Pamela Luton >> Talk

I recently attended the Yoga Journal east coast conference in Boston.  I had an amazing experience and I would really like to share it with anyone who would care to hear about it.  I had the great fortune to take three workshops and an all day intensive with Matthew Sanford.  If you don't know who Matthew is here is a little of his story.  Matthew was paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident when he was 13.  He never really accepted what the doctors and therapists told him about just ignoring the lower part of his body.  He started studying Iyengar yoga when he was around 25 and realized that even though he couldn't feel anything the mind/body connection was still there.  He's an amazing teacher and a really wonderful person.  He teaches yoga to able bodied students and also has an adaptive class for people with disabilities.  I learned so much from him in three days and during the intensive I had the most amazing experience.  In our class that day we had a woman who has been a quadraplegic for 31 years, this wasn't planned, she must have heard about Matt's work and registered.  During the day she gained enough trust to let all the students and the assistant help her with poses and positioning her body.  At one point she was down on the floor in a passive chest opener and you could actually see the prana flow through this woman's body.  Her muscles became less constricted and she had a big smile on her face.  It was a truly amazing experience.  I walked away from that conference with my heart so full and also knowing what I want to do with the rest of my life.  I've never felt this way in all of my 47 years.  Matthew's vision on how he feels the healthcare system should work make so much sense.  Everyone has a connection between their mind and their bodies.  We all need to learn how to make that connection work for us and for others. Check out Matt's web site and see if you don't agree with me.