Yoga instructor teaches healing power of breathing
By Laura Bollin January 23, 2012 12:53PM
Susan Ginsberg make adjustments on Brooke Bassett as she leads a "Stop and Breathe" session for employees at Robbins Headache Clinic in Northbrook. | Ruthie Hauge ~ Sun-Times Media
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Updated: January 25, 2012 9:36PM
Yoga and meditation instructor Susan Ginsberg said she found a higher calling when she started a special business in 2007, helping cancer patients and those with illnesses cure their anxiety through the power of breathing.
Ginsberg’s program, Stop and Breathe, www.stopandbreathe.org, teaches people the proper way to breathe deeply as a tool for relaxation.
“I was a yoga teacher previously, and I started working with a woman that was going through cancer treatments,” Ginsberg said. “She wanted me to teach yoga, meditation, relaxation to her and to her close friends and family so they could support her. She had said something to me, that I was the angel on her shoulder during all of our treatments, helping her stop and breathe, and it stuck with me.”
Most people who are nervous or anxious will breathe in short, rapid bursts, which can increase anxiety, Ginsberg said. Instead, Ginsberg tells her patients to imagine there is a balloon inside their stomachs, which they blow up when they inhale, and deflate when they exhale slowly. She calls it “deep belly breathing.”
Ginsberg said she realized the power of yoga and breathing in 2001, when she went to yoga classes to get relief from a back injury.
She now teaches breathing programs at Highland Park Hospital and the Kellogg Cancer Center, and helps local organizations and corporations learn deep breathing techniques to deal with stress, whether it is before a big surgery, a chemotherapy treatment or a presentation in front of clients.
“When I go into a hospital room, and help someone through anxiety, whether a nurse can’t find a vein to start an IV or they are about to undergo surgery, and I leave the room and they are totally relaxed, that is tremendously gratifying,” Ginsberg said.
Ginsberg said being in a patient’s room can be valuable in and of itself, because it offers comfort.
“Stress is such a big part of our lives. It affects our immune system, and I want to work with people before it gets to that point.”
Mimi Horowitz, a cancer survivor who worked with Ginsberg, said she really helped her through a difficult time.
“Susan taught me yoga breathing. That was most helpful each chemo treatment. I could breathe through having the needle inserted; visualize a good place during my chemo.”
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