I’m honored to have been recently interviewed on Austin local news to talk about the role of yoga during brain injury recovery! Modo Yoga Austin, a local yoga studio, has partnered with up with the Love Your Brain Foundation (snowboarder and TBI survivor, Kevin Pierce) to encourage traumatic brain injury survivors to adapt yoga in their recovery journey.

 

An excerpt from the post:

“Nearly four years ago, while living in Brooklyn, Balaster fell 20 feet from a rooftop water tank and he was in a coma for 12 days. Doctors determined he suffered a diffuse axonal injury, one of the most serious traumatic brain injuries.

Despite the odds, Balaster fought back and yoga was part of his recovery. But like all of his struggles the last four years, yoga was not easy to master.

“One of the first poses was to just stand with your feet close together and close your eyes,” Balaster said. “Originally, I couldn’t do that without losing my balance and almost falling down.” With each day, Balaster’s poses — and his life — have regained their balance, inspiring others along the way.”

You can see the whole article here.

After my fall in 2011, I incorporated my own Yoga routine and wrote about my experience in a post called “Hot Power Fusion: How I found balance through Yoga” in which I wrote:

“Despite the intense discomfort, yoga provided a feeling of accomplishment for me, because I felt myself improving at what is considered to be a difficult expression of the body. During this time I would say to myself and others around me: “I think that yoga is the most effective and least expensive therapy I have.” And my notion turns out to be supported in peer reviewed literature: It has been proven that the cardiovascular workout involved in the practice of yoga and its challenging positions increases brain function (Effects Of Yoga On The Brain); additionally, the balance and control needed to perform these positions strengthened my balance. Finally, the interspersed moments of complete relaxation allowed me to clear my mind, to disconnect from the external turmoil and negative discourse I had been facing since my injury.”

Wonderfully, the Love Your Brain Yoga program is trying to partner with yoga studios across the U.S. to provide donation-based classes.

Learn more at https://www.loveyourbrain.org/yoga/