Meditation for healing makes use of the natural healing energy we all have, allowing us to understand and overcome our pains and weaknesses.  Healing meditation has proven effective as a tool to help with reducing stress and anxiety, decreasing blood pressure and muscle tension, coping with pain and chronic fatigue, and increasing general sense of well-being and inner peace.  Students will explore different meditation techniques including relaxation, tuning out external stimuli and increasing sensitivity to inner feelings, and practicing witness consciousness.  In combination with yoga breathing techniques, yoga movements, and yoga nidra (guided relaxation with visualization), this class will help participants bring a sense of connection and meaning to their life and foster general wellness.  Awaken and rejuvenate your body and your mind through meditation for healing.
Instructor:  Girija Iyer
Bramwell House Liv. Rm.

Mon. (1/4-3/22/2010, no class 1/18,2/15)  10-11:30am

• Wellness Workout: Strengthen & Stretch

Get into shape while having fun!  Designed for all fitness and comfort levels, this class will help you to increase your strength, flexibility, and stamina, whether you are in treatment, on the road to recovery, or a long-term survivor.  Each one-hour session will feature stretching and strengthening exercises that use resistance bands, stability balls, and a combination of Yoga and Pilates techniques to improve core strength and balance.  Relaxation exercises will be incorporated as part of the warm-up and cool-down segments. 
Instructor:  Linda Jones
APR

• Zumba®

Dance like nobody’s watching with exercise that combines Latin-flavored music and traditional dance moves from salsa, tango, mambo, and merengue with aerobics to keep people moving while they're body sculpting. An hour-long class that works almost every muscle in the body!  Experience how fast and slow rhythms and resistance training are combined to tone and sculpt your body while burning fat, and see why Zumba® has spread like wildfire in the world of fitness!  As long as you're moving and having fun, there's really no wrong way to Zumba®.
Instructor:  Linda Jones
APR

• Gentle Yoga

Whether you are undergoing treatment, on the road to recovery, or living with breast cancer, you will benefit from this gentle, restorative yoga class.  A registered yoga instructor will focus on increasing your range of motion, strength, and balance with poses tailored to your needs.  By integrating breathing, relaxation, and visualization exercises into each session, this gentle yoga class will ease your symptoms, motivate you, give you more energy, and calm your mind.
Instructors: Girija Iyer (pm)
Bramwell House Liv. Rm.

• Intermediate Yoga

For those students who have been practicing yoga for at least a year and are ready to step their practice up a notch, BCRC is now offering an intermediate yoga class.  You will be guided to experience the present moment and to feel joyful contentment, to find fulfillment, and to touch the essence each posture has to offer your mind and body.  Chairs will not be used, so some strength and balance are required.  Not recommended for those currently in active treatment. 
Instructor:  Nancy McCormack
Bramwell House Liv. Rm.

• Tai Chi

Learn simple qigong and tai chi practices to improve health, enhance longevity, and promote inner peace. Tai chi embodies the heart of Chinese wellness and healing practices, applied sciences, philosophy, and martial arts. The many benefits include increased oxygen utilization/more efficient breathing, reduced blood pressure, increased bone density, reduced levels of stress hormones, increased strength, flexibility and range of motion, and improved immune function, all recognized by Western science. Experience practical exercises that can be done sitting, standing, or lying down. There are no prerequisites for this class, only the willingness to explore this simple and profound art!
Instructor:  Bev Tucker
APR

Tues. (1/5-3/23/2010)  7:30-8:45 pm

• Positively Pink Pilates

Reclaim your physical confidence and re-establish a connection with your body!  Positively Pink Pilates offers a gentle exercise technique that will help both your mind and body gradually recover from breast cancer surgery and treatment.  A certified Pilates instructor will lead you through a series of gentle, flowing movements that address many of the issues breast cancer survivors face including fatigue, limited range of motion, poor posture, and lymphedema.  The focus is on low-impact exercises and the quality, not the quantity, of those exercises. 
Instructor:  Linda Manheim
APR

Thurs. (1/7-3/25/2010, no class 2/11)  11 am-noon

• Water Wellness

This specially-designed gentle water exercise class is open only to breast cancer patients and survivors.  It provides a supportive environment where breast cancer survivors can connect with each other and improve mobility, strengthen muscles, relieve any discomfort resulting from surgery, and reduce potential risk of lymphedema.  Participants do not need to be able to swim.  Jump in and create a positive attitude towards life and health!  
Instructor:  Barbara Griggs
YWCA Pool

Fri. (1/8-3/26)  1:30-2:20 pm

• Oncology Massage

Help build your health and restore your relationship with your body.  Oncology massage can improve a person living with cancer's psycho-social quality of life during treatment, relieve secondary effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, and improve post-surgical and reconstruction experience.  Oncology massage can help with lessening depression, lack of appetite, nausea, insomnia, boosting the immune system, pain, constipation, building
up blood counts, diarrhea.
Therapist:  Harriett Jahr-Phillips, LMT, NCBMT
Massage Room

1st Tues. 6:30, 7:30, or 8:30 pm by appt. only