Parent Support Group Speaker - Adrianne Angle

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Our July guest was yoga instructor Adrianne Angle. Adrianne shared her personal journey to health, as well as her experience doing yoga with her 5-year-old niece throughout her cancer treatment. Adrianne explained the importance of self-care for all of us, and especially for moms of cancer patients and survivors. As busy parents, we don’t always think about how much we ask our bodies to do each day. Yoga and mindfulness can bring us back into our bodies as we take the time to breath — really breathe, and focus just on inhaling and exhaling. Yoga practice calms the nervous system, releases tension, allows us to feel grounded and in control, and creates “space” to give ourselves what we need in any given moment. She then led parents through gentle restorative exercises to release stress and get in touch with our bodies.

Her other suggestions for self-care include:

  • Taking a moment to go outside into nature to breath and stretch.
  • Thinking about something we are grateful for, e.g. family, good health, friends, nature, animals, etc.
  • Doing a 1-2 minute visualization exercise:
  • Close your eyes (if comfortable) and choose something to focus on. Ie. your favorite flower, the moon, a landscape – meadow, mountain, forest, lake, etc.
  • Consider every detail and quality associated with that object or place that your mind can produce (sights, colors, sounds, smells, shapes, features, parts).
  • There are free meditation apps available, including Insight Timer and Headspace.
  • Learning EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), which involves tapping on acupressure points.

More information about this technique can be found here: www.tappingsolutionfoundation.org. This can be especially useful at times of high stress, and can work with kids too. Adrianne recommends the book Gorilla Thumps and Bear Hugs: https://www.amazon.com/Gorilla-Thumps-Bear-Hugs-Childrens/dp/1401952879

At the end of our yoga session, Adrianne closed with the following advice:

  • Be gentle with yourself. It is ok to just be where you are, and feel how you feel.
  • There is no need to be an experienced yogi to practice yoga. Listen to your body. Do what feels good to you, and don’t do what doesn’t. Practicing yoga can be as simple as resting in child’s pose and breathing.
  • There are many free yoga classes and videos online. One she recommends is a 20-minute bedtime yoga: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7SN-d4qXx0
  • It is possible to give yourself what you need at the moment, i.e. love, comfort, peace, acceptance, forgiveness, compassion, health.

She can be reached at [email protected].

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Adrianne Angle discovered the benefits of yoga many years ago while in pursuit of her own personal healing. When her niece was diagnosed with ALL at age 5, Adrianne practiced yoga and meditation with her, and gained a profound appreciation for the body and nervous system's innate ability to heal. Her collegiate studies in Kinesiology and current work with Restorative Muscle Therapy in combination with her experiences of recovery have led Adrianne to become a lifelong student of the mind-body connection. Having completed her 200-hour yoga teacher certification and Level 2 Reiki training, she now helps others on their journey to better health. She can be reached at [email protected].