicit the “relaxation response,” which is opposite of what you experience during a “stress response.”

Five percent of yoga students enrolled in beginner’s yoga programs that were willing to complete a survey reported that their doctor had recommended that they take yoga. Yoga has become so popular in the United States that it has become part of our culture,” said Khalsa as he addressed a crowd of scientists, clinicians, nurses and others in the healthcare field. However, that popularity reaches a restricted segment of the population, and it would be ideal if everyone could benefit from the preventive and therapeutic aspects of these practices.

How can this be done? Dr. Khalsa reported on the following:

• Conduct high quality research on the psychophysiological and therapeutic benefits of yoga practice that will provide the evidence base to justify inclusion of yoga into our education and healthcare systems.
• Since the majority of serious and persistent conditions have child-adolescent onsets,there is a growing need and interest to bring the practice of yoga into the schools to teach school age children how to cope with stress and anxiety. This could have positive and lasting changes in behavior, mental health, attention, academics and physical health of our children.
• Provide yoga programs with trained and certified instructors within the clinical setting, such as the Yoga Program offered at the Abramson Cancer Center, to help balance the stress and anxiety associated with a cancer diagnosis and treatment.
• Educate clinical staff about the importance of yoga and provide referral sources and resources to help clinicians educate their own patient base.

While the popularity of yoga has really exploded over the past several years it is important to know that yoga is not just a form of physical exercise, but an ancient practice with multiple practices that affect the individual holistically including the body, breath, mind, emotions and spirit.

What’s most exciting is that the benefits of yoga are understood by many who practice and that this is being offered as an integrative and therapeutic program many healthcare settings. It is Dr. Khalsa’s prediction that programs such as the one recently started at the Abramson Cancer Center will grow and there will be increasing opportunity to prove the benefits that yoga has on areas such as fatigue reduction, symptom management and sleep disturbances of the cancer patient.

The beauty of the yoga practice is that it provides a skill set that lasts a lifetime.

Join the Abramson Cancer Center for Free Yoga

Yoga is offered at the Abramson Cancer Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2 to 3 pm, free of charge, to patients. Please contact Fern Nibauer-Cohen (Fern.Nibauer-Cohen@uphs.upenn.edu) 215-662-3919 for more information.

Relax and renew the body, mind and spirit with free yoga sessions at the Abramson Cancer Center.

We are pleased to announce that free yoga sessions will be held at the Abramson Cancer Center every Tuesday and Thursday from 2 to 3 pm in the Patient and Family Services Conference Room at the Perelman Center.

All levels are welcome from beginners with no experience to those who have practiced yoga for years.

This is a very gentle and supportive class designed to support patients currently in treatment as well as post treatment.

Caregivers are also welcome.

Please contact Fern Nibauer-Cohen at 215-662-3919 for more information.

The practice of yoga during cancer treatment can be helpful on many levels. Yoga can help manage side effects of cancer including nausea and fatigue. Yoga can also promote better sleep and deep relaxation.

Many people think of yoga as a very physically challenging practice, which is not the case at all. In fact, the simple act of linking of your breath with gentle movement is the essence of a yoga practice. Also, working with a yoga practitioner who is trained to work with cancer patients is important because he or she can better understand the unique needs of someone who is undergoing cancer treatment.

If you are thinking about practicing yoga during cancer treatment, it’s important to speak with your healthcare provider to learn if yoga is an appropriate activity, and safe for you to practice. Also, working with a yoga practitioner who is trained to work with cancer patients is important because he or she can better understand the unique needs of someone who is undergoing cancer treatment.

Here are five reasons to practice yoga during your cancer treatment, even if you have never done so before:

Yoga is a practice that becomes part of your everyday life.

Yoga does not have to be practiced in a studio or gym, but can be done in the comfort of your own home, or even during the course of your treatment. Some very basic movements along with instruction on breath work, called pranayama, can be practiced anywhere, anytime.

Yoga promotes peace and a feeling of well-being.

Yoga is about balance, in fact the word “yoga” means to “yoke” which means to unite. From diagnosis through treatment and into survivorship, yoga is a very supportive practice that can help to bring your mind and body into alignment to create balance in your life.

