Yoga and Disability: Sanford Builds Bodies and Life Skills

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Yoga and Disability: Sanford Builds Bodies and Life Skills

by Seth http://www.disaboom.com

Sanford has a dream - one in which he is not dismissed as a

New Age nut when he extols the virtues of yoga as a form of

rehabilitation.

The 42-year-old Minnesotan credits yoga for relieving the damage

inflicted on his body and mind after a serious car crash in 1978.

The crash severed his spinal cord when he was just 13 and took the

lives of his father and older sister. According to Sanford, the

resulting physical and mental trauma was locked inside his body for

years, an internal wound that refused to heal.

For 12 years, doctors convinced him to write off his paralyzed lower

body as a lost cause and focus only on strengthening his upper body.

By following that advice, he effectively disconnected himself from

his body and lost his sense of being complete.

As a gangly teenager, Sanford said the intensive weightlifting

regimen prescribed by the people treating him did not jibe with his

athletic interests or dissipate his trauma.

" It didn't turn me on or light me up, but it also felt like it was

being piled on top of the trauma I'd already absorbed, " he said. He

felt as though weightlifting might have helped him travel uphill in

his wheelchair faster, but it didn't resolve the fact that he missed

fully living in his body.

In 1990, Sanford discovered Iyengar yoga, which stresses alignment

and precision in the body. It helped him to realize that although he

wouldn't be able to walk again, he could still feel sensations and

energy coming from his legs. This discovery gradually allowed him to

reclaim his entire body and enjoy a renewed sense of wholeness.

There was no precedent at the time for teaching yoga to paraplegics,

so Sanford and instructor Jo Zukovich worked together to adapt the

poses. The resulting lessons have found their way into Sanford's

classroom, where he now teaches yoga to people with and without

disabilities.

Besides leaving students with improved virtues such as confidence and

patience, Sanford says yoga has practical applications for everyday

living. In his book, Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence

(Rodale, 2008), he mentions one of his students who has cerebral

palsy, which caused the man to have frequent falls and resulting

injuries. After becoming a regular student in Sanford's yoga classes,

the man fell in the shower one day but was able to use his improved

body control to land in a way that spared him from injury.

Sanford said that in his own life, yoga has given him the strength to

easily transfer in and out of different wheelchairs, as well as

produced noticeable improvements in balance and flexibility.

When imparting his knowledge of yoga, Sanford welcomes people with

all levels of ability because he is confident that he can adapt his

lessons to let everyone experience the sensations conjured by a

healthy mind-body connection. He and his nonprofit organization, Mind

Body Solutions, have been providing training to members of the

Western medical community about how to understand and foster the mind-

body connection in patients.

Sanford said his work to integrate mind-body treatment into

traditional medical facilities will soon benefit an especially

relevant population: veterans returning from the Middle East.

" Disability is, for these men and women that are coming back in their

20s a 50-year problem, " Sanford said. " It gets harder when you

realize there isn't going to be a miraculous easing of the work that

is living with a disability. "

According to Sanford, his approach not only speeds the healing of

veterans' physical disabilities, but helps their cases of post-

traumatic stress disorder.

" Part of the message I want people with disabilities to get is that

they are engaged in a practice that is strengthening them. It is a

life skill that will help them build a level of resilience that is

amazing, " he said.

Citing the years following the Vietnam War, Sanford said people with

disabilities benefited greatly from the advancements developed for

Vietnam vets such as better wheelchairs and prosthetics, as well as

the increased awareness of disabilities in the American culture. He

believes that if his organization successfully heals today's

returning vets using the mind-body approach, it will become a

mainstream form of treatment for people with all forms of

disabilities.

" I want to do it in a really powerful, systemic way. In order to make

this happen, we have to convince people it's practical and not New

Agey, " he said.

With his quest to reintroduce people with disabilities to their

bodies, Sanford said he believes he can entirely change their

outlooks on life and the promises it holds.

" I really, really, really encourage people living with disability to

listen to the body so that they can hear a different level of

sensation, so they can experience freedom that comes from connecting

to this subtle level of sensation. It's not going to reverse the

condition, but if you can listen to it and follow it, it'll lead to a

better life, " he said.

More About Sanford's Work

www.matthewsanford.com

www.mindbodysolutions.org

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpmbzAwL5ws