Stretching their heart muscles
Oceanside yoga studio, Pacific Bakery president partner to help breast cancer patients
By Angela Holman | angela.holman@tlnews.net Friday, January 19, 2007 Lisa Rigg (right) leads a class at the Inner Strength Laurie Mort, 49, was run over by a car at age 14 and has Yoga studio in Oceanside. since been involved in 10 more automobile accidents. Rigg, a breast cancer survivor, runs a special class The Oceanside resident has one answer when asked how called Focus on Healing. At she’s overcome so much physical trauma and suffering: left is studio owner Laurie yoga. Mort. Don Kohlbauer | UnionMort began having constant neck and back pains when she Tribune was 40. They pain was so bad she couldn’t look down, and it hurt her to get out of a chair or lift her arms. “They told me I needed to do yoga for the rest of my life or I’d be in a wheelchair,” Mort said. Mort has practiced yoga ever since. About eight years ago she left a career in banking and became a yoga instructor. In December 2004, she opened Inner Strength Yoga in Oceanside.
Mort said she created the studio because she is passionate about helping people in need. “I know yoga can help others because of the way it helped me,” she said. “I am out of pain. … It makes me feel alive, and I don’t get sick anymore. Yoga really helps build up the immune system.” Mort wants others to experience the benefits of yoga. This week, she partnered with Chuck Lowery, president of Pacific Bakery in Oceanside, and introduced a program in which people can purchase yoga classes to be donated to local breast cancer survivors who want to participate in the gentle exercise but cannot afford it. Mort and Pacific Bakery will provide bonus classes depending on how many are purchased. For example, $15 gives one class, but $30 buys two classes plus one bonus class. Mort said recipients can attend any type of yoga class Inner Strength offers, including Hatha, restorative and Focus on Healing, which is designed for people with breast cancer or chronic illnesses. Lowery is an Oceanside native who takes yoga classes at Inner Strength at least three times a week to relieve stress. He said Pacific Bakery will pay for half of the bonus classes and Mort will donate the other half. “My contribution isn’t enough for her to make any money on it,” Lowery said, adding that Mort has to pay her instructors, as well as rent on the studio. Lowery said he decided to partner with Mort because the program will give its recipients tangible health benefits. Although there is no scientific evidence that yoga is effective in treating cancer, almost a quarter of the National Cancer Institute’s treatment centers offer yoga in addition to standard medical treatment, according to the American Cancer Society. There also is some evidence that suggests yoga may be a useful complementary therapy to conventional medical treatment to help relieve symptoms associated with cancer and other illnesses. Gracie Metsopoulos, a 56-year-old Oceanside resident with breast cancer, said the yoga classes she’s been taking since November at Inner Strength have “been a blessing.” Mort gave Metsopoulos three months of classes after learning about the difficult financial situation she is in from battling cancer for more than 10 years. “The yoga is really helping me stay centered and focused, and I feel like I’m doing something to heal my body,” Metsopoulos said.
Mort and Lowery plan to continue their partnership through March. If the program is well-received, they said they would like it to continue and expand to include all survivors of all types of cancer. Both have witnessed the debilitating effects of cancer. Lowery said his mother has breast cancer. Mort’s grandmother died from breast cancer, her aunt had it and she knows six other women who have been diagnosed with the disease. “My dad passed away from (esophageal) cancer, and I felt so helpless. That is why it’s in my heart to do this,” Mort said, adding that two of her instructors also are breast cancer survivors. Carlsbad resident Lisa Rigg, an instructor at Inner Strength, participated in gentle and restorative yoga when she was undergoing chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer three years ago. Rigg said yoga helped her deal with depression and focus on positive healing. She said she wished more yoga studios and workout facilities would start programs for cancer patients. “When you go through something like that, not only does it knock you down but financially it’s really, really hard because you’re not working as much because you’re constantly at the doctor,” Rigg said. Anyone interested in donating to the program or receiving free yoga classes can call Inner Strength at (760) 822-1348. Reach reporter Angela Holman at (760) 752-6750.