Yoga is something to look forward to.

Even if your yoga practice is ten minutes long, this is time out for yourself to help restore your energy and calm your mind.

Yoga allows you to become part of a community.

Many cancer centers, such as the Abramson Cancer Center, offer yoga programs for their patients. They are often smaller and more intimate classes with others who are going through treatment.

Yoga can help you to feel in control of your body, mind and spirit.

Linking breath and movement through the practice of yoga allows you to let go of negativity and reduce stress. It is your very own gift to yourself!

Do you practice yoga? Have you enjoyed the benefits of yoga during cancer treatment?

Fern Nibauer-Cohen is the associate director of program development in the department of radiation oncology at Penn Medicine. She received her certification to teach yoga from Yoga On Main in Manayunk, PA and has completed the level one certification of the “Teaching Yoga to Cancer Patients Program” from Integral Yoga. 

For more information about the yoga programs offered at the Abramson Cancer Center, contact Fern at 215-662-3919 or email her at fern.nibauer-cohen@uphs.upenn.edu

Michelle Stortz, CYT, CMT, MFA is a yoga therapist, massage therapist and movement educator. She specializes in yoga therapy for cancer and works with cancer survivors in the Philadelphia region.

Yoga has recently been the subject of much attention from the medical community as the field begins to confirm its many benefits. For those undergoing cancer treatment, yoga is especially helpful in managing side effects of cancer as well as some of the more difficult emotional and mental aspects of a cancer diagnosis and treatment.

There is a common misconception that yoga is limited to stretching and practicing difficult poses. In truth, long before the physical aspect of yoga developed - largely what we see today - yoga was concerned with meditation and the achieving of heightened states of consciousness. Related breathing techniques have also long been a part of the yoga toolbox.

These tools and techniques, in combination with movement, are proving invaluable in reducing stress, pain, fatigue, insomnia, depression and anxiety; improving both coping skills and overall quality of life.

The methodology behind the yoga class I teach in partnership with the Joan Karnell Cancer Center at Pennsylvania Hospital called “Yoga Therapy for Cancer Patients” emphasizes the stress reduction aspects of yoga.

Benefits of yoga for cancer patients

Gentle movement, breathing techniques, meditation, deep relaxation and imagery work to guide patients to an energized yet calm state of peaceful awareness. As fatigue is the number one side effect of cancer treatment, patients spend approximately 60 to 75% of class time in chairs, with some choosing to remain in the chair for the entire class.

Movements can be modified to accommodate all types of limitations.

In addition to these classic elements of yoga, “Yoga Therapy for Cancer Patients” includes concise lectures on the physiology behind yoga and arms patients with information and an understanding of yoga’s workings.

For instance, meditation elicits the “relaxation response,” a term coined by researcher Herbert Benson at Harvard Medical School to describe a phenomenon in which the following physiological changes take place:

• Metabolism decreases
• Heart rate lowers
• Muscles tension is reduced
• Breath rate slows
• Blood pressure decreases
• Chemicals associated with stress, cortisol and adrenalin, are reduced

When patients know these benefits of yoga, they are inspired to practice more frequently.

These yoga techniques affect the body by quieting down the sympathetic nervous system and engaging the parasympathetic nervous system.

The sympathetic nervous system is the “fight or flight” process of the limbic brain. It sends adrenalin and cortisol through the body, which in turn sends blood to the extremities - arms and legs - leaving the organs at the core of the body functioning with less blood and interfering with their efficient functioning. In this situation the digestive and reproductive systems are suppressed and the immune system altered.

The parasympathetic nervous system tells the body that everything is okay, that it can relax. It returns the blood to the organs so they can operate efficiently. If stress is prolonged and the body is continuously exposed to the stress hormones, one becomes at risk for heart disease, sleep problems, digestive problems, depression, obesity and memory impairment.

Register for yoga

Registration for yoga classes at Pennsylvania Hospital is recommended.

Dates: Tuesdays
Time: 5:30 to 7 pm
Location: Old Pine Community Center, 401 Lombard Street, Philadelphia, PA

To learn more, or to register for yoga therapy classes, email at Michelle michelle@ironjon.com or call 215-242-1366.