Finding peace
April Gagne sees the health benefits in practicing yoga on top of a ridge at the Christian W. Klay Winery in Chalk Hill. “The pain is relieved with the breath and the focus on relaxing,” said soft-spoken Gagne, a certified yoga instructor at Life Force in Pleasant Hills and Health Trax in Bethel Park. “Also, by learning how to breathe a certain way, you can alleviate cold and sinus problems.”
People with poor posture or back pain will see their posture improved and their pain alleviated through yoga practice, Gagne said.
“Yoga is based on alleviating your body,” said Gagne of South Hills. “I see my students softening. I see their bodies softening. I love seeing my students change for the better because of yoga.”
An early morning retreat on the ridge at the winery led to an uplifting spiritual experience, Gagne said as she described the scene.
“We were totally fogged in one day in late September,” said Gagne.
“We had to find our way through the fog to reach the ridge. The sun started beaming off the fog as it slowly rose through the trees. To see the fog moving up over the ridge and for us to be in the middle of it, it made for a very spiritual experience. My students still talk about it today.”
Gagne said she visited the winery and immediately felt a strong connection to its scenic beauty.
“I said, ‘Wow, wouldn’t this be wonderful to do yoga there,'” she remarked.
Winery owner Sharon Klay agreed to let Gagne hold her yoga sessions on the ridge. Klay told Gagne that she even goes to the ridge when she needs to regenerate.
“It is totally different than in the gym,” she said. “It is a really special magic there. It’s not sound or music but nature. The nature is the music and the view is incredible.”
When a typical yoga practicing session begins, Gagne explained the group starts by lying down in the “corpse pose.” After that, the group then assumes the traditional yoga pose in a cross-legged style.
“We have a whole routine,” she said, “including centering yourself with nature and the elements around you with your breath. We close our eyes and relax. I talk to them throughout it.
“Yoga helps you cope,” said Gagne. “I tell my class the way you feel right now – this calmness, this peacefulness – will continue if you can relax in every situation. You need to be open to change and open to the things around you.”
Gagne began yoga as a stress reliever during a time in her life when stress was all she felt.
Moving into a new area of Pittsburgh and having to drag unwilling adolescents with her contributed to her stress, she said.
Then, she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer.
Gagne said a following of students, some who have been with her for over five years, were there when she needed them the most.
“As I was going through the cancer, one day in class it overwhelmed me,” said Gagne. “I started crying and all of my students rushed to me. Ever since then, they have been with me.
“They support me,” she added. “I believe I get more from them than they get from my classes.”
Gagne said her cancer seemed to magically disappear.
“The doctors can’t understand why I’m not sick,” said Gagne. “My doctor told me, ‘You are the healthiest sick person I know. I wish I could just bottle your energy.'”
“Yoga makes you strong,” she said. “When you are in the poses, you are lifting your entire body weight. I have elderly women who can perform the poses exceptionally well.”
Gagne cannot say enough about how yoga makes one feel better…and younger.
At age 53, Gagne said she doesn’t feel her age at all.
“Yoga helps keep me young,” she said. “The blood is flowing to my head and face. It brings the circulation to the body and color into the face.”
“If everyone would practice yoga, it would be a less-stressful world,” she added. “People would be calmer, more focused and they would get a lot more done.”
For more information about Gagne, contact her at yoganutz@cs.com.