getting down to the roots

Vedanta scholar Dr. Madan Bali has long been known for his brilliant work in the field of yoga therapy. His methods are rooted in the yogic traditions he started learning as a preschooler in India, as well as his fascination with the body’s ability to spontaneously heal itself. By the time Dr. Bali came to Canada in 1969, he had left his childhood dream of becoming a medical doctor behind, but his interest in yoga, illness and healing has been a constant.

“Nature is there to take care of us – to guide us and protect us in some way,” says Dr. Bali. “We have the ability to heal ourselves. Like the roots of a plant, our body is a product of our thoughts.”

Now 83 years old, he has been teaching his methods to those living with serious or chronic illnesses for the past 40 years, in the hopes of broadening our understanding of the causes of illness and creating opportunities for healing. Through a blend of asana, pranayama, meditation, Kriya Yoga and the study of Vedanta and Samkhya, Dr. Bali teaches his students how to use the stability that yoga offers to help in the healing process.

In 1999, Dr. Bali started working with breast cancer survivors and women seeking treatment for the disease. After experiencing how much the classes eased the side effects of their treatments and helped improve their quality of life, the group decided to approach the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation to seek their support in funding an organization called Serenité to provide these classes on a larger scale. In July 2007, he took this work a step further by agreeing to teach yoga classes to women undergoing treatment for breast cancer, as part of a year-long clinical research trial at Montréal’s Maisonneuve