Tera Bucasas is, by traditional training, a Nutritional Therapist and yoga instructor with a BA in Communications, but at her core she is rebellious gypsy who travels the world with never ending curiosity and a spirit of adventure. She is passionate about inspiring women to unleash their innate power and find their wellbeing by working with the body, mind and spirit. Tera believes to make positive change in our world we must challenge the status quo, ask the hard questions and get to the truth beyond the surface. Check out her latest program Yoga for Healing, and connect with her on Instagram, Facebook or at Real. Fit. Yoga.
I am so excited for Tera to share her story here today and to shed light on just how healing yoga can be for the mind, body, and soul. Her approach and modifications in her online yoga video series ‘Yoga for Healing‘ is accommodating for varying skill levels and seasons of life. Her zest for life and healing shines profoundly in this program. I hope you will look into it as we can all use a little bit of extra healing in our lives.
Like so many of us, my own health issues brought me to the health and wellness field. From crazy blood sugar and hormonal imbalances, to terrible digestion things weren’t wonderful in my mid twenties. Let’s be honest though I was a bartender (late nights and probably too much alcohol) who loved pizza and sugar.
I knew it was time to make a life change. I loved food and I wanted to feel better, and those two simple things brought me to become a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. During my training I got healthier than I ever had been.
I become obsessive about nutrition and fell in love with exercise. At the same time I embarked on becoming a yoga instructor. Holistic based wellness always made sense to me and yoga was a wonderful way to round out my intense exercise and my spotless diet.
I thought I had it all figured out. The ailments that had led me down this path were healed.
Until they weren’t.
Despite all I knew only a few months after becoming an NTP and yoga instructor my health took a 180 degree turn.
I was doing everything ‘right.’ So how could I have gotten sick again and even worse than before?
The exact reason is still unknown, it seems it was a combination of many things, as it usually is. What I do know is how I’ve begun to get better. It wasn’t through micro managing my diet even more, taking a million pills or exercising like a maniac (don’t get me wrong, I tried all those things). I know how important food and supplements can be, but there are some of us who try that route and are still at a dead end.
It felt like overnight my energy, my body, my confidence and excitement about life was taken. I had difficulty getting out of bed some day because of either fatigue or depression, my blood sugar was high despite my low carb paleo diet, my sex drive and menstrual cycle were nowhere to be found.
After dozens of tests, several doctors and various practitioners there was one common thread that seemed to come up, the hypothalamus. That little thing in our brain that gives the orders…it didn’t seem to be doing it’s job. My gynecologist asked me if I had any emotional struggles I needed to deal with for goodness sakes.
For awhile I did the only thing I really knew to do, I rested, a lot. And because I had this body and life that didn’t feel like my own I cried and I hid.
To really heal though it seemed I needed to confront some mental emotional turmoil, learn to relax, and to shift my mindset. Instead of constantly believing my body was broken, how could I see the ways it was strong and able?
Yoga.
Power vinyasa yoga, what I had been trained in, was no longer accessible and so I sought out other forms and styles. I began to focus on the nourishing and healing that yoga can bring instead of the sculpted muscles. This was where I began to shift.
In these classes I began to find my way to healing.
There are so many benefits to yoga in healing. Here are just a few:
- Yoga helps us to enter into the parasympathetic nervous system which is where our body can do it’s regeneration.
- It allows us to confront deep buried emotions and beliefs.
- It connects us back to our body and helps us to get in touch with its innate wisdom.
- The posture practice keeps joints healthy, bones strong and lymph flowing.
- Many postures are known to aid our digestive system and help with endocrine health.
- We are able to become aware of our thoughts.
Things are not 100% better, I’m still healing. I’ve learned that true deep healing often takes much longer than any of us like. Longer than that 2 week detox, or month long elimination diet. By nourishing my body gently through yoga I’ve made great strides in regaining my health. I am happy to have my cycle back, my libido returning, and my digestion and blood sugar doing well.
Yoga isn’t magic, but it is powerful and with consistent practice it does wonders to our happiness and well being. Our practice has the ability magnify the other healing modalities we are using and bring us a big leap closer to recovery.
-Tera Bucasas
Yoga for healing is a gentle movement yoga video series that also facilitates a guided relaxation practice. It is for anyone who is on a healing journey and wants to move at their own pace. Can I get an AMEN?! If you want to build strength, enhance joint movement, gain flexibility, modify and take things at your own pace, and RELAX—then this program is for you my dear.
I personally loved doing these videos as I felt like it was something DOABLE for my body. I love that they are in a video format because that meant that I could do them at my own pace when I was ready. I believe this program is indispensable for anyone on a healing journey wanting to pursue movement at their own pace and practice self love. Find it here.
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