060. Trusting the Yoga with Matthew Sanford

Matthew Sanford is an expert in the process of transformation through the healing power of yoga. Paralyzed from the chest down at age thirteen and beginning yoga at age twenty-five, Matthew knows firsthand the transformative effect that yoga can have on the mind-body relationship. He’s the author of Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence, and the founder of the nonprofit organization, Mind Body Solutions. 

• Book, Waking:A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence


• Organization: Mind Body Solutions


• Online Classes: The Hub


• Jivana explains how connecting with Matthew launched the first Accessible Yoga Conference


• The role of the student and the role of the teacher - sit shoulder to shoulder


• Finding agency


• “Yoga is infinite. You can’t put your arms around the whole ocean.”


• “Let the emptiness be full.”


• “Poses don’t end at the terminus of your body”


• Set conditions for the mind to receive from places it can't control


• Breath being the link


• Wheelchair users grounding with their base, reconnecting to the earth


• Boundaries and reference in asana


• Humanity & humility