My YogaWill

Haven’t been spending much time on social media these days.
Writing my program and deepening my personal practice has taken priority.

Coming off an incredible Iyengar yoga intensive weekend I am more motivated to share Iyengar yoga with the stroke community than ever!!

Finding new ways for inversions and backbends.

What is Iyengar yoga?

➡️A form of Hatha yoga focusing on proper alignment and precise technique using asana and pranayama
Developed by B.K.S. Iyengar.

➡️It emphasizes quality over quantity
➡️It encourages the use of many many tools and props to make the pose work for your body.

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How is starred versus how it’s going….

Yoga is many things to many people
But if I had to describe yoga in one way
It would be
The goal of yoga is to create space.
After a stroke or any significant life trauma the body often collapses in certain areas.
At the shoulders, the knees, the feet.
The spirit shrinks up and hides out of fear. The body goes into self protection mode.

Yoga welcomes the spirit back into the body
Yoga frees up space in the body.
Unveil layers of protection.
To appreciate your body and become aware of the mind noise.
To make peace with who you are and love all that you are.
🩷

How do we build better balance after a stroke?
Come find out cool balancing techniques in a chair on zoom today.

We will be doing a new 4 week balancing sequence every Wednesday on zoom
challenging mainstream yoga myths about warrior III

I am proud to say I am finally am able to balance in my paddle board and balance on my stroke affected leg. Thanks to yoga🙏🏼

🚨🚨🚨🚨Today is the day we are back with stroke yoga on zoom !!

Looking to enhance your stroke recovery, build back balance in the body.

Join us for➡️➡️➡️

A kriya cleansing breath practice
balancing warrior 3 in the chair
one legged sit to stand
And a low lunge in the chair

The first few time I used yoga straps teaching stroke yoga

They were compared to Gait straps.
😂
Now if you’ve had a stroke you know the humiliation of being walked around with a gait strap on your waist in the most unflattering way.

A yoga strap however could not be farther from a gait belt.

A yoga strap is a tool to enhance your yoga practice and take your body to a deeper variation of a pose.
This seated supported version of baddha konasana is one of my personal favorites to keep the hips healthy and free from pain.

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🚨🚨🚨What the mainstream media will tell you a yoga pose is
Versus the grit and determination behind building a pose that works in your body

Hand to toe pose is a challenging yoga pose but breaking it down with side plank variation can build so much strength in the body
14 years after my stroke I’m building so much strength and balance in my affected leg
Yes this is my stroke leg

Getting ready for a new stroke yoga balancing sequence online next week

Info to come
🙏🏼

Join us for our last class in this 4part series tomorrow at 11am est

We will be reviewing
3 part breath
Alternate nostril
Ujjayi
Warrior I
Warrior II and begin warrior III as we move into our advanced balancing sequence and chanting practice this fall🙏🏼

🚨🚨🚨Stroke yoga: Finding unique ways to release stuck emotions in the body.

After a stroke often the body remains tight and can feel very heavy.
Western medicine cannot explain this and only wants to medicate or cut tendons to relieve tightness.

Why don’t we look to our body’s emotional state and use movement and breathwork as as way to release these balls of stuck emotion?

Makes sense, no?

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Our 3rd installment in the 4 part series.

This week we are dissecting warrior II along with sun salutations and Ujjayi breath.

Come join us to build your own stroke yoga practice tomorrow at 11am. 🙏🏼

🚨🚨🚨High blood pressure is the leading cause of stroke.
How do I get my pressure down is a common question I get asked.

Laying on your back with your legs up is the best way to calm the body in general. Turn the lights low. Close the eyes and breathe deep into the belly. I add a blanket and cushion to my affected arm.

Let all the pressure off
It makes sense right?
Rest, relax, restore….

You can lift your legs up off the chair or not but getting the back flat will not only lower blood pressure but help you relax, reduce edema and varicose veins, as well as reduce back pain.

The medicine is in you.

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I want to take a second to introduce myself to those that I haven’t met yet or those that may be new to stroke yoga.

My name is Rachel jarmusz
I had a massive ischemic stroke in 2009.
I was paralyzed and told I would never walk, talk or be able to care for myself on my own ever again.
I went along with some of the most prestigious medical doctors treatment for more then ten years. Surgery, shots, pills, orthotics…
Only getting worse and more depressed.

I freed myself from the medical community and went on to become one of the only ischemic stroke survivor certified yoga instructors out there. Writing a stroke yoga program to bring to yoga studios across the country.

I still haven’t regained movement in my left hand although my arm is becoming more and more a part of my body again after 10+ years

I am in No hurry to “get” anywhere.
Recovery is a journey not a destination.

