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Samantha Preston
Samantha came to yoga nearly 14 years ago as a way to heal a whiplash injury in her neck after conventional treatment didn’t quite work. Samantha found the posture improved her neck and helped straighten up her spine, but it was the whole experience that she found of most help. At the time she was a young working mum to a two year old and found that the yoga really helped with all aspects of her life and in 2003 undertook the first steps to becoming a teaching by doing the BWY Foundation Course with Antonia Boyle. This led to taking the Teaching Diploma course with Hilary MacRae, which she finished in 2006.
It is the healing and transformative effect that yoga can have on a person that interests Samantha and as such this is the direction that her teaching has taken. During her Diploma course Samantha also completed a Thai Yoga Massage Practitioner course that links perfectly in with her yoga teaching as the roots of the massage lie in Ayurveda and Yoga. In March 2008 she completed her first BWY specialised teaching Module, Yoga for People Living with Cancer with Julie Friedeberger. Samantha found that many of the practices she learnt seemed very simple but were actually very profound and as such has incorporated them into to her regular classes.
LIVING WITH CANCER
While not a cure for cancer, yoga enhances physical and emotional wellness bringing a peacemany patients had thought they'd lost forever.
“Yoga has really helped me to understand what is important in life, and how necessary it is to strive for a sensible balance between mind, body and spirit. Before I had cancer, I was absolutely terrified of it, a completely irrational fear. That terror has completely gone. I am more relaxed and more open to new things. I take much more joy and pleasure in simple, ordinary things, I think how enormously lucky I am to love and be loved by my family and friends, I feel enormously grateful to have such a pleasant life. Before I was ill and before I started practising yoga, I had taken my body for granted, and been oddly unaware of it. I now enjoy the physical awareness that yoga has brought, and the ability to do certain actions, which would have seemed impossible before, simply by thinking about them carefully, and understanding how to approach them. If I were to be ill again, yoga would give the strength to keep myself intact, and avoid the horrible fragmentation that happened last time.”Clare
“I have only been coming to the classes for a few weeks, but I find them very relaxing and positive. It is a very friendly class, and I appreciate being in a group where you feel people understand your situation and you don’t feel like an odd one out.” Helen
“I would recommend anybody to take up Yoga. I feel so much better since I started. Wish I had done it years ago.I have two tears in my aorta and had a mastectomy, all Specialist doctors and nurses I see say it’s a good thing and I really enjoy it.”Audrey
Samantha, a British Wheel of Yoga trained teacherruns a weekly, Monday afternoon, yoga class specifically for people living with cancer. By practising yoga techniques in a class where they can work with the support of others going through the same journey, cancer sufferers are able to strengthen the immune system and foster the inner healing resources of the body. Other benefits include rehabilitation from surgery, improved coping with treatments, and the ability to reduce stress. Traditionally yoga postures can be demanding as the poses exercise every muscle, nerve and gland in the body, addressing tension and allowing energy to flow easily in the body. In a Living with Cancer class these postures have been modified to bring about all these benefits in a gentler, simpler and more profound way. The practices used in class are very simple and easy to learn so the student can use them anytime and anywhere. Even if someone can't do the postures, they can still benefit from breathing, relaxation and meditation practice. Breathing not only sustains life; it also acts as a cleanser of the chemotherapy and radiotherapy pollutants: Meditation and relaxation techniques offer a method to quiet the terrified voices jabbering in your head, bringing focus, letting go of nagging preoccupations, fostering calm and rational decisions in the face of incessant worrying, allowing relaxation in the midst of an extremely stressful event, bypassing anxiety and despair and learning to recognize and pursue more positive possibilities.
Yoga is a complementary treatment and should be used alongside existing treatments; if in doubt please consult your doctor or oncologist.
Samantha also co-teaches a class at the Olive Tree Cancer Support Group in Crawley hospital.