Interview with a Yoga Teacher
They say every master was once a disaster. Indeed, many people become healers after overcoming their own life challengers. Yoga instructor, Cindy Bartz, is sharing her wisdom with our readers today.
I was in a bicycling accident around 2005, and as a result of it, I had to be in bed for quite some time. When I went to my physical therapy, they recommended that I do yoga, so that’s how I really got to know it. At around that time, I learned about Qi-gong. Qi-gong helped me to heal my back. Since those practices were so helpful to me, I was inspired to learn more, and eventually got certified and started teaching.
What is Qi-gong?
It’s an ancient Chinese practice, even older than tai-chi, where you would do specific very slow movements. Qi-gong is really considered a healing art that works with the energy channels within your body to heal you from the inside out. It is an amazing practice! What’s also great about it is that you don’t have to really stand up too much, and you can even sit down in a chair. It also teaches incredible breath work. The movements are synced up with your breath, and because of the movements being so slow, your breathing is very long and slow. So, with people who continue to consistently practice it, their lung capacity changes drastically.
I’ve built a great relationship with a client who is 88 years old, who had been very sick with a rare illness affecting the immune system. He was bed ridden with pneumonia for 6 months. Doctors had written him off. Being his age, it’s usually hard to recover at that point. I’ve been practicing Qi-gong with him twice a week for three years, and now he barely even has to use his walker to get around.
Cindy, is there any unique ability that you have that makes you so good ?
I have been doing fitness, wellness and health for so long that I think when I meet a client now, I intuitively know how to completely customize a plan for them. I have grown to have a strong intuitive sense of people and being able to pick up on how exactly to help them along their way.
You’ve been in this practice for a long time, what have you learned about people and life?
One of the things I have observed is that people generally take their health for granted – until something happens. And then we realize “Oh wow, if we don’t have our health, we really don’t have anything.” I remember I read somewhere earlier this year that the number one reason in the United States that people go into bankruptcy is because of medical expenses and financial issues related to their health. When you do not have your physical health, it affects your mental wellbeing. One big observation I’ve made, and I tell this to so many that I’ve worked with, is that until the age of 40, your body can bounce back pretty well. But around age of 40, if you have not started some kind of fitness plan then within those next ten years to 50, it is much harder to get your body accustomed to a system. From 40 to 50 is such a critical age to make sure that you have some type of fitness plan to keep your health intact. And if you don’t have that, by the time you’re 50, people start to see issues with high blood pressure, heart problems, pre-diabetes, etc. And if you still don’t take care of yourself by the time of 50, if you don’t do something to take care of yourself within those years before the age of 60, you can go downhill pretty fast. That is scary, but it is something I have noticed so many times
What problem do you address best?
My specialty is reversing osteoporosis. I have a very comprehensive program for that. I came to know about osteoporosis back in 2010, when I was first diagnosed with osteopenia. Here, I was teaching yoga classes, doing Qi-gong, having a very clean diet and taking the right supplements, but when I had my first nexus scan to check my bone density at age 50, they found that my bones were getting thinner. “No way!” I couldn’t believe it. Of course, they wanted to put me on medicine right away, but I started doing a lot of research and reading about it to learn more. Soon, I discovered that this can be reversed and treated naturally. Many people look at this as a scary disease, but all it is basically is that your body is not producing enough of a type of cell that grows bone. There is a tendency for it to decrease over time for everyone as they grow older. About 50% of women over the age of 50 and 25% of men over the age of 50 will be diagnosed with at least osteopenia at some point in their life. But with good nutrition, exercise, specific supplements and especially keeping stress down, you can reverse it naturally without taking any type of pharmaceutical drug. By doing this research I was able to reverse my own, and also by working with other people and helping them as well, I was able to come up with this program to help people reverse this naturally and holistically. Although I’m not a doctor, but through all my research and experience of helping so many clients successfully, I consider myself a true expert in reversing osteoporosis.
When it comes to health and wellness, my main message to every person would be- to take time for yourself. Everything happens so fast in life. So often we feel more need to do everything for everyone else, whether by our job or family. Our life easily becomes so fast-paced that we forget about ourselves.
I would say that my message would be don’t ever think you are not enough. Never think that you are not worthy. Because if you don’t have your health, then you will not be in a true position to fully help other people.
Interviewed by Catherine Jones
Cindy Bartz