I encourage all stroke survivors to see there stroke as an opportunity to be in there body in a new way, to exist in a new body to find their own healing path and embrace change.

If you have a moment read my story of spasticity on my website.
Sign up for free private stroke yoga sessions or join us for group every Wednesday as we deep dive into this beautiful practice.
🙏🏼

Spasticity and the Breath — My YogaWill Conscious breathing and spasticity in the arm and leg

It’s so easy to get caught up in the physical aspect of yoga and forget yoga also is stillness, breath, self inquiry, self development, spiritual mantra/texts reading and writing
The journey WITHIN
Definitely not just an exercise.
🙏🏼
She’s reading the yoga sutras of patanjali btw.

🚨🚨🚨New blog alert

Things like cranial sacral therapy, acupuncture, yoga and somatic methods are all healing modalities often a bit hidden in standard stroke rehabilitation models.

It has taken me more than 13 years to uncover such modalities and have chosen to write my thoughts on the experience.

The Cranial Sacral Journey — My YogaWill Firat time getting CST or cranial sacral therapy I was not a fan, As with many breathing exercises in yoga, I felt as if it was simply doing thing and couldn’t possibly be doing anything valuable. I said its too expense, not worth it and moved on. While in my yoga anatomy training I learned abou

Stroke yoga chair class continues!!
New day new time!!

Join us Wednesday’s at 11am for a new 4 week series.

This will work for all 4 classes

Topic: Stroke Yoga Class #1, Rachel Jarmusz
Time: Aug 16, 2023 11:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 476 357 3940
Passcode: stroke

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My favorite way to start any yoga class
Draw your attention inside
Notice any parts of you that may be working too hard.
Breathe into those parts.
Find the heaviness and simply breathe your breath
🙏🏼
Where our attention goes the breath follows.

How does a stroke survivor do an inversion without weight on the head or neck?

You use support!! Blocks, cushions, wall, “headstanders”

This iyengar sequence is something I’m working on to bring my body into better alignment and build my core back.

Notice my elbows and the misalignment
I’m working on bringing my pelvis and shoulder girdle into better alignment going upside down.
Inversions have tremendous benefits
➡️Improve circulation
➡️Increase immune health
➡️Improve balance, vertigo
➡️Increase core strength
➡️boost confidence!!

If I had to sum up yoga in one word, it would be Alignment.

What’s missing from the standard stroke rehabilitation model?

Alignment
posture
breath
What is yoga?

Alignment
posture
breath.

It really is that simple.

Stroke survivor inversion classes coming soon
🙏🏼

You don’t have to be able to do all the poses to teach yoga or do yoga.
It’s not called a practice for nothing!!

We must clean up these physical stereotypes about what yoga “should” look like.
🙏🏼

🚨🚨🚨Yoga expectation vs. yoga reality.

Often we have an idea about yoga in our head and this idea is often misguided.
How or why yoga was set in a gym setting is beyond my understanding, it is more of a lab/classroom type thing.

People looking to sweat and go hard maybe try Pilates. Pilates is yoga without the soul as I have heard many say.
Yoga yea yoga has a soul and challenges you in a journey to the self through the self in a comfortable, loving, challenging way.
Play, explore, ask questions, be curious.
🙏🏼

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Need a little yoga?
Last class in this series
Register for tomorrow now or catch me later
🙏🏼

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtcOCrrzwoHtNhb1_rbIgwPCVay6mzVMUH

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/4763573940?pwd=NDJUY1FtYXArVlU2RUVYaEdiSGpSdz09

Questions or comments? All things stroke and yoga.

Join us this Wednesday
🙏🏼

🚨🚨🚨 new blog coming this week
Faces of stroke yoga
I’ve decided to give writing about myself a rest and write about others
Meet a few of the brave individuals giving yoga a try after a stroke
I’ve been teaching yoga to stroke survivors for the past 6 years and have enjoyed every moment and cherish every connection made.

This page is about me and my journey using yoga after my stroke but it’s about more than me

It’s about YOU

➡️Whether you are looking for peace and quiet
➡️Arm extension
➡️Getting down on the floor
➡️Getting up on a stool to reach that high cupboard
Results are different based on your intentions

Basically don’t believe anything you know about yoga from magazines
It’s not hard to do or a religion

Stroke yoga is a soft place for you to land after a brain injury

It’s slow,it’s soft
it’s subtle yet strong 💓💪🏼

Whatever your WILL
Ask yourself what will yoga do for you?

🚨🚨🚨 New blog alert
Pain is another sensitive topic for me.
Read my thoughts on pain and all things “pain
Management”
🙏🏼

Pain — My YogaWill This is not only another question I get asked a lot but this is one I ask people coming into class as well. As a stroke survivor this is a very hard question to answer and when I ask other stroke survivors I often here the same thing: “its hard to explain but yes” “there is an always present n...

