COWGIRLS VS. CANCER
Healing with Horses and Yoga
Through Cowgirls vs. Cancer, Big Sky Yoga Retreats aims to support fundraising efforts across the US to help provide scholarships to yoginis who have experienced the physical, emotional and financial hardships of breast cancer. In 2010, our goal is to bring Amy, a yoga instructor and mother of four in the beginning stages of chemo, to Montana on a Cowgirl Yoga retreat (scroll down for Amy's story). This healing and rejuvenating retreat will give her something positive to look forward to, and help her regain an internal sense of peace and balance. Our hope is that through fundraising efforts, we can raise enough money to make several breast cancer survivors Cowgirl Yoginis every year. Please help us make a difference in the fight against cancer. Or in cowgirl lingo - help us kick cancer's ass.
Yeehaw & Namaste!
HOW TO HELP
Giddy Up & Get your Cowgirl tee
Big Sky Yoga Retreats has teamed up with ChewyLou Designs and retreat alumna Alyssa Dinowitz to create the "Cowgirl" tee.
Price is $34. Long-sleeved tee in chocolate and pink, with pink writing. The front simply says "COWGIRL". The sleeve has the CY "brand", with a hand-embellished Swarovski crystal. And the back spells it all out:
All proceeds from the sale of this tee will go to our Cowgirls vs. Cancer scholarship fund, dedicated to paying tuition and travel costs for Cowgirl Yoga scholarship recipients. So start shopping - buy one for yourself, your mom, your sister, your friends, anyone you know who wants to be a Cowgirl! Full scoop on the Cowgirl tee here (sizing, shipping, returns, etc.)
Plan a yoga fundraising event in your area
Big Sky Yoga Retreats is also helping coordinate fundraising yoga classes all over the US to raise money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Amy's charity of choice. We will list your class date here, and provide marketing materials and tees to sell at events. Contact us at info@bigskyyogaretreats.com to request an information packet on how to offer a Cowgirls vs. Cancer yoga class in your area!
ABOUT AMY
2010 Cowgirls vs. Cancer scholarship recipient
Growing up my parents modeled many of my current day values, with a strong emphasis on a lifestyle of health and wellness. My father was a marathon runner who practiced yoga every morning to Lilias on PBS before Yoga was mainstream. Mom, a nursing instructor, grew and maintained acres of organic vegetable gardens and fruit trees. I recall fall evenings spent canning and freezing earth's bounty to provide our family with healthy meals.
As an adult, I cultivated these same experiences in my own life. I became a yoga instructor while raising four children, understanding that my practice not only gave me balance in a hectic lifestyle but also spoke to my children about the connection of a healthy mind and body.
On August 17, I anticipated a "normal" day in our household. An early morning practice, a first routine mammogram appointment, and preparation for one last quick summer getaway were on the Amy Annis docket for the day. It was a beautiful day and my only thought was to move through morning quickly and enjoy those last few summer moments before it was back to school and life got crazy busy. I was curtailed at the appointment, asked to return for a few more tests, and by 5 pm I found myself meeting with a surgeon discussing strategy for my breast cancer diagnosis.
I will always remember that evening, sitting at a computer researching risk factors in an attempt to understand how this could have happened to me. Never smoked, exercised all my life, no family history of cancer. The only risk factor that applied was that I am a woman.
Wait, whoa, what...cancer? Are you kidding? The shock and awe of that word knocked me off my feet for at least three days. The following week wasn't much better as I unconsciously walked through a barrage of tests, able to pick up only a word here and there. First, I heard "cancer", the next phrase being invasive lobular cancer, then finally someone in the medical community mentioned the "size"...this wasn’t the tumor of a green-juicing, organic-eating, forty year-old yoga mama. This was the kind of tumor typically seen in the breast of an eighty year-old woman. Internally, I began bracing myself for the worst, planning in my head for the potential of hearing the word terminal.
Fortunately, the next word wasn't terminal, it was "treatable." I'm still clinging to that word and the hope it gives me.
Today chemo has begun, and as the strength of my body slows, I draw on the values yoga has taught me. The philosophy of acceptance now outweighs the memory of a strong yoga instructor who once had the ability to lead a roomful of students through a challenging sequence. As I laid recently in my MRI, holding hands with my husband, I could visualize the beautiful faces of my children while releasing tension with each exhale.
Cancer, without a doubt, shakes your foundation. And yet, I am still invigorated by the support of my cancer posse, a circle of friends and family who have rallied around me at each bend in the road. As I journey through, something disguised as a loss has slowly emerged as an opportunity. My focus isn’t completely clear yet but I do have a newly found creative edge, a desire to make a difference, and a better appreciation for my amazing life.
My children gave me meaning, yoga fed my soul, and cancer is my new springboard for limitless opportunities. If you would have asked me on August 17, how has cancer affected you, I could not have imagined it would have made me so fearless. And how, despite many tears at each turn, I am empowered.
For years I have lived in the world of a busy mom, prioritizing math homework and navigating the complex world of carpooling. I decided at one point to justify my love of yoga; I could teach it, and contribute to the family in some small way. Late nights, when the kids would finally sleep, I would pour through yoga books and publications dreaming of the day when a yoga retreat could be a reality. Now that I have cancer, I approach things with gusto. That fearlessness I mentioned before allows me to envision not "what if" but "when". An email with Margaret from Big Sky Yoga Retreats was the first step. Now, as the reality of it unfolds, I envision yoga, breathing in a Big Sky breath, and just "being" in a Montana moment. It's healing.
Photos of Amy by Lucinda Kemmet