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My natural starting place to prepare for cancer treatment was through my yoga practice. Yoga itself hasn’t changed my life or made me who I am. Instead, it has provided me with a wonderful set of tools  to make those changes myself. This book includes stories about what I went through in my treatment and the yoga practices I used to cope with the resulting symptoms.

Each chapter ends with a section called How Yoga Helped. Here you’ll find exercises, practices, or reflections I used for specific symptoms like post-surgery discomfort, nausea, anxiety, depression, constipation, fatigue, postradiation fibrosis, and others. You can read the book straight through and follow the progression I used, or look in Chapter 22 or in the index for your specific needs. 

You don’t have to be an experienced yogi to use the tools presented here, and there’s no need to do all the practices. Take whatever inspiration you find and adapt the practices to meet your personal needs. You don’t need special clothes or equipment. In a few cases, a yoga mat will certainly help for exercises that require traction for hands or feet, or to provide cushioning on a hard surface, but often you just need a comfortable spot on the floor or your bed. These practices are meant to be adapted by you, wherever you are and whatever you’re wearing. Most days I did my go-to practice in my pajamas, and I still do! There’s no single right way to do the exercises—there’s only your way.

If you picked up this book for a friend or loved one who has cancer and currently has little energy for digesting a self-help book, I believe it can still be useful. Why not read it yourself first and lead your friend through a few of the exercises? Or help your loved one develop their own personalized practice. That head start might enable them to read the book later on and learn more. It’s a small thing you can do that will be a huge help for that dear person. As a special friend and colleague of mine said, “You don’t have to move a mountain for the person with cancer; just show them how to move a pebble that day.”

Finally, if you have no interest in yoga, you probably would never have picked up this book in the first place! But maybe a friend gave it to you, like my friends gave me the one I read. If that’s the case, just

change the title in your mind to Things That Helped Me Get Through Cancer. It’s not the yoga that matters. The point is self-care, finding things that will help you and, hopefully, inspire you to keep moving toward restored health. Going through cancer treatment takes a great deal of energy. Unfortunately, it also saps most of our energy! If you can find a few tips that work for you, whether at a superficial level or deeply within your heart, take advantage. That’s what this book is about.

Wishing you good health, happiness, and joy,