Join us for the last 2 weeks here of stroke yoga on zoom.
It’s not too late to join us ⬇️

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtcOCrrzwoHtNhb1_rbIgwPCVay6mzVMUH

🚨🚨🚨New blog alert
A very sensitive topic for me, addressing this buzz word HEAL.
Do I consider myself to be healed from my stroke and my thoughts on the topic
Please read if you like
🙏🏼

HEALING — My YogaWill Am I healed from my stroke? My latest MRI showed my carotid artery had reshaped itself, unlike the swollen imbalance shown here. Brain swelling went down and according to my neurologist “healed”, with a small damaged area of my right hemisphere that would never “ heal”. My brain MRI is the M...

🚨🚨🚨Manual manipulations for a paralyzed arm: Lengthen and Strengthen

I’m not sure why the worlds of brain rehab and yoga don’t merge truly making yoga more accessible to injured folks
ESPECIALLY brain injured communities

But this is the beginning of an adventure in a soon to be training course for PTs OTs nurses or caregivers to learn how to safely manually manipulate a stroke survivors arm and leg

Using elements of yoga, tai chi, massage, breathwork, and sound you can truly see how much the arm, hand, leg an foot can heal

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Come sign up to join us for an hour of chair Stroke yoga and breathing this week

Tomorrow at 11am EST
We talk about using your own breath to being life back to a paralyzed or contracted arm
As we move addressing
Balance issues
Pain management
Anxiousness
Ease of movement
Register here

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtcOCrrzwoHtNhb1_rbIgwPCVay6mzVMUH

Let’s clear this up
🚨🚨🚨There aren’t levels of yoga
The 8 limbs are not ordered and there isn’t advanced yoga or beginner yoga, you don’t start here and end there
Enter and exit as you are
Where you are
None of those levels exist in a traditional yoga class

A more experienced yogi has simply practiced enough to learn how to listen to his or her own body

It’s just about exploration

Instead of unifying and uplifting, yoga in the western world has become more about who looks hotter and annoying competitive poses

I think about the irony of a practice that is freedom forcing folks to vaccinate and mask up
🤔🤔🙄🙄

Meanwhile those that need yoga are shamed and pushed out of communities that should be welcoming them
These studios get there core group and it’s like a high school clique
The stories I hear about stroke survivors going to yoga studios are just bad.
And not just stroke survivors but newbie yogis being told to just visualize class or just being turned away. Where is the welcoming energy? It’s Really worse out there than I thought….

It’s a disgrace

Yoga teachers you are missing the mark

Pts and Ots never knew what to do with me.
Nothing they suggested ever helped and it’s a damn shame
If I see another red thera band, I swear
So…..
I’m writing a stroke yoga course for Ots to learn these simple yoga techniques as a part
of this stroke yoga partner series🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

This extension in my arm is unreal
And they said “well you’ll never get any better.
Props to my oldest son for humoring me

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🚨🚨🚨New blog alert
It’s hard to rehab from a stroke without an understanding of fascia
And no I’m not talking siding and gutters😜

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Fascia and Conscious Breath — My YogaWill It was in my 200 hour yoga teacher training watching the teachings of a renowned yoga anatomy expert, Gil Hedley showing this interesting network of netting called fascia in an autopsy.

🚨🚨🚨🚨Hey pssst…... My doctors told me my stroke was so severe I would never regain motor function on my left side based on the size and location of my stroke
I’d need a power chair and
Fine and gross motor skills in the arm were severed and doubtful the arm would ever be useful
I’d most likely suffer from severe depression and anxiety as well

Yes a bleak future was painted for me at 25 years old.

I lived in this reality for over ten years.

Until yoga reshaped my recovery journey completely

Being able to independently lift my arm over my head is new

I could barely find space to put deodorant on and now I’m feeling a breeze 💨

It’s very new
and if your wondering about my hand well stuck energy has to make its way down from my shoulder into my hand so it may take a while but yoga teaches us possibility

My confidence has grown
Anxiety eased
Joy increased

Yes it’s a bit frustrating the hand is coming around at its own pace
But I remind my mind
Healing has no timetable
It’s the mind that rushes
Practicing Patience is really just being mindful and practicing presence

You see yoga creates endless opportunities for us to expand possibility and live there instead of a world with bleak limitations

If your wondering what poses help lengthen and relax the arm….

check out my YouTube channel as I upload more small breathing videos and short poses for lengthening tissue and tendons and reducing pain

https://youtu.be/5CeucXw2QpY

Have a look at one of my favorite chair yoga poses Thread the Needle

Yeah yoga is fun and I like to play with it

But simply put YOGA is MEDICINE

We need to reshape this idea medicine comes from a laboratory
No medicine comes from a lab OR natural sources

There is a whole pharmacy of natural medicine waiting to be unlocked inside of yourself
Yes it’s inside of you
Not some doctor
Not some bottle
Your body
Humans are self healing creatures after all
🙏🏼

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Still time to join us

➡️No worries if you missed our first class
All you need is your body and a comfortable CHAIR!!

➡️Every Thursday from now until the end of August on Thursdays at 11am EST

We meet
We breathe
We move
We connect
Register here to join us

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtcOCrrzwoHtNhb1_rbIgwPCVay6mzVMUH

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Read about my favorite read on Meditation and what exactly it means to meditate, what Swami Rama has to say about why you might want to give it a try

Meditation — My YogaWill This is the question I have gotten asked to most in my yoga teaching experiences. There is a mysticism around this word. There is a lot of general confusion about what it is. My favorite way to meditate is in nature for sure! But that’s me! There is a special quality about connecting to natur

A stroke literally disconnects you from your body
And yoga is the practice of unionizing the body, mind and spirit.
The word “yoga” means “union”

It’s not really about achieving anything rather being reminded of the potential that lies beneath
It’s like your clearing out the rubbage and accessing what’s left
Yoga and stroke survivors just makes sense!

Exploring the range of possibilities

I would not be on a paddleboard if I’d I had not first had a stroke and then explored the practice of yoga.

Curious about why I chose this path for healing?

Read about the relation to spasticity and the breath and why I was unsatisfied with Western medicine
I forget sometimes myself how far I’ve come
🙏🏼

Spasticity and the Breath — My YogaWill Conscious breathing and spasticity in the arm and leg

➡️No worries if you missed our first class
All you need is your body and a comfortable CHAIR!!

➡️Every Thursday from now until the end of August on Thursdays at 11am EST

We meet
We breathe
We move
We connect
Register here to join us

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtcOCrrzwoHtNhb1_rbIgwPCVay6mzVMUH

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There’s still time to register for stroke yoga tomorrow
If you or someone you know has experienced a stroke
Register to join us for a moment to dive into an hour of guided breathing and meditation.

We might even get into a little chair yoga posture🙏🏼

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwscumorjwiGdSBtSjZV_rnFr2RYA2KKg5u

I just ask you bear with me as I figure out all this technical stuff…

Our group has changed day and time and has a pre registration link that makes it easier to sign up and get reminders.
➡️This Thursday June 29th!!!!

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwscumorjwiGdSBtSjZV_rnFr2RYA2KKg5u

There are many ways to work with me

➡️Some are free but
I do charge a very small fee for my time and knowledge building Private personalized practices with a custom home practice for stroke survivors looking for a weekly practice

➡️But you can join our free zoom classes or follow my YouTube page to follow along with some fundamental yoga posture and breath at no cost to you

It’s all about access to this knowledge and creating communities for brain injured folks to share and practice this knowledge together 🙏🏼

About 5 years ago I took an interest in getting on the water to meditate and try something different for rehab for my arm
I get so tired of conventional therapies
I want to be outside
I want to be challenged
I don’t want to sit in some pt room hooked up to machines or hear a doctor tell me I will never be any different than where I am today.

Being in or on the water was something I wanted more and more of since my stroke.
But with my physical limitations I wondered if it was possible
I invested in a paddleboard and found out my body needed some work to do what I wanted.
I put it on pause while my body got stronger.

I am revisiting this hobby this summer after years of core strengthening yoga. I am just so amazed at the affects of being on the water for a 2hour lesson and how my body responds.

I can actually paddle!

Did you know

“Only 30 years ago it was commonly believed that the bones of the skull were immobile and inert like the bark of a tree.
Yet through research in the fields of osteopathy and cranial sacral therapy, it is evident that the cranial bones are in constant motion.
They breathe moving via slight expansive and contractile rhythms flowing the tidal flow of CSF”
-Tias Little
Yoga of the Subtle Body

Cerebral spine fluid in the fluid that surrounds the brain, cushions it, removes waste, absorbs nutrients and is primarily responsible for maintaining homeostasis.
This flow or flux seems kinda important to a brain injury survivor.
Being on the water reminded me of this inner rhythm.

I can’t help but think
Practicing breathing techniques or gentle somatic movements on land or water are the only things brain injury survivors should be doing.

Seems clear to me certain folks don’t want brain injury survivors to have this knowledge
I oughta write a book called

“Everything they don’t want you to know about your body after a stroke.”