By Annette (Annapurna) Zucco

Interviewed by Agnes (Aikya) Hetherington

I met Amy in spring 2023, a month after her quadruple bypass surgery. The pain, fear and trauma poured out of her, a stream of hyperanxiety. At 59, her chest had been surgically opened up, exposing her physical and emotional heart.

We began with Ujjayi Pranayama and then moved on to the high-risk protocol for Embodyment^® Yoga Therapy. After her first session, Amy reported “…feeling very relaxed in the chest area, feeling very soothed.” 

Amy adopted a home practice of Ujjayi Pranayama while continuing with  Embodyment^® sessions. She was walking daily for cardiac rehab, but she would vomit after the walk. The exercise was medically necessary, while we were balancing it out with yoga practices. 

The power of this practice continues to amaze me. Amy was learning techniques to calm herself and live her life. By summer, she could take her walk without pain or vomiting. She reported feeling movement in her sacrum, being open and relaxed in her chest. By winter, now doing the standard Embodyment^® protocol, she described “dropping into that state of peacefulness.” 

In Spring 2024, it was obvious from her breathing that Amy settled in very deeply. She remembered nothing but reported “I went very deep inside.”  I let her settle into Self, into that healing place, a few more minutes.

Fourteen months after traumatic surgery, Amy took a two-week trip to Italy with her husband. She still has her challenges, but she realizes that she is more than her pain or anxiety. This incredible progress was achieved simply by following the Embodyment^® protocols. It is so powerful, truly a therapeutic tool to be respected.

By Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast, Yogaratna

Adventurous and enthusiastic at 81 years of age, Bette sought Svaroopa^® yoga therapy after ziplining and white water rafting in Costa Rica last winter.   Her neighbor — a Svaroopa^®  yoga student — noticed Bette walking “strangely,” clearly in pain.  Her neighbor suggested yoga therapy. Bette replied with a resounding “yes.” 

After a series of 10 Overlap Healing Embodyment^® sessions, Bette’s back pain was gone.  Her shoulder pain was gone too. But that can’t be attributed entirely to yoga therapy.  Midway through her Overlap Healing, her painful shoulder got an anesthetic injection from her physician.

Bette began yoga therapy with level 10 pain in her sacrum and 7 in her right shoulder. Her physician had diagnosed a fracture of the left side of her sacrum.  Years before, she’d had two surgeries to repair torn ligaments and tendons in the shoulder.  At age 9, she incurred a serious tailbone injury.

Per protocols for a high-risk client, I began her pain treatment by teaching her Ujjayi Pranayama.  She took to it immediately. Afterward, she felt “much more relaxed.” She was “only slightly aware of” the sacrum pain with which she’d arrived.  Her shoulder was also “feeling much better.”  During the six weeks of her Overlap Embodyment^® sessions, Bette faithfully practiced daily Ujjayi breathing.

After four sessions in a row, she reported feeling “straighter without trying or straining, taller and just calmer up and down my back.”  Her pain steadily lessened through the six sessions at wider intervals.  In her final session, Bette arrived with no pain in her shoulder and just a level 1 in her sacrum.  At the end, she had zero pain and told me, “I don’t understand it.  It’s sort of mystical.  The pain is gone.”

I moved 2,000 miles away a few weeks later. So Bette has continued weekly sessions with another Embodyment^® Therapist near her.  She wrote me a note saying that her “sacrum fracture has become less painful.” She feels that with continued daily Ujjayi breathing it “has a better chance to heal.”

Yes, Embodyment^® plus Ujjayi opens us to the healing power of Consciousness.