I first tried out yoga when I was a college student. I took a class with my mom and I found it both challenging and good for my body. I was a sporadic attendee to various kinds of yoga classes for the next several years- mostly because there were no classes closer than a half hour drive and streaming exercise classes wasn’t yet a thing.

I was diagnosed with my 3 cm acoustic neuroma brain tumor when I was 27 years old. I had translabyrinthine surgery to remove the tumor. In the course of surgery, my balance nerve was removed, as the tumor grows on this nerve. I had to relearn my balance after surgery. I remember that in the hospital they had me stand on a pillow the day or so after surgery and I immediately fell over. It took a lot of work and vestibular rehabilitation to train my brain to function with only one balance nerve.

I realized after my surgery that I would now essentially have a lifelong balance weakness. My balance is significantly improved from where it was right after surgery, but it will never be like it was before my brain tumor. Balance takes effort and focus now in a way that it didn’t before my surgery. I know that balance is extremely important for the entire lifespan. I also am aware that a certain amount of muscle strength matters in balance, and like any muscles, it helps to keep using and training them to keep them strong. I decided I wanted to prioritize practicing and refining my balance to keep it as robust as possible for my lifespan.

I began being a regular yoga practitioner. I would go to in person classes about once a week, and also began doing yoga at home. At first I would do my practice at home with DVDs or by streaming classes. After several years, I now mix things up with in person classes, streaming, routines my instructor created for me, and essentially just creating my own flow from my knowledge of yoga.

I have also experimented with many different forms of yoga. I have taken a variety of classes, and enjoyed all of them. I love ashtanga, yin yoga, yoga nidra, flows, and several others. When I was recovering from a recent surgery, I did chair yoga- which I really love. The stretches are so great in chair yoga and it really is adaptable to wherever your body is at. In a different season in my life, my instructor started offering yoga classes on a paddleboard in a lake. I assumed I would fall in the lake-which I did- but I decided to try it. I absolutely love paddleboard yoga. It is a serious balance challenge and the beauty and peace of practicing on a lake is unparalleled. My instructor also invited me to try to aerial yoga. My first reaction was that I could not do it, that my balance would not be up for the challenge. Instead, I found the hammock to actually be adaptive equipment to assist me in doing poses I could never do before- or to do them more deeply. Aerial yoga has brought a sense of play and fun into my life that has been absolutely wonderful. I definitely recommend trying it. It can be fun to surprise yourself.

I have found that practicing yoga has been wonderful for me on so many levels. It challenges my balance regularly. I find that I memorize my balance in a pose, so a new pose is always harder than a familiar one. Yoga helps me be mindful and works on my breathing. It strengthens many important muscles, including the core muscles that are critical for balance. It has helped me stretch and lengthen my muscles. All of these benefits have been wonderful for my post brain surgery life and have helped me to continue living the active life I love. I am so very grateful for all that yoga has brought into my life. My yoga mat has become a haven of peace for those moments that I really need a respite.

some favorite yoga content creators: Ali Beale Yoga, Kino McGregor, and Aerial Yoga Life.