Canada Day 2001 was the day that changed my life.  It was a beautiful, sunny day and I decided to go on my balcony to get some sun.  Shortly after, I felt a tingling, numbness sensation on the left side of my tongue.  I thought I had accidentally gotten sunscreen in my mouth so I went and rinsed my mouth out.  When the numbness continued I felt panicked as I knew intuitively that something was really wrong.

The days that followed, the numbness slowly spread to the left side of my face.  I went to see a doctor but he didn’t know what it was.  I was desperate for answers so I Googled my symptoms and the first thing that came up were:  “Numbness of the tongue, often one of the first symptoms of MS.”  I immediately felt a wave of anxiety course through my body as I just knew that this was what I had.

I went through the denial stage while I was waiting for the confirmation of MS.  I tried to get rid of the numbness.  I went to see chiropractors, massage therapists, and even had a panoramic x-ray of my mouth hoping it was a pinched nerve in my jaw.  I was on a 10 month waiting list for an MRI which is one way to diagnose the disease.  I was very frustrated and felt helpless to our medical system.  I thought about faking a stroke so I could get an MRI sooner.  I was that desperate. 

I was home alone when I received the phone call regarding the results of my MRI.  Honestly I already knew in my heart that I had MS, but I wasn’t prepared to hear it.  The words were bouncing off of me and I was having a hard time absorbing the information.   Words like, “demylenation” and “lesions” are pretty intimidating to a young woman of 27.  When I finally got my diagnoses it was bitter sweet.  I had relief of knowing what was wrong so that I could move forward, but it was also a nightmare becoming real.  I felt so alone as my reality hit.  My body was attacking its self.  I had to make huge decisions in the ways I would treat this invisible disease. 

Before Ms, I already was an anxious and stressed person.  I was always worrying about little things and stressed about my future.  I never really connected to the present moment.  I made a conscious decision the day I was diagnosed not to live that way anymore.

I reconnected to my yoga practice on the advice of my parents.  I had tried yoga briefly at my gym a few years before my symptoms began.  My parents knew how much I enjoyed the few yoga classes I had taken and they thought it might make me feel better to take yoga classes on a weekly basis.   I agreed with them and began attending regular classes.  I had no idea at the time that this decision would be so transformative for me.

I made the journey from my home inEast Vancouverto Yaletown several times a week to practice Hatha yoga and Restorative yoga.  In the beginning I was very weak and suffered from a variety of symptoms.  At my worst, I had trouble walking unassisted, dizziness, chronic fatigue, balance issues, numbness, bladder urgency and tremors of my hands.  I look back now and realize that I was a mess.  I took it one class at a time and I slowly started to see improvements in my body and in my emotional well being.  I started feeling more positive and confident about taking charge of my life and my illness.  I believe the positive energy in the classes and the caring, nurturing teachers were helping my healing process.  I then began to grow stronger and improve my balance issues which I now know was a result of the yoga classes.

Seven years later my MS is in remission and I’m teaching yoga full time with minimal symptoms of the disease.  Yoga has become a part of my everyday life reminding me to be present, balanced and compassionate to others and myself. 

I know that yoga is keeping me in remission because two years ago I travelled toSouth Americafor two months and I didn’t practise yoga regularly.  When I returned home from my trip my body was a mess again.  I felt terrible and I felt like an MS attack was coming on.  I got back to my yoga practise right away and within a couple of months my body and my mind returned back to normal.  That was my wake up call… keep doing yoga and I’ll stay healthy. 

I hope my story will inspire others that are suffering physically or mentally with illness or life’s challenges to not give up and to bring yoga into their lives and reap the amazing benefits.

Namaste,

Shannon Beaton

1. Tree ornaments to make with the kids — just use holiday cookie cutters!

2. Lay one or two under your sleeping bag on your next camping trip.

3. Make it into floor covers for the backseat area so your kids’ muddy shoes and cleats won’t ruin your mats.

4. Carpet the tree house!

5. Wrap it around that attic beam or basement pole you keep bonking your head on.

6. Put it under the stationary bike or treadmill to protect the floor from machine-induced scratches.

7. Line the floor of Fido’s crate to make your pooch more comfortable.

8. Use it as a kneeling pad to keep your knees happy and clean when you’re working in the garden.

9. Roll it out under your beach towel—that sand is always harder than it looks, isn’t it?

10. Use it as a cushioned drop cloth for your next big painting or refurbishing project.

11. Wrap pieces of it around chair legs, table corners and fireplace hearths for instant baby proofing.

12. Let the kids use their safety scissors to cut out fun shapes and glue magnets to the backs.

13. Cut it up into new mouse pads for everyone in the house.

14. Roll it over the back seat of your car for your dog so she doesn’t scratch your seats with her claws.

15. Cut the mat into squares and use them as “bases” while playing baseball with the kids. Easy to carry and easy to clean!

16. Shred and use for a backyard jungle gym, at the end of the slide. Ooh, comfy landings!!

17. Use it at soccer games or anywhere you need to sit. It keeps you from sitting in wet grass or bird poop on a bench.

18. No more messy packing peanuts! Old yoga mats get a new life as a protector of valuables while moving or shipping. Perfect for glassware or anything else that you don’t want chipped, broken, or otherwise damaged. Simply cut into the appropriate sizes, wrap and voila!

19. With camping, use it as a “door mat” outside your tent. It is a great way to take your shoes off and kneel down to get into your tent and you are not sitting on the ground.

20. Keeping an old yoga mat in the car is great for those spur of the moment picnics, keeping groceries from sliding around in the trunk, a padded seat at a sports game or a myriad of other uses limited only to your imagination.

I had a few injuries growing up.  When I was young I fell off a swing set and hurt my head and neck.  That’s when the pain first started.

Then as a teenager I was swimming and I hit my head on the bottom of the ocean floor when a gigantic wave swallowed me up and spun me around.  I went upside down.  My head hit the bottom of the ocean and my neck went snap.  It sounded like a branch breaking and the pain was intense.

When I was a young adult I was hit by a taxi when I was walking across the street.  The taxi swerved around the car that had stopped for me and hit me when I was looking the other direction.  Because I didn’t see him, my body was relaxed, which was a good thing.  I don’t remember being hit at all but my natural instincts made me put my arm down to break my fall as I landed.  I broke my wrist but it saved my life.  I had no major back or head injuries.  I had whip lash, a broken wrist and badly injured knees.  I couldn’t walk for 2 months.

I’ve been very lucky.  I’m lucky to be alive and walking and in one piece.

Because of the accidents over the years, the pain turned into chronic pain in my neck and shoulders. And I had headaches for 15 years straight.  I had cat scans, x-rays and all kinds of tests.  I’d seen every specialist there is that has anything to do with the head…eye specialists, migraine specialists, neurologists, allergists, sports injury specialists, physiotherapists, chiropractors, massage therapists, acupuncturists…and on and on and on.  It was all very expensive, time consuming and often painful.  And most of the treatments didn’t last very long, if at all.  I’d also been given every kind of drug there was but they never really did much to improve the headaches and the side effects were terrible.

Then…a good friend that had chronic pain in his back from previous injuries called me (this was about 13 years ago) and said, “Sunny, my back is all better!!  You’ve got to try this yoga.  It’s totally cured me!!”  I was obviously very excited, intrigued and would have tried anything at this point, even yoga.  So, off I went feeling very intimidated, to my first Bikram’s yoga class.  I went 3 times per week and after 3 weeks my headaches were completely GONE!!!  It was a miracle.  I had suffered for 15 years with constant headaches and pain and now, I felt GREAT!!  I couldn’t believe it!  I was telling everybody that would listen about yoga and how it cured me.  Many looked at me kind of funny, “yoga?  uh huh… OK Sunny…”  Whatever, I knew what I knew.  Yoga was still very new to Vancouver and hadn’t become very popular…YET!!!

After a while the same 26 poses from Bikram’s hot yoga got quite boring for me and I searched out other types of yoga to try.  I fell in love with Hatha Yoga since it was a different class every single time I went.  And it worked different parts of my body at every class as well.  Then, wanting something even more challenging, I started taking Power, Flow, Kundulini and Ashtanga yoga classes.  It didn’t matter what type of yoga I did.  They all kept me feeling great and kept the headaches and pain away.

After about a year of practicing I was a completely new person.  I decided to become a Yoga teacher.  And here I am, running my own studio and all of our onsite classes throughout the Lower Mainland. I work with some of the best teachers in the city (and students of course!!).  Yoga has completely changed my life and I want to share it with as many people as I can.

The best part of teaching yoga for me is when our students tell me how yoga has changed their life!  They email, call or tell me about how they just feel so good now, how they sleep better, how their back pain is now gone, how their arthritis is gone, how the blood pressure is finally back to normal, how they are losing weight and so on…    (Have a look at our Client Review’s page!!)

So, now I’m helping others find the joy of yoga and it’s changing their lives too.  This makes me very happy!!!

That’s my yoga story…for now.

Namaste,

Sunny