"Following a leukemia diagnosis in 2018, yoga helped me choose to fight to live, to endure. To choose faith."🙏
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"I found yoga & meditation in 2014 & was an avid student. I fell in love with it all. But in 2018, I experienced the most challenging year of my life
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For a month I was experiencing unaccustomed physical conditions; constant headaches, bruising, racing heartbeat, shortness of breath, thinning hair, & at one point, heavy bleeding. I passed it off as stress
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I was walking the 4 minute walk from my car to my apartment one night, & it felt like I had just run a marathon. I took myself to the emergency room. 18 hours later after platelet & blood transfusions throughout the night, I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia
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My world came to a screeching halt. The emotional devastation I felt inside couldn't be put into words, it flooded out of me in sobs. I began chemotherapy within 24 hours, endured bone marrow biopsies, countless procedures & transfusions, hair loss, pain, sleepless nights, dramatic weight loss, skin changes, side effects from medications, steroids, the list is extensive. The physical things we connect our identities to were stripped
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The groundwork of yoga helped me be still during moments of the most pain I had ever experienced, emotionally & physically. It revealed to me the power of yoga beyond physical practice. I began to understand the true meaning of turning inward
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Yoga became a spiritual practice that guided me to understand how love, prayer & faith can heal the body in ways beyond medicine. I was faced with the choice to be vulnerable & ask, “what is this teaching me?” .
I am still learning how to appreciate life each passing day. I am learning the true power of stillness & silence
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I was considered “high-risk,” & now I humbly report, since December 21, 2018, I am cancer free. Cured. Healed. Yoga, family, love & a willingness to surrender brought me to this space. I am thankful every day. I committed to choosing life & I continue to practice daily 🙏
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Pic from a shoot for charity yoga calender contact photographer @rasphotocontact for details 📸