Much of our healing comes from within, form the information you get from your body and listening within.
yoga for symptom management in oncology :A Review of the Evidence base and future direction for research .by Suzanne C.Danhauer et al. Cancer 2019

42 yo female , she is familiar with yoga and breath work. She will practice alternate nostril breathing daily for 3 minutes in the first week and slowly process to 4 min and then to 5 min at the end of 6 weeks. To calm her nervous system and improve the fatigue she is experiencing.She will monitor her progress in her journal.

42 yo female who was diagnosed and treated with chemotherapy, mastectomy and radiation 3 years ago, her cancer has returned and is now metastasized to her spine, she is currently undergoing chemotherapy again .She reports her first treatment 3 years ago was exhausting to her but this time she is so fatigued that she is barely getting out of bed. She has experience with yoga and breath work and feels that she would be able to do some alternate nostril breathing daily for 5 minutes .

Due to the clients severe fatigue , I envisioned to practice 3 minutes of alternate nostril breathing in our first meeting , have her track her progress in her journal and slowly work up to 5 minutes of alternate nostril breathing over the next 6 weeks.I planed to share the article:yoga for symptom management in oncology , discuss the benefits of breathing for symptom management in cancer therapy to support and encourage her in her cancer journey.How regular breath exercises can help to down regulate the bodys cortisol productions and how this can support healing recovery and an increase in energy.How focusing on breathing can increase the awareness for our own body. Through this increase in awareness we learn to listen to our body to the needs off our body. So we can learn when we need to rest and let things go, so we can find healing.

I used the hatha branch of yoga.To focus on the breath is such an important to tool to get grounded and still and in this stillness we are more able to listen.

I meet with my client on zoom, she was in her 4 th week of chemotherapy .She reports that she feels so exhausted that she can barely bring herself to go on short walks with her husband , most of the time she spends her time in bed "just staring at the wall", she loves to write and she is working on a book about the cancer journey ,but she states that she has not been able to write much because she just did not have the energy .She is sad about her low energy. She is hopeful that her treatments will be helpful and is able to keep a positive outlook ,even thought she knows that she has quite a few treatments ahead of her.She was happy toes me and meet with me over zoom.She was open to my suggestion of trying the alternate nostril breathing with me today and tracking her progress.

We practiced alternate nostril breathing together for 3 minutes .I suggested to her that she practices alternate nostril breathing for 3 minutes daily for 1 week and then see if she can go to 4 minutes the next week and explore if she wants to go 5 minutes the following week, but also to give herself permission to stay with the time that works best for her.We set ups follow up meeting in 3 weeks to check in about her progress and she said to set this follow up meeting would hold herself accountable to practice.

Yes I did apply the intended plan with my client once we meet and we were able to archive the goal of starting out with 3 minutes of alternate nostril breathing and she was willing to continue practicing on her own since she felt it was very important to her overall important of health and well being.She said she was feeling calmer and her overall mood was improved also because she was looking forward to the meeting with me. She felt that because she was looking forward to the meeting it gave her something to focus on and made her feel happy . Also even thought her energy is very low right no she felt, she was able to do something to improve her wellbeing .She intents to listen to her body and when her body lets her know that it needs rest, she now feels that with the knowledge of how important is is to listen to her body, she will be able to give herself permission to rest.

Yes, I had initially planned that she would track her process by writing in her journal , but when she let me know that most of the time she does not have the energy to write, we problem solved together we came up with the idea rather than writing in her journal to use a meditation app on her phone that also tracks the days and the time she is doing her breathing practice.For now this is easier for her to do and she still is able to see her progress without the additional burden of having to write something daily.She states that when people ask her, if she is working on her book right now, she sometimes feels sad because is very difficult for other people to put themselves into her shoes .Most of her family and friends just have not experienced this level of exhaustion.She feel positive that the breathing practice can reduce the side effects of her current treatment.

I wanted to first start out with 5 min of alternate nostril breathing, but decreased the time, based on the feedback form my advisor.In retrospect I am very glad I did because, it is very important to meet the client were they are at and to be able to adapt the teachings to their needs.Therefore is very important to always learn and improve my own knowledge about a disease, so I am able to tailor my therapy to the client.I feel that it was a very delicate balance to not set the bar to high and then she would not have been able to accomplice the goal. Especially after she shared with me how she felt when people are asking her ,if she is writing on her book right now.The expectation of most people and also her own expectation of having to be "productive "even thought she is going through intense treatment right now, can be a barrier to healing and keep one trapped in thinking of having to do something instead of allowing oneself to rest and recover.In difficult times it I so important to listen to ones body and listen to the body's need because the body will tell us if we are open to listening.