COURTNEY ROHAN YOGA

To be diagnosed with cancer changed a lot for me and my family. The hardest part being all the unexpected experiences that emerge from it, all the things you feel that you can not control, and how much you want to protect the people you love, them for me and me for them, from hurting. Having cancer has been a constant reminder that what I think I know, I probably do not. As healthy as I was, it was not enough. I have other karmic dates to resolve. When I am OK with this, it becomes easier to deal with the present moment. I suppose it becomes more clear that this is the way of life when dealing with any life-threatening disease. It's not easy for anyone all the time. No matter how much we may appear OK, we will all meet challenges. So, I try to remember this with regard to my family. Though they are not receiving treatment personally, they have to sit on the sidelines and watch as someone they love does. On some levels, this is probably harder than going through the treatment itse

Do you want to let something go from your life? For me, I could no longer deny specific foods were not doing my body good. I decided that the best thing for me was to do an ill-imination diet, also known as, an elimination diet. I needed to eliminate the ill, the disease. Our diet is anything that we take in, so if food is not what you need to release at this time, you can still use the below hacks to help you. I have to be honest, at the end of the school year when things were most stressful for me, cutting things out of my diet challenged me greatly. It takes great will power (that I obviously lacked as my energy was seeping out in other ways) to change to my eating plan, and it took intention that I had not thought to set. When my body started to scream at me in pain, I could no longer walk the path that I was on. Changing my thinking was a must. I had to remind myself that I was not being denied anything that was helping me. I had to gather my will power and set the intention t

It started with Spicy Doritos..... Well, not exactly. It started years ago when I learned that I could not eat everything, but continued to eat as I felt. It is not always about someone's weight, which reminds them of this. I've always been thin. But my gut has not been healthy. This weekend after some strong core work, over the course of three days teaching and taking classes, I woke with intense cramps, and soreness. I was also gassy. This is not abnormal for me-- the gassy part. Often I hear my stomach after I eat. Sometimes taking a deep breath in to my belly will bring intestinal noise. But the cramps and soreness, I could not figure out. Typically core work feels good, yes, sore, but only as if I'd done something good. This was more. I used a heating pad and tried to think back to my last bowel movement. Hum, I won't share too much about that here. But, it was not a good solid one. During one of the yoga classes I'd been in before this episode, I'

When my husband first mentioned fasting for my health, it was not the first time I'd heard of it. But it was the first time someone so close to me had suggested that I do it. Here, I'm on a fast at the end of this last cycle of chemo, the 12th day When I'd first heard of intermittent fasting, I was at the Airport Health Club, where I offer yoga, enjoying the jacuzzi. I met a nice couple whose brother/ brother-in-law had just passed from cancer. The women was struggling with some health concerns of her own, and they'd mentioned fasting with their brother in solidarity. The story concluded again with him passing away, so I thought "Well, that might explain some things." Why would anyone deny themselves nutrients that could help their body, especially when the body was already depleted? The intuitive nudge did not stop there, and neither did my skepticism. A new homeopathic doctor's office opened in front of the Airport Club, and they offered a Keto D

When Boston and I rang the cancer-free bell, 2010  Do you ever notice that as soon as we think we know something, it changes, or we realize we don’t really know it? Lately, I have noticed this in my life. Working through disease, this tends to happen quicker,  be more noticeable. And the train keeps on, the vat of information, wisdom, love, going deeper; there appears to always be one more door. The Universe is amazing that way. Colors are vast in tone. What God creates is beyond human capacity, in my opinion. We dream an idea that we can see only so deeply, and then Source takes over. The fact that we think we will know what will happen next is incredulous. But we keep trying, trying to do it our way, don't we? As I heal, open to a cure for a disease that I was diagnosed with nine years ago, this chronic form of leukemia has afforded me a front row to see spaces. The space between the last cycle of chemotherapy, the last blood transfusion, the last hospital, or doctor seen.

America is under stress. The world is. Its inhabitants are. But everytime I look around, I see the good rising up out of the mud, the lotus clean and vibrant, rising at its proper time. Good stress is hard to imagine, but we experience it all the time. If you have ever felt in control while doing something that challenged you, pushing yourself, working your edge and living your best experience of it, you felt good stress. Stress when purposefully used is one of the beautifully challenging things about living. It encourages you. It motivates you to do more, to rise up, or reach out, and be apart of your life. And, after the stress: the class, the conversation, the friction, the dis-ease, you reap more.  Good stress when met and embraced brings a good dose of good feeling hormones, happiness, and relaxation. You are more than your stress, and undoubtedly, knowing how to relieve unwanted stress is necessary. Still, can we observe that which feels unwanted, create a practice of stres

How interesting to know that what will help us is the very thing that we resist. We’ve all felt that, right? The food that we should eat sits waiting. The walk that would help us feel lighter after a long day abated by thoughts of all the other things we think we should do first. For me these days, the stillness I know I need has been pressed upon me. I can not say no. That is what healing will do. Or pain, they have the ability to bring you to a halt. But maybe we could repurpose surrender so that we do not have to be forced to stillness? It is a daily challenge for us, I believe, to surrender. We feel bombarded by all the problems, conversations, situations... all the work stuff and home life and forget what it looks like to let things go when they are over. It’s time we repurpose surrender. It is time to let go of the past and be in the present. Surrender again and reconnect with how good it feels to let things go. Repurpose surrender. Make it easy. Do so in small ways e