My mother said she will never do yoga

My mother was panting, unable to sleep, suffering through cancer treatment. In that moment of helplessness, we turned to the breath. What began as a simple relief became a transformation.

ModernDayKarmaYogi

Before

My mother said she would never do yoga. She had no interest in it, no faith in it. She was that kind of person.

Struggle

She was diagnosed with a deadly cancer variant. I still remember the doctor's face when he mentioned it. He was worried. We started the chemo treatment, and my mother was in a state where she couldn't breathe properly. She was panting, immensely suffering, unable to sleep. I was just watching this helplessly. I wasn't a yoga teacher at that time. I was thinking, what can I do? She was not in a position to do any physical practice.

Turning point

Then I just asked her to focus on her breath. Just breathe slowly. She listened. After a few minutes, her gasping for breath went away. Her suffering reduced significantly. And slowly, she slept for half an hour. When she woke up, she did it again on her own. Nobody told her to. Suddenly she realised this simple act of just watching her breath had a profound impact.

What helped

After that, I didn't have to tell her to do anything. She started doing breath awareness automatically. After some time, she started chanting Devi Stuti. Then slowly, she started doing yogic practices. The progression was hers, not mine. Breath awareness, chanting, practice. What was actually happening: the breath and the thought process are connected. When the breath slows, the mind slows. And our mind tends to exaggerate things, so suffering multiplies. Watching the breath stopped the multiplication.

Outcome

Today she practices Shambhavi (taught as part of Inner Engineering) and Upa Yoga every single day, 40 minutes to one hour every morning. The woman who said she would never do yoga now does it more consistently than most people I teach. Once I thought I would chant Devi Stuti for my mother. I was about to start when this thought hit me: there are 2 crore cancer patients in the world. Who will chant for them? I started chanting 3 cycles of Devi Stuti for everyone. That thought stayed with me. It is one of the reasons I am a yoga teacher today.