Consistent yoga practitioners understand that yoga transcends physical postures. The practice translates into every day, into every hurdle we face, and into all of the joy we experience. A strong relationship with yoga can impact, influence, and pervade everything. At the end of the day, our yoga practice can be the most loyal, reliable friend we have when faced with the most unexpected, heartbreaking obstacles.
For Los Angeles-based yoga instructor Elizabeth Sosson-Rahi, her battle with cancer became an opportunity for her to draw courage from the lessons she had experienced on her yoga mat.
I sat down to talk about what it means to truly practice (as opposed to do) yoga, how to conquer obstacle-based fear, and the importance of tuning into the ways our bodies speak to us.
► THE BODY DOESN’T LIE.
Liz (paraphrased): People kept telling me thyroid cancer was “the good kind.” The good kind of cancer!? There’s no such thing. I was under constant alert. I went from never seeing a doctor to having to set appointments all the time. I was having joint pain, exhaustion on a cellular level that I can’t even describe, and a wide array of other bizarre side effects.
This discomfort was the turning point for me in this whole process. I had to really sit back and look at why this happened. It didn’t just happen to me. I had to bare witness into what role I played in it, because the body doesn’t lie.
Illness can be a manifestation of emotional turmoil, and it usually resides wherever you need to express yourself or let something go. I know that fifty percent of the reason I became ill was the emotional blockage I had created for myself.
There was no coincidence that the tumor was in my throat. It manifested there because I lived in my head, never from my heart. As a result, the bridge between the two, my throat, started to suffer. I never said no in life – I was always appeasing. I was always making everyone else happy and never speaking my truth. I was not allowing my authentic self to show through.
One of the guiding principals of yoga is to radiate from your core. If you’re not grounded, then everything above that foundation falls out of place. You lose the movement from your center, where you should be radiating from. I took the cancer as a sign that I needed to make changes to my foundation – I sure couldn’t continue down the path I was on.
► MOVE WITH AWARENESS, NOT WITH MOMENTUM.
Liz: My ability to get through each piece of bad medical news came from channeling my yoga practice. I had to be entirely present and move through my battle one step at a time, one breath at a time.
We don’t reap the benefits of a yoga practice when we move out of habit. I teach my students from my experience: we receive from yoga when we transition through it with awareness and consciousness, not with momentum. When you move with this level of intention in life, you realize that no posture (in yoga) and no struggle (in life) can defeat you. Life can be found in every breath. You can experience rebirth in each class and in each new day.
► WE HAVE TO EXPERIENCE DISCOMFORT IN ORDER TO FULLY EXPERIENCE JOY.
Liz: Even though I know to have compassion for myself during my cancer treatment, I was so upset with my practice. I was tired and weak, and I couldn’t do things I could do before my illness. As a person who had always prided myself on being healthy and having command over my body, I’d never been so vulnerable before.
Through the pain, I had to focus on the fact that I could still get on the mat and just breathe. I had to treat my practice for what it really was, meditation in motion.
For me, it was taking my ego out of the equation that allowed me to truly practice the yoga. Breath by breath, day by day. Finally, I had the revelation that it’s ok to need help, no matter who you are. It’s ok to be vulnerable.
Parallel to our yoga practice, we can fall down hard but still get up with a sense of humor in life. We can move with grace. There is struggle behind anything worthwhile. If things come too easily, you can’t appreciate how you feel when you’ve made it through.
► THE PHYSICAL BODY SHOULD NOT SHOULDER THE WEIGHT OF OUR MENTAL STRESS AND EMOTIONAL PAIN.
Liz: In order to welcome change and make a difference, I truly let the limbs of yoga (the yamas, niyamas, and pranayama) guide my life. Because of the newfound vulnerability I was experiencing, I had to tap into the only spirituality that had ever resonated with me. I had to simply trust the process and dance, plunge in and move with – not against – the challenges.
Yoga aided me in this (continual) process of evoking the change from within. There’s no finishing pose. It’s about finding your own frequency of how to handle life’s transitions. It’s about filling the spaces in between with awareness, one breath at a time.
► DARKNESS MAKES SPACE FOR THE LIGHT TO SHINE IN.
Liz: What I talk about in class these days is very much related to what I’ve been through in the past year. I don’t have a book with all the answers, but I try to convey to students (particularly those struggling) that our ability to overcome challenges in life has everything to do with practicing awareness in transition, in how you move in and out of poses, how you react to the pauses in practice.
Sometimes the physical and emotional aspects of yoga and life can feel dark, but that momentary darkness makes space for the light to flood in.
About Liz Sosson-Rahi: Liz is a mother, eternal student of yoga, teacher, athlete, pupil of life, seeker of wisdom, cancer warrior, connoisseur of words, memory maker, lover of laughter and an unwavering believer in the transformative powers that the practice of yoga can bring to our bodies, our minds and our spirit. She believes that yoga is a tool for mindful living, not merely a selfish endeavor. Liz teaches Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9:00 am at YogaWorks in Pacific Palisades, always reminding her students to lead with their heart and approach
their practice with a sense of humor.
©Emily Hudson, WorldLifestyle
For Los Angeles-based yoga instructor Elizabeth Sosson-Rahi, her battle with cancer became an opportunity for her to draw courage from the lessons she had experienced on her yoga mat.
I sat down to talk about what it means to truly practice (as opposed to do) yoga, how to conquer obstacle-based fear, and the importance of tuning into the ways our bodies speak to us.
► THE BODY DOESN’T LIE.
Liz (paraphrased): People kept telling me thyroid cancer was “the good kind.” The good kind of cancer!? There’s no such thing. I was under constant alert. I went from never seeing a doctor to having to set appointments all the time. I was having joint pain, exhaustion on a cellular level that I can’t even describe, and a wide array of other bizarre side effects.
This discomfort was the turning point for me in this whole process. I had to really sit back and look at why this happened. It didn’t just happen to me. I had to bare witness into what role I played in it, because the body doesn’t lie.
Illness can be a manifestation of emotional turmoil, and it usually resides wherever you need to express yourself or let something go. I know that fifty percent of the reason I became ill was the emotional blockage I had created for myself.
There was no coincidence that the tumor was in my throat. It manifested there because I lived in my head, never from my heart. As a result, the bridge between the two, my throat, started to suffer. I never said no in life – I was always appeasing. I was always making everyone else happy and never speaking my truth. I was not allowing my authentic self to show through.
One of the guiding principals of yoga is to radiate from your core. If you’re not grounded, then everything above that foundation falls out of place. You lose the movement from your center, where you should be radiating from. I took the cancer as a sign that I needed to make changes to my foundation – I sure couldn’t continue down the path I was on.
► MOVE WITH AWARENESS, NOT WITH MOMENTUM.
Liz: My ability to get through each piece of bad medical news came from channeling my yoga practice. I had to be entirely present and move through my battle one step at a time, one breath at a time.
We don’t reap the benefits of a yoga practice when we move out of habit. I teach my students from my experience: we receive from yoga when we transition through it with awareness and consciousness, not with momentum. When you move with this level of intention in life, you realize that no posture (in yoga) and no struggle (in life) can defeat you. Life can be found in every breath. You can experience rebirth in each class and in each new day.
► WE HAVE TO EXPERIENCE DISCOMFORT IN ORDER TO FULLY EXPERIENCE JOY.
Liz: Even though I know to have compassion for myself during my cancer treatment, I was so upset with my practice. I was tired and weak, and I couldn’t do things I could do before my illness. As a person who had always prided myself on being healthy and having command over my body, I’d never been so vulnerable before.
Through the pain, I had to focus on the fact that I could still get on the mat and just breathe. I had to treat my practice for what it really was, meditation in motion.
For me, it was taking my ego out of the equation that allowed me to truly practice the yoga. Breath by breath, day by day. Finally, I had the revelation that it’s ok to need help, no matter who you are. It’s ok to be vulnerable.
Parallel to our yoga practice, we can fall down hard but still get up with a sense of humor in life. We can move with grace. There is struggle behind anything worthwhile. If things come too easily, you can’t appreciate how you feel when you’ve made it through.
► THE PHYSICAL BODY SHOULD NOT SHOULDER THE WEIGHT OF OUR MENTAL STRESS AND EMOTIONAL PAIN.
Liz: In order to welcome change and make a difference, I truly let the limbs of yoga (the yamas, niyamas, and pranayama) guide my life. Because of the newfound vulnerability I was experiencing, I had to tap into the only spirituality that had ever resonated with me. I had to simply trust the process and dance, plunge in and move with – not against – the challenges.
Yoga aided me in this (continual) process of evoking the change from within. There’s no finishing pose. It’s about finding your own frequency of how to handle life’s transitions. It’s about filling the spaces in between with awareness, one breath at a time.
► DARKNESS MAKES SPACE FOR THE LIGHT TO SHINE IN.
Liz: What I talk about in class these days is very much related to what I’ve been through in the past year. I don’t have a book with all the answers, but I try to convey to students (particularly those struggling) that our ability to overcome challenges in life has everything to do with practicing awareness in transition, in how you move in and out of poses, how you react to the pauses in practice.
Sometimes the physical and emotional aspects of yoga and life can feel dark, but that momentary darkness makes space for the light to flood in.
About Liz Sosson-Rahi: Liz is a mother, eternal student of yoga, teacher, athlete, pupil of life, seeker of wisdom, cancer warrior, connoisseur of words, memory maker, lover of laughter and an unwavering believer in the transformative powers that the practice of yoga can bring to our bodies, our minds and our spirit. She believes that yoga is a tool for mindful living, not merely a selfish endeavor. Liz teaches Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9:00 am at YogaWorks in Pacific Palisades, always reminding her students to lead with their heart and approach
their practice with a sense of humor.
©Emily Hudson, WorldLifestyle