Yoga retreats with a Disability

If you notice I am trying to reclaim the word DISABILITY and rephrase it as something to be proud of and celebrate, not deny or hide. 

OWN YOUR STROKE!!

Something I was told and I thought was a powerful mantra I had to share!

As many of you know, I have been traveling bringing more awareness to the yoga community about the growing population of stroke survivors and our needs.

I have hesitated for years to do a full on yoga retreat because of my own insecurities about my body and limitations.

I stumbled on this amazing new style of yoga called Katonah on social media- a style very much based in physics and natural movement of the body. Using the body as an instrument or tool to achieve a sort of heightened awarness, focusing tremendously on the breath using beautiful cues and metaphors. It somehow felt familiar to me.

I was immediately intrigued.

Come to find out they were bringing this style of yoga down to Costa Rica for a week long retreat of yoga, nature and deep connection to self and like minded others. I knew I had to attend.

Everything aligned quite naturally and I ended up in Costa Rica after a short travel time and was transplanted right in the middle of the lush jungle. Me and my nervous contracted, spastic arm and dysregulated nervous system!

The same things of course came up.

What kind of shoes will give me the right support, will there be too much walking or too much noise, will I get dizzy, will my spasticity worsen in the heat, will the other girls accept me with my disability, will I fit in, how will I sleep without all my oils and teas.

Being a stroke survivor is something that never “ends”.

Now to say I was nervous would be an understatement. My nerves were present with me in everything I did. The faster I walk the more contracted my stroke arm became. The more I worried, the more tight my arm became. The more I relaxed and got out of my head the more it loosened.

As you can imagine my head was still reeling with all these questions, even after I mindfully packed and arrived to meet so many friendly faces.

What I found surprised me though.

My disability was hardly noticed. Questions were asked in kind, respectful ways and although the slew of gorgeous 20 something year old women for sure intimidated me, I did not feel less than in any way.

The teachers, big shout out to Kirby and Evan, were welcoming and super inclusive of my needs. These two humans truly were kind souls, committed to making each one of use seen and heard.

I fell in love with yoga all over again participating in the unique classes.

Completing the waterfall hike with a truly kind and generous soul by my side is a feat I will remember forever. Walking arm in arm, Kirby and I slowly made our way down the steep paths to a refreshing Swim.

As you can see my contacted arm relaxed quite a bit once we arrived at our destination to play.

I will remember these beautiful moments connecting to mother earth forever! Costa Rica is truly a Magical country!

As I continue to process my experiences, I think it should be said yoga is not always mindful of people with disabilities and often turn folks away, or usher folks out into adaptive “chair” classes or accessible organizations, in an effort to keep the “look” of the studio or the “look” of the class.

While I was left wondering what’s stopping yoga studios from being more inclusive?

Quite frankly, I think there is a lot of fear within the yoga community about injuries that just so happens to push curious stroke survivors out of the practice.

But fear is not practical or useful. Everyone and I mean everyone is battling their own demons in their own way. Fear keeps us separated thinking our struggle is somehow worse, while vulnerability unites us.

Not to mention many stroke survivors themselves are fearful of trying this practice that seems so intimidating at first.

Trust me I understand sometimes there is a very condescending attitude among many healing communities that push curious people out by talking to us like we are stupid or simply limiting our true potential because of this fear. Katonah yoga does not operate under this fear.

I had a stroke, Im not an idiot. My body has limitations but don’t go easy on me because you feel scared or sad for me!!!

This is a very poor reflection of the yoga community if you ask me.

This is something that has to change. Something I am changing.

After spending more time in Costa Rica exploring my own healing I came to the conclusion with even more passion and determination. I could create teacher workshops, Teacher Trainings to safely educate teachers about this population and at the same time bring awareness into existing yoga communities that this population does exist, we are not scary. We want to be challenged while being restored.

I can also be a bridge uniting more stroke survivors with fantastic teachers out there willing and ready to serve.

The stroke community deserves way more attention from the yoga community if you ask me!

At stroke yoga we are working to create lots of cool partnerships, inclusive stroke and brain injury friendly workshops, TT and specific disabled friendly retreats in the coming years, but in the mean time I will personally continue to share my yoga experiences and continue to make myself visible, hoping to open up some stroke survivors into being more curious about (W)holistic natural healing.

We’ve seen the research. We know yoga works.

What I witnessed in classes in Costa Rica was truly magical. A gathering of like minded spiritually focused men and women coming together to learn at many different levels of ability.

We all served a common purpose surrounded by concepts like curiosity and growth.

United by yoga itself.

We learned new ways to assist in poses, how to read the body and spent a lot of time practicing introspection, self awareness and compassionate listening.

The reality is not every stroke survivor needs to do chair yoga, but ever stroke survivor needs to be doing some form of yoga for sure! And to be forced into the separate adaptive chair classes can often do more damage to the healing journey than I think intended.

Why not have more mixed level class and mixed level retreats and workshops?

Broaden out to some in chairs, wheelchairs, some with canes, AFOs and some not.

If yoga means UNION, I have to ask where is the union in yoga studios? Where is inclusivity?

I traveled all the way to Central America to find the integration and I took it home with me to share with you all!!

Big thanks to Kirby and Evan for being willing and open to working with someone like myself, and all the beautiful souls that accepted me without hesitation. You created moments I will carry with me for the rest of my life.