Yoga for Scleroderma teaches the therapeutic benefits of yoga - to include postures (and variations), breath-work, and guided relaxations and meditations - for individuals who have Scleroderma. The journey began with an invitation to teach yoga during the Scleroderma Foundation’s 2002 National Conference in Las Vegas. Which lead to a full program and video content that applies the techniques of Yoga for the Special Child® - the Sonia Sumar Method to the symptoms of scleroderma. Since that time, the efforts and offerings have continued grow. When the COVID pandemic began in 2020, we were optimistic in the beginning that life would return to normal quickly. We hoped to be off globe-trotting again, doing what we love and supporting the Scleroderma community as we had in recent years attending in-person events and being physically present. That optimism was short-lived and we had to find new ways to connect and continue to offer our presence and support our mission. As a result, we host two weekly LIVE Zoom guided meditation sessions that we call “Wednesday Wind-Down” - a chance for individuals to join us for 15-30 minutes to take care of their physical and mental health in these challenging times. After all, stress management is a key factor to managing autoimmune conditions like Scleroderma. The audio only portion of these guided meditations sessions are recorded then turned into the podcast that we share each week via podcast AND YouTube platforms. This is our biggest outreach effort to date, and we couldn’t be more proud. This work has spawned other efforts like webinars and Zoom attendance at Support Groups - both in larger numbers than when we were mobile. Additionally, on our YouTube Channel we are now beginning to offer some of our videos with closed-captioning and translations into other languages – Hindi, Dutch, and Mandarin to start. While the world battled a pandemic, we found a blessing in disguise.
