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<\/strong>Written By: Lisa Irvine\u00a0MS, OTR\/L, RYT200<\/strong><\/p>\nSeptember is National Yoga Awareness Month. I am honored Summit asked me to write this blog for the month of September again this year. However, this year is different from any year. I decided that my purpose for this blog is to share with you how one small business decided to adapt in a pandemic.<\/p>\n
First, let me give you a quick bio.\u00a0 I am an Occupational Therapist and Yoga Instructor. When I added Yoga Instructor to my resume in 2014, I never could have dreamed of the doors it would open, my life would be changed forever. I started this journey when I led a gym session for my students who have a diagnosis of autism. (I was not a yoga instructor yet just practicing yoga in my daily life).\u00a0 One of my job responsibilities included creating a theme for each monthly gym session.\u00a0 One month I chose yoga as the theme of the month. The immediate feedback from the students was enthusiasm, joy and peace. The verbal and non-verbal students both clearly communicated pleasure in a variety of ways. I knew as an OT, I had to bring yoga into my student sessions regularly and pursued my yoga certification. Fast forward four years and I started Brave Yoga for All. Brave Yoga for All provides adapted yoga sessions to individuals with emotional, intellectual, and physical disabilities.<\/p>\n
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In March 2020, everything changed overnight for Brave Yoga for All. The class cancellation emails, and phone calls came quickly. We were in lock-down. The weekly happiness of sharing yoga ended abruptly. The month of March I stayed glued to the television for a quick recovery. When I realized this was not going to happen. I had to come up with a solution. It was my obligation to share the benefits of yoga and mindfulness with the population I work with to support them through this pandemic. The month of April I created new lesson plans dealing with all the challenges we faced at this time.<\/p>\n
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In April of 2020. I taught my first Virtual yoga session. I resisted all negative thoughts and proceeded with caution. There were 5 participants in the virtual yoga session. The theme of this first session was \u201cSuperhero Yoga\u201d. My goal was to help my participants learn to be comfortable wearing a mask. We discussed as a group the fact we were superheroes wearing our mask to protect others. Engagement was good. I had to learn to maneuver the technical difficulties. That came with time. The priority was to use the craft I have come to love to help the individuals I love to work with.<\/p>\n
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It is now August. I transformed my basement into a studio. \u00a0I am happy to report my virtual classes are a joy to teach. Participants have adjusted beautifully. It is an opportunity to see the friends they have missed so much. \u00a0I have had up to 40 participants in my session. I guess this is the silver lining. I could never teach a class of 40 participants in person.\u00a0 I discovered it was an adjustment, however it was still the class that we all learn to love.\u00a0 My goal for this blog is too hopefully help someone re-invent their work in this very challenging time and to always find the silver lining. Namaste to you all!<\/p>\n