Glass Half Full with Leslie Krongold, Ed.D.

Tag: Cerebral Palsy

  • Fashion: Being Yourself, Expressing Yourself & Your Creativity

    Four women with different physical abilities talk about what fashion means to them and how they deal with fashion challenges.

    Cheryl and Lainie both have Charcot Marie Tooth (CMT) and wear AFO leg braces. Lainie explores fashion hacks and DIY solutions in her blog, Trend-Able.

    Keisha has Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy, studied fashion, and launched her company, Girls Chronically Rock.

    Kirsten Passmore has Cerebral Palsy and has been enjoying CosPlay for the past five years. Learn more about her organization, CosAbility, and see which conventions they’ll attend by liking their Facebook page.

    • Lainie
      Lainie of Trend-Able
    • Kirsten
      Kirsten of CosAbility
    • Cheryl
      Cheryl
    • Keisha of Girls Chronically Rock
  • I Am Not A Pretzel: Accessible Yoga

    I Am Not A Pretzel: Accessible Yoga

    Any style of yoga can be made accessible and provide healing for someone with a physical challenge, someone experiencing anxiety and/or depression, or someone with a larger body.

    Three yoga teachers – skilled in making yoga more accessible – share their stories. Rose Kress, of LifeForce Yoga, experienced relief from years of anxiety and chronic pain when she began a yoga practice. Her teachings focus on mood management incorporating both yoga nidra and the use of mudras, or hand gestures.

    Erica Chaney, of Big Bliss Yoga, began her yoga journey in a restorative class where she felt like she learned to breathe more deeply. Today Erica’s teaching focuses on making yoga more accessible to people with larger bodies.

    Clarissa Hidalgo was first introduced to yoga by a fellow patient at a Multiple Sclerosis clinic at UCSF. Now Clarissa primarily works with private clients with a range of health conditions, i.e. fibromyalgia, degenerative disc disease, arthritis, cerebral palsy, as well as MS.

    To learn more about accessible yoga, check out this earlier podcast episode and the organization’s website.

  • Yoga & Healthy Aging: Maintaining Independence, Activities of Daily Living, and Equanimity

    Baxter Bell, MD with yoga students in a restorative pose

    Baxter Bell, MD is not just a family medicine physician, he’s also a certified acupuncture practitioner and yoga therapist. Together with co-author, Nina Zolotow, they wrote the book, Yoga for Healthy Living: A Guide to LIfelong Well-Being. Baxter talks about his journey and shares insight about what aging people care most about — increasing one’s health span, maintaining independence over time, and cultivating equanimity. The thousands of people that have attended his trainings or follow his blog are concerned about cardiovascular health, brain health, and stress management. Yoga can assist with each of these.

    Please check out Baxter’s Yoga & Healthy Aging Blog, his YouTube channel, and his book.

    Terms discussed in this podcast episode:

    • Asana: In yoga, an asana is a posture in which a practitioner sits; asanas are also performed as physical exercise where they are sometimes referred to as “yoga postures” or “yoga positions”. Some asanas are performed just for health purposes. Asanas do promote good health, although in different ways compared to physical exercises, “placing the physical body in positions that cultivate also awareness, relaxation and concentration.” (Wikipedia)
    • Savasana: corpse pose; is an asana usually done at the end of a yoga practice in which practitioners lie flat on their backs with the heels spread as wide as the yoga mat and the arms a few inches away from the body, palms facing upwards. (Wikipedia)
    • Pranayama: breath or life force; the word is composed from two Sanskrit words: prana meaning life force (noted particularly as the breath), and either ayama (to restrain or control the prana, implying a set of breathing techniques where the breath is intentionally altered in order to produce specific results) or the negative form ayāma, meaning to extend or draw out (as in extension of the life force). (Wikipedia)

    If your interest is piqued, check out these earlier podcast episodes on resilience and equanimity.

  • The D Word: Disability

    The D Word: Disability

    October is National Disability Awareness Month.

    What does it mean to be disabled? A dictionary definition says it’s having a physical or mental condition that limits movements, senses, or activities. Does it coincide with the diagnosis of a chronic health condition? It didn’t for me. And even now I struggle with the term, and you’ll soon hear from a couple of my friends — Cheryl Sherman and Stephen Beard — who have also had difficulties with the term.