Taking Care of Our Self
Change comes in many forms. When it comes what do you do? Do you take control of it or do you let it control you?
Wendy Dolen teaches yoga at Imagine. She’s been teaching yoga for fifteen years, she’s probably in better shape than anyone I know, and she’s seen firsthand what yoga can do to help all of us deal with whatever life sends our way. Whether it’s back pain or injuries, the ups and downs of getting older, or even bigger, more fundamental changes.
“A student of mine was going through a divorce and she was prescribed anti-depressants,” Wendy told me. “In the process of meditation – in this case meditation through movement – she discovered that by working through her feelings she was able to go off of anti-depressants and move gracefully back into the next phase of her life.”
Amazing, right?
We’ve all been through that kind of stuff. Stress at work, in our relationships, with our friends and family. I know I have. I’m proud to say that yoga has helped me cope with difficult times as well. That’s part of what inspired me to open Imagine in the first place.
Wendy is a special instructor who really understands how to use yoga and meditation to handle those kinds of transitions. She’s an exercise physiologist for MHealthy, Health and Well-Being Services at U-M, she’s been featured in articles in the Ann Arbor News and the Detroit Free Press. She’s helped people with scoliosis and chronic back pain lead pain-free lives. But most important, she’s incredibly patient and kind and completely unintimidating.
She even uses yoga herself to help manage arthritis she experiences in her left wrist, after breaking it a few times.
“I’ve learned how to listen and modify certain postures and perform self-massage to those joints that need special attention on that day,” she told me.
“As we know, every day brings us a new challenge, every day is a different experience and gift,” Wendy told me.
