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Asanas for Cancer Patients
Posted by Paul Freibott on April 5, 2006 - 4:54pm.
Treatment for cancer can be energy-draining, to say the least, and challenging in physical, spiritual, and emotional ways. While medical science continues to have breakthroughs, many doctors will tell you that recovery from any serious medical condition, including cancer, is intimately linked with the patient's ability to remain hopeful and believe that healing will occur.
In this light, GreatYoga.com “Life Goes Om” program seems quite appealing. This relatively new altruistic venture aims to help cancer patients maintain hope during the recovery process by practicing yoga. The way it works is simple: participating yoga studios agree to allow anyone currently undergoing cancer treatment to take classes for free. By practicing yoga, cancer patients can nurture a peaceful mind and cultivate the emotional and spiritual strength to see recovery through to its end.
As a commercial entity, GreatYoga.com enlists independent yoga studios in an affiliate program to help them boost their businesses and sell products. It created Life Goes Om as a way for these affiliates and other studios to participate communally in giving back to the wider community. Studios can sign up online to be listed in a directory of studios offering free admission to classes, which individuals undergoing cancer treatment can search.
Currently, the Life Goes Om website lists just three studios: PranaYoga and Ayurveda and Yoga for Wellness in Colorado (in the Denver area, near GreatYoga.com's office) and Yoga Dosha in Arizona. Eventually, GreatYoga.com hopes to enable a nationwide network of free-access yoga classes for cancer patients. With roughly 900 affiliate studios participating in the commercial aspects of GreatYoga.com, Life Goes Om has a lot of potential—and a lot of recruiting to do for the cause.
Photo: GreatYoga.com
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The alternative medicine is the way to cure.
by Humberto on March 13, 2006 - 6:06pm
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Not really...
by Leigh on March 14, 2006 - 11:15pm
Of the 5 people I know who have/had cancer, the three that are alive today went with conventional meds and the others are dead, so I think it's not the "way to cure" by itself.
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I'm neither an M.D.
by Paul_Freibott on March 15, 2006 - 9:08am
...nor an alternative practitioner. I wish I had a file cabinet brimming with inspirational case studies of traditional, alternative, and integrative treatments for cancer to share with you, but I don't. Like too many, I've known people who succumbed to some form of cancer at a young age; even now, someone dear to me is undergoing treatment (so far, so good).
People should weigh all their treatment options before deciding what to do; at least that's how I would go about it. I wouldn't rule anything out without a profound consideration of the potential outcome.
What I like about Life Goes Om, and why I chose to post about it, is that it doesn't make grand, unsupported claims to cure cancer. It offers the possibility of hope, and a way for at least some people to cope with a gut-wrenching bag of emotions. Could it affect the outcome of treatment? I'll leave it to scientists to figure that one out. In any case, I suspect no one will find it does any harm.
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Update from Life Goes Om founders
by Paul_Freibott on March 24, 2006 - 3:39pm
I received an email from the Life Goes Om founders with new info. They're slowly growing. I quote their email below:
"While our program began less than two months
ago we have already more than a dozen committed studios across the country and
receive almost daily requests from cancer patients... when we get a request
we immediately contact studios in that area."
And for studio owners:
"Studios can participate with no long term obligation (they must offer free yoga classes
but can sign out at any time as well) directly from the GreatYoga.com web site. So far every studio owner we have spoken with has given complete support!!!"
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