Yoga for Cancer Survivors at Sundance Resort
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. From now until December 31st, your Hugger Mugger purchases will benefit A Quality Life Community (QLC). Founded as a resource for cancer survivors and their families, QLC provides complementary support—including free yoga classes at six different Utah locations. The organization’s founder, Amy Conn, sent us the message below, sharing her experience as a cancer survivor and her inspiration to found this wonderful organization:
by Amy Conn
A Quality Life Community celebrates our cancer survivors every day, but in October we get the opportunity to not only celebrate our survivors but specifically our Breast Cancer THRIVERS and SURVIVORS.
As a breast cancer survivor, I remember turning in to shine out. I remember relying on friends and family to help me with my young children. I remember devoting my energy to my yoga community to help, not only heal the parts of my body challenged through surgical, chemo and radiation therapies, but to support the parts of my body “doing their job.” In other words, I introspectively recall the distinction between specific areas of my body functioning at sub par levels with those parts the parts of my body still operating at full force.
I wanted to honor my muscles, my lungs, my heart and my mind. Although chemo temporarily influenced each part of my body (a racing heart rate, a fatigued muscle and a forgetful mind) I know, through yoga, it was my mind-body practice that honored these cancer-free organs and eventually returned me back to my full-functioning self.
I returned as a new body, however. I wasn’t the same as before. I still suffered from “chemo brain” and felt the frustration my children experienced when I continued to forget things or occasionally placed the cereal box in the refrigerator and the milk in the cupboard. But my new body continued with my yoga practice. I earnestly pursued new synapses between mind and body, forever hopeful and confident that I would be able to relay this self-introspection and discovery to a new community of people: a Cancer Thriver/Survivor community. Currently, this is where I (and we) are today.
A Quality Life Community began as a non-profit in November 2011. Although teaching class sessions since 2006, it was my board of directors who encouraged me to become a non-profit organization in order to meet a larger population. We are proud to announce that A Quality Life Community is located in six locations (yoga studios, hospitals and retreat homes) over a 40-mile radius alongside the Wasatch Front. I have now become a board member myself and have turned over director responsibilities to William Held. Together, we support five teachers who have, all but one, been with us since our inception!
A Quality Life Community offers classes to individuals and family members FREE of charge. To contact us or to inquire about classes, please refer to their website: www.aqualitylife.org
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