Tag: Yoga

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On My Way to Atlanta, I Found Essaouira

My adventure in Essaouira and what it means to me.

It’s a miracle. One of those that happen in life—if you’re paying attention.

Essaouira. Morocco.

For years, my cousin Céline, who has spent a week there every year for the past 20 years, kept inviting me to join her in this fortified town by the Atlantic. But, well… Planning a trip to North Africa wasn’t exactly easy while I was living in Atlanta.

The right time finally came in January 2025. My first time on a plane since I left Atlanta in June 2022 for a vacation in France—before my life was turned upside down after receiving my diagnosis. My first time setting foot on another continent again. And then, there was this little sign, hinting at how significant this trip would be: Essaouira sits almost on the same latitude as the state of Georgia. On the other side of the ocean: Atlanta.

A strong, special energy

From the very beginning, I could feel a strong, special energy. I wasn’t the only one. Surfers from all over Europe gather on Essaouira’s beach, lifting their kites to glide and soar over the waves.

Just three hundred meters away, inside the medina, it’s a completely different world. I’m overwhelmed by the colors, the scents, the aromas drifting from the spice stalls, dried fruit vendors, the bustling produce market, the fish souk, and so much more.

Here, yoga isn’t an option. Instead, my yoga is walking two or three hours a day along the beach, feet in the water, face to the wind, soaking up the sun. My head filled with sea spray.

Berbers, Arabs, Africans, Europeans…

Back in the medina, Céline—my guide—shares her deep knowledge and touching respect for this city and its people. The artisans of an older generation—since younger ones aren’t interested in trades that don’t pay—work in rhythm at their looms, carve and plane wood, bend iron to their will.

With my cousin Céline. So giving. She generously shared so many things she knows about Essaouira.

Centuries ago, different ethnicities converged within Essaouira’s walls—Berbers, Arabs, Africans, Europeans—along with a mix of faiths: Muslims, Christians, and Jews. You can feel it. I can feel it. Just like the rich melting pot of the United States. Tourists stop here for a week, sometimes a few months, especially those working remotely.

Essaouira. In a way, I’m halfway between Paris and Atlanta. A necessary stop. How does the saying go again? It’s not about the destination. It’s about the journey.

A view from a rooftop above the fish market.

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Like Para Athletes, Strengthen Your Resilience

The Paralympics have shown that people with disabilities can be athletes. Their secret? They’ve managed to develop resilience. You, too, can nurture your resilience. And you know what? Yoga therapy can help you to just do that.

Paris 2024 has come to a close.

I was personally moved to tears while attending the men’s wheelchair basketball game between the USA and Spain at the Paris Bercy Arena, as well as a morning of para swimming at the Paris La Défense Arena in recent days. And it’s no surprise… I hold a Disability Card myself, so this is my world.

You have to see these high-level athletes, some with severe physical impairments, fully embracing who they are. They are ready to give it their all, with such strength and determination. It was so emotional to watch the Brazilian athlete Gabriel dos Santos Araujo swim—he won countless medals during these Games. At 22 years old, born without arms, and standing at 1.21 meters tall, he moves like a dolphin. He learned to swim instinctively. “There aren’t many things I can do with my body, so I fight with the tools I have, and I work on them to become stronger.”

Resilience is a natural process of survival

Through these Paralympic Games, I saw firsthand how resilience is a true strength. It doesn’t solve the health issue or the disability you may have, but it helps find a new form and rise from the ashes. Resilience is a natural process of survival.

When you think about it, we’ve all had—or currently have—a disability of some sort, even if only temporary. We’re all struggling with some sort of disease. Not to mention life’s accidents, such as breakups, loss of status, a job, etc.

Whatever your reality may be, I invite you to rise once again, to nurture your resilience. Therapeutic yoga is a practice that helps develop resilience—physically, emotionally, and mentally. So join us for our next workshops in Paris 15th, to give form to this extraordinary life energy.

Because until your last breath, and at every stage of your life, you are here to love, reinvent yourself, create, and contribute to the world.

Atelier du 14 sept. 2024
Atelier du 13 oct. 2024
Atelier du 27 oct. 2024
Atelier du 10 nov. 2024
Atelier du 24 nov. 2024
Atelier du 8 déc. 2024

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Slowing Down: “Doing Nothing Is Still Doing Something”

When you allow yourself to pause, to live more slowly—during a vacation for example—, you’re doing something essential for your physical and mental health. Good news—yoga therapy can also help.

As the summer season unfolds, I wish you a chance to SLOW DOWN, and if possible, to do so in nature’s embrace. It’s vital for healing, for finding ourselves again, for reconnecting, for feeling deeply, and for being fully present in this life we’re given to experience—with all its joys and challenges. Because, let’s face it, we all go through tough times, no matter our age, gender, skin color, social status, or mental and physical health.

But, slowing down isn’t always easy, is it? Caught up in the whirlwind of daily obligations, you might often feel like you’re living on autopilot, without the time to truly connect with yourself.

Ideas, clarity and emotions can emerge

However, when you give yourself permission to live more slowly—like during a vacation—when you stroll through nature, pausing whenever you feel like it, you allow yourself to connect with your feelings, your deepest needs, and even your creativity. Ideas, clarity, and emotions can emerge.

As my friend, reflexologist Rodrigue Vilmen, says, “Doing nothing is still doing something.”

Rite of passage

A few weeks ago, I went “glamping” (mix of “glamorous” and “camping”) in the French Alps. During this trip, I was surrounded by breathtaking landscapes. I lounged around, took short walks, and read under tall conifers. This “doing nothing” unexpectedly turned into a kind of inner journey, where I felt, at times, sadness from unresolved past experiences. Slowing down also means giving yourself the time to feel what’s been buried and unexpressed, allowing it to be released from its emotional hold. Fully experiencing that sadness was healing because it allowed me to accept it, not fear it, and start to move past it.

Renewal in the French Alps!

Starting in September, you can reconnect with this idea of “doing nothing,” this letting go, by joining my therapeutic yoga workshops. Together, we’ll dive into the art of slowing down. We’ll feel, and continue to untangle the knots, tensions, and restrictions that are deeply stored in the body’s tissues. We’ll breathe and learn to live with more freedom and joy.

1 st Sept. 2024 workshop
14 Sept.2024 workshop
13 Oct. 2024 workshop
27 Oct. 2024 workshop
10 Nov. 2024 workshop
24 Nov. 2024 workshop
8 Dec. 2024 workshop

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Yoga Therapy for Dummies

Almost unknown, yoga therapy can be a powerful ally on the path to well-being. Here’s everything you wanted to know about the practice but never dared to ask.

What Is Yoga Therapy?

Let’s talk about yoga first. Many people think of yoga as a physical activity made up of stretching and movement. But that’s not the whole picture. Yogis have known for millennia that the body and mind are one. They developed a practice—yoga—that touches the person as a whole, on a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual level. So, by definition, all yoga can be therapeutic. Then, what makes yoga therapy different from yoga?

First, the yoga therapist establishes a therapeutic relationship with you. She/he completely adapts the tools of yoga—meditation, yogic breathing, postures, etc.—to you, helping to activate your body and mind’s natural abilities to optimize your well-being. In yoga therapy, there’s no notion of doing a pose “correctly” or “incorrectly.” The therapist also offers psycho-emotional support through verbal communication and active listening, helping you feel better. In short, yoga therapy is a personalized journey, with the help of a yoga therapist, toward improved well-being.

One-on-one sessions are the ideal setting for a yoga theapy practice, although you can also practice in small groups.

Who Is Yoga Therapy For?

I often hear people say, “I can’t do yoga, I’m too stiff,” or “too big.” But yoga therapy is for everyone, regardless of age or physical condition, including those with disabilities.

What Is Yoga Therapy Used For?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the world is facing an unprecedented mental health crisis. In this context, yoga therapy can be a valuable ally, especially for anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and insomnia. Increasingly, scientific studies show that yoga therapy can also help alleviate certain conditions, particularly chronic pain (such as lower back pain and arthritis) and fibromyalgia. It is also beneficial for people recovering from strokes, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease. Likewise, it complements conventional medical treatments for cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

That said, you don’t have to be ill to benefit from yoga therapy. It can simply be a powerful tool to help you live better. And that, in itself, is already a lot.

The Origins of Yoga Therapy

To trace the origins of this new complementary therapy, we need to go to the West Coast of the United States and focus on one person: Larry Payne. A Californian, athletic, and working in advertising in Los Angeles, Payne was making a lot of money and seemingly living the good life. But in 1978, at the age of 35, stress took its toll. His blood pressure skyrocketed, and he suffered from chronic back pain. Physical therapy, medication—nothing worked. Until one day, a friend took him to a yoga class. It was a revelation. For the first time in two years, his back pain disappeared. Payne felt reborn. He continued practicing yoga and eventually left his advertising career to dedicate himself fully to the practice.

After spending time in India, he returned to Los Angeles and worked tirelessly to promote yoga as a complementary practice. He taught yoga, wrote books, produced videos, appeared on radio and television, and in 1989, he co-founded the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT).

The association truly found its footing in the early 2000s. Its mission was to be the voice of yoga therapy for the general public and within complementary and integrative medicine institutions. The IAYT began relying on science, compiling an increasing number of studies on yoga therapy and chronic illnesses. A major milestone was reached in 2004 when, for the first time, conventional healthcare professionals joined its advisory board. In 2007, the first yoga therapy symposium was held in Los Angeles. The association published training standards for yoga therapists in 2012.

Today, IAYT has 5,600 members across 50 countries and 150 accredited training schools. We are only at the beginning of what yoga therapy can bring to public health.

A therapeutic yoga session is either one-to-one or in a small group.

Sources :
– International Association of Yoga Therapists
– Yoga Therapy Health
– The Science of Yoga: the Risks and the Rewards, by William J. Broad (2012)

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Do Yoga. You’ll Access Your Intuition!

Yoga can clear the way to our intuition and creativity. All thanks to the practice’s breathing techniques.

Is there really a link between yoga and our intuition? Believe it or not—yes, there is.

The source of intuition is inside all of us. The problem is the mind and the thoughts that stop us from tapping into our inner knowing. The good news is that yoga can help thanks to breathing techniques or pranayamas which can quiet that noise.

How it works

Doing pranayama exercises means consciously controlling your breath. These breathing techniques affect the parasympathetic system to create a relaxing effect. Their benefits are numerous and impact vital functions like digestion, blood circulation, elimination, etc. But beyond balancing the body, breathing offers much more, and affects the mind and mood as I explained in my previous post, “Yoga Therapy Saved My Life.”


That’s already great news but there’s more. Pranayamas, when combined with slow movements and concentration, also influence intuition. This mix of breathing, movement, and concentration helps you become present with yourself, relax deeply and balance your nervous system–all essential to connect with your intuition. This process of “letting go” helps access your subconscious and therefore your inner voice.

To suddenly see clearly

Many people say they suddenly see clearly how to move forward in a tricky life situation during a yoga session. I’ve personally lost count of how many times yoga has given me clarity. Yesterday, for example, I suddenly became aware during my own yoga practice, of which approach and poses to use in an upcoming yoga therapy private so that the session can perfectly answer my client’s needs.

Sources: The Science of Yoga by William J. Broad, Radiance: Create an Amazing Life After Cancer (Kripalu Center), De l’inspir à l’inspiration (magazine Inexploré N. 62, printemps 2024).

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The Pause

My arm lymphedema recently got infected. It’s been a great reminder that I need to listen to myself and my body. At all times.

April 22nd started like any other day, doing yoga.

I had taught a yoga therapy workshop the day before and was feeling super energized. I performed the bridge pose and twisted my shoulders in a way that compromised my circulation. For someone with breast cancer-related lymphedema in my arm, this was a misstep. Off-guard moment. I knew I wasn’t supposed to twist my shoulder that way. The result? My lymphedema got infected.

Since then, I’ve put my foot on the brake. I revisited my schedule—once again—to have more breathing room (I’ve always overdone).

These days, I need nature. I walk. I lay down in the meadow. I read. I create space for myself. Trees, birds and the sky are there for me. To help me repair myself. Yesterday, I practiced yoga for the first time in three weeks, with so much more compassion.

Remember–honor your own wellness journey. In every possible way. That too is yoga therapy.

A nature park, close to home, five miles South of Paris, has been
my favorite place to rest.

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Yoga Therapy Saved My Life

I’m a multiple cancer survivor. Conventional oncology takes care of my body and cells. Yet, it needs a push. So, I’ve practiced yoga therapy as a complement. To live fully, not just survive.

Yoga was a revelation. I started practicing soon after I was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer for the first time twenty years ago. Something changed deep inside me during my first class: I felt connected to my body. A life-long fatigue arose. I had no clue I was so exhausted. In just one class, yoga had helped me become aware how much I’d pushed through, answering everyone else’s needs. Yoga made me feel instead of think.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for the conventional oncology care I’ve been lucky to receive since 2004. It can do miracles thanks to scientific research. Yet, oncology addresses exclusively the physical body while sadly ignoring other aspects of the human experience, whether emotional, mental and spiritual.

That’s why yoga therapy’s been a savior for me. To the extent I’ve become a yoga therapist.

I was fractured

I also vividly remember the summer of 2022 when I received the diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer while vacationing in Paris. Living in Atlanta wasn’t an option anymore. In a week, I decided to let go of the life I’d built in the U.S. for years and call Paris home again. I started my conventional cancer treatment. Everything was coming into place. Except, I felt fractured. How long did I have left? Where did I belong? In Paris, my birthplace? Or in Atlanta where I’d found my true self? Could I be a legitimate yoga therapist while living with this serious disease? I could physically feel the fear and, even more so, confusion and uprooting.

The urgency was therefore to experience groundedness again. The answer? Yoga as always. Day after day, I practiced outdoors, in a Paris suburbia nature park, so I could literally feel and smell this land which was both familiar and new to me then. At the end of each practice, I laid down on the grass (corpse pose), taking in the sun and earth’s energy. Day after day, I felt more grounded, stronger, more stable.

The body and the mind are inextricably bound together

The point of my yoga routine was also to sustain my conventional oncology treatment. This kind of combination is called integrative oncology—when conventional medicine is mixed with complementary therapies. So far, it’s worked.

Seven months after the beginning of my treatment, a PET-scan showed the metastasis in the liver and the right pectoral muscle had disappeared. The following PET-scan’s results, eight months later, were also astonishing. The remaining metastasis, on bones, had reduced by 36%.

So, how does a practice like therapeutic yoga work? What does science say about this ancient meditative mind body practice?

Parc Interdépartemental de Choisy Paris Val-de-Marne (5 miles South of Paris),
the green paradise where I practiced therapeutic yoga in the summer and fall of 2022.

First, yogis have been saying for thousands of years the body and mind are inextricably bound together. Second, breath is the key to the interweaving of body and mind. It’s a core element of yoga practice and explains its effectiveness.

Yoga practice is made up of both slow and fast breathing exercises in coordination with the movements of your limbs. When you breathe in a fast way, body stores of carbon dioxide lower without significantly increasing oxygen stores. The phenomenon can result in dizziness, headaches, light-headedness among others. That’s why it must be done right. It also impacts mood. A fast-breathing exercise such as Breath of Fire (Bhastrika) create a feeling of exhilaration.

Yoga breathing affects a person’s mood

On the other hand, when you breathe slowly the repercussions for mood are radically different. The slow-breathing exercise Ujjayi for example, makes a person breathe about ten times slower than a resting adult. This time, slow breathing raises carbon dioxide levels in the bloodstream. The phenomenon brings a person to experience a deep relaxation, calm alertness, and raw awareness. In short, yoga breathing affects a person’s mood. Fast breathing styles tend to excite and slow ones to calm.

Enjoying an increased sense of well-being. Becoming absorbed in the moment. Experiencing life through how I feel and not only through how I think. In conjunction with conventional oncology care, these things can make a difference to help save a life.


Source: The Science of Yoga (2012) by William J. Broad.
Yoga therapy is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your health care provider(s). I encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with your health care provider.

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Our Body has All the Answers. We Need to Listen to It.

Our life experience expresses itself in our body. That’s why I invite yoga therapy clients to dive in the depth of their flesh to listen to the body’s messages. Then, I encourage them to speak their truth to truly meet another and, ultimately, to free themselves from emotional wounds.

It’s during the course of two very serious diseases that I started doing work on the body and how it relates to emotions. I have learned a lot along the way. I have learned any trauma, any information that is too painful to process consciously, any suppressed emotion finds its way in the body in the form of tension and, sometimes, disease. I have learned our psyche strives to forget these painful experiences and feelings. We take refuge behind our masks and protections and, often, we set our body aside.

However, if we want to go deeper in our wellness journey, if we want to live a life that is in harmony with who we truly are, we need to feel, become aware and accept those suppressed emotions so that we re-integrate them into our life’s journey.

To do that, we need our body’s help simply because our psyche and body are intimately connected. They are like the hand and the glove. If the hand moves, the glove moves too. In other words, our life experience always finds a way to express itself in our physical body.

So how can we heal emotional wounds with the body’s help?

The body speaks to us but, most of the time, we don’t pay attention to those signs, we don’t feel anything. That’s why any healing process starts with allowing ourselves to pause–so we can go inwards and listen. Aline Frati, my yoga teacher, used to say, “There is no healing without taking a pause.”

“What do you feel?” is the fundamental question

Because of this, my yoga therapy method includes a style of gentle yoga that brings the person to focus on a slow, deep yogic breathing while going in and out of simple poses at a slow pace.

“What do you feel?” is the fundamental question that needs to be asked. The goal is to bring us to feel our body and listen to what it says, to be on the lookout of what the body is expressing about ourselves, about our emotional and physical wounds. The point is to become the explorer and the observer of what triggers our emotional and physical pain.

Once we have listened to what the body says, then we can move on to the other aspect of the healing journey: to put our feelings, our life experience into words. We need to share our wounds and our dreams with others who can listen. To heal, we need to truly meet another. This is the reason why all my classes start and end with a healing circle. I ask participants to participate regularly to the classes. That’s because each person heals thanks to the yoga practice, the work I do as a facilitator and also thanks to the relationship they build with the others.

This healing journey is a hard road. It requires courage and patience. However, the effort is a small price to pay for more wellness and joy in our lives.

Photo: Femme Accroupie (Crouching Woman), 1880-1882, Auguste Rodin. From the”Picasso-Rodin” exhibit, Musée Picasso, Paris, June 2021.

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Rebirth

Rebirth is the story of my life, the thread that goes through my existence.

I was born in the first days of spring, on March 28. I imagine that’s why the idea of rebirthing, whatever the ordeals I’ve come across, is so present in my life.

That constant cycle of rebirth is the message I carry, and it’s because of that message that I’ve become a yoga therapist—to help my clients rebirth of themselves.

To rebirth means to die, first.

I believe that you are on a journey to let something die inside of you. For one goal only–so that you can rebirth of yourself. With more self-esteem. More self-confidence. More aliveness. More joy. More love really. No matter what your circumstances are.

What are you dying to? And how are you rebirthing?

Happy spring.

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The Wounded Healer

Doctors, therapists… we’re all “wounded healers” since Greek mythology. I personally relate to those words as I feel both intimately as a wounded person and a healer.

My friend Randy Spiers, an astrologer, was the first to tell me about the idea of the “wounded healer”.

The psychologist Carl C. Jung, who looked into archetypes, came up with the concept of the “wounded healer” to describe a phenomenon that may take place between a physician and his patient, a healer and his client. Jung went back to Greek mythology to find its origin.

Chiron was a god, a centaur, a half-man horse. He was knowledgeable, peaceful and gentle. He was also a revered teacher, known for his skill in medicine. The myth says Chiron was wounded accidentally by Heracles’s poisoned arrow. Chiron didn’t die. Instead, he suffered excruciating pain for the rest of his life. He continued to heal the sickly and the injured until he was given the opportunity to become mortal, and died. It was because of Chiron’s wound that he became known as a legendary healer.

As a cancer survivor and a yoga therapist, I am a wounded healer too.

Five years ago, I started exploring my wound. I was coming out of my second breast cancer. I needed to understand the disease. What was it saying to me? In the process I searched my childhood years. My mother was in a depression that doctors thought they could “cure” with Valium. My father was unavailable, working hard pulling his family out of financial distress. Meanwhile, I was left unseen and unheard.

An Irrepressible Need To Be Seen

That left a powerful footprint in me. Just like any other human being, I had an irrepressible need to be seen, to be heard. I realized that, in order to be seen, I had developed a strategy–I gave abundantly. I gave to classmates, family, life partners, friends, clients, whomever. I gave to the point of exhaustion, of illness.

That’s how two breast cancers broke into my life, ten years apart. The first one immerged after I put an end to an abusive relationship of ten years.

Then, I crossed the ocean to start anew.

Because I believed—and still do—in a life together, I got married. There again, I was unseen. I had the immense courage to leave the relationship.

I gave up an established career as a corporate journalist to create my own yoga therapy practice. I poured everything that I had learned from my own healing journey into my practice. For once, I felt seen.

The way has been marked with other losses.

Since my first cancer, it’s been a gigantic healing journey. Every step of this voyage has had, and still has, one purpose—to be seen and heard. It’s my commitment, it’s my journey as a human and a healer.

Sources:
– The Wounded Healer as Cultural Archetype (Purdue University)
– The Wounded Healer: A Jugian Perspective (jungatlanta.com)