About Our Relax into Yoga Models

Jim Carson, PhD , sixty-four, is a clinical psychologist and a former swami (monk) in the yoga tradition. He weaves the practice of meditation into his work in helping individuals cope with chronic medical illnesses such as cancer, fibromyalgia, and low-back pain. He has published several studies documenting the positive impact of yoga and meditation on persistent pain, fatigue, and emotional distress. Jim says, “The deep joy and peace that arises in my daily practice continues to be the bedrock of my life.”

Lillian “Liz” Downey , seventy-one, is a retired financial-aid administrator and adjunct lecturer. She has been a yoga student in the senior yoga class at the Durham Center for Senior Life for several years, and she says that the practice of yoga has helped relieve a knee problem and also has been an ongoing form of exercise for good health. She is inspired by deep meditation and overall well-being of body and mind.

Cynthia Ferebee , sixty-eight, began studying and practicing yoga in 2009 after retiring from teaching in the public school system for more than thirty-five years. She now teaches beginning yoga at the Durham Center for Senior Life. Yoga has helped Cynthia manage and decrease the pain associated with arthritis and other common ailments that come with aging. Cynthia is dedicated to helping other seniors acquire and maintain greater flexibility and peace of mind through a consistent yoga practice that includes meditation, breathing exercises, and body posturing.

Len Ludwig , seventy-eight, is a semiretired owner/executive of an equipment financing company. His engineering and finance background trained him to think very logically, and he says he has “been constantly amazed at the whole new world opened up to me, starting about one year ago, with a class about mindfulness.” As a result of practicing what he has learned in this new dimension, he reports improvements in his breathing, relaxation, flexibility, and general well-being. He looks forward to learning more.

Mary Jane Ott , seventy, retired after fifty years in the field of nursing, forty of which she worked and taught as a nurse practitioner in a variety of clinical settings. She continues to consult as an integrative nurse coach and to offer yoga and meditation classes. Mary Jane enjoys a full and active life with family and friends as she pursues creative, intellectual, and spiritual interests. Living with health challenges from traumatic injuries, she is grateful for her many years of yoga and meditation practices, which continue to be a foundational part of her daily self-care, maximizing her health, spiritual, and functional abilities.

Bruce E. Reavis , sixty-eight, was involved in a severe motorcycle accident after retiring as a career counselor for the state of North Carolina and as a fitness coordinator. He sustained several broken bones in his leg, arm, shoulder, and pelvis that required multiple operations. Along with prescribed physical therapy, Bruce included yoga in his regimen. Just when his dedication to yoga began to give him greater flexibility, he was diagnosed with stage IV lymphoma. It did not devastate him. He continued his yoga practice through the chemo treatments, and the lymphoma has been in remission since 2013. Although he is living with cardiac issues, he attributes his ability to maintain a positive outlook to his yoga experience and his belief in a gracious God.

Jane Wachsler , seventy-eight, was born in the Midwest, graduated with a teaching degree from the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor, and spent the next few years teaching children with special needs. After raising her three daughters, she worked for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in a program that served the needs of children and adults with multiple disabilities. She left the museum after thirty-three years to care for her husband, who had Parkinson’s disease, and they moved from the East Coast to the West Coast to be with their grandchildren. After her husband died, Jane was diagnosed with breast cancer; she has recovered well and is traveling as much as possible.

Kathy Williams , fifty-nine, is a retired teacher/counselor who worked in the Durham, North Carolina, public schools. After retirement, she made a commitment to “live.” One part of that commitment is to practice yoga daily both on and off the mat. She has found that practicing yoga every day has helped her live a holistic and healthy lifestyle. She is more relaxed, breathes slower, has increased energy, sleeps better, eats healthier, and has better balance and flexibility. Since Kathy started practicing yoga, her sinus problems have decreased tremendously. And, “More important,” she says, “yoga has helped me have peace of mind.” Meditation has enabled her to see things differently, with positive feelings and attitudes.

Kimberly Carson, MPH, E-RYT , is a health educator at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, OR, specializing in the therapeutic use of yoga and mindfulness meditation for seniors and people with medical challenges. She currently offers classes to cardiac, oncology, and chronic pain patients. Kimberly has developed and taught yoga programs being researched at Duke University Medical Center and OHSU. The Yoga of Awareness program, developed by Kimberly and her husband Jim, has been shown in research trials to significantly reduce pain and fatigue in women with metastatic breast cancer, breast cancer survivors, as well as women with fibromyalgia. For more information, please visit her website at www.mindfulyogaworks.com .

Carol Krucoff, E-RYT , is a yoga teacher at Duke Integrative Medicine in Durham, NC, where she specializes in therapeutic applications of yoga for people with health challenges. An award-winning health journalist, Carol served as founding editor of The Washington Post ’s Health Section, and her articles have appeared in numerous national publications, including The New York Times , Yoga Journal , and Reader’s Digest . She is author of several books, including Yoga Sparks and Healing Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Pain , and is creator of the audio home-practice CD, Healing Moves Yoga . For more information, please visit her website at www.healingmoves.com .

Kimberly and Carol are codirectors of Yoga for Seniors , a network of yoga teachers dedicated to making yoga practices appropriate and available for older adults. They are codirectors of Integrative Yoga for Seniors Professional Training , and cocreators of the DVD, Relax into Yoga for Seniors . For more information, please visit their website at www.yoga4seniors.com .

Foreword writer Mitchell W. Krucoff, MD , is professor of medicine/cardiology at Duke University Medical Center, and codirector of the Cardiovascular Devices Group at Duke Clinical Research Institute. He is internationally recognized for his pioneering research in computer-assisted heart monitoring, new modalities of coronary revascularization, and cardiovascular applications of spiritual and complementary therapies. Author of more than 250 publications in the cardiology literature and book chapters in medical texts, Mitchell is senior editor of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine . He has served on the board of directors of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences in Puttaparthi, India, since its construction in 1990, and is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and The Society of Coronary Angiography and Interventions. Mitchell is a special government employee of the United States Food and Drug Administration, from whom he received a Distinguished Award for his tenure on the Circulatory Devices Advisory Panel. He has been married to Carol Krucoff since 1974, and they have two adult children.

Afterword writer Jim Carson, PhD , is a longtime student of Swami Muktananda. He is a former yogic monk who has taught the practices and philosophy of yoga worldwide for over thirty years. Now a clinical health psychologist and associate professor of anesthesiology at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), Jim is applying his expertise to the development and evaluation of yoga and meditation-based clinical treatments. He has worked extensively with patients suffering from persistent pain, including those with cancer, fibromyalgia, and multiple sclerosis. While Jim was on faculty at Duke University, he and his wife Kimberly developed the Yoga of Awareness program, and completed research trials with metastatic breast cancer patients and survivors of early-stage breast cancer. During his tenure at OHSU, a successful research trial has been completed using Yoga of Awareness for fibromyalgia. Jim and Kimberly together developed the first mindfulness program for couples, as well as the first loving-kindness meditation program for medical patients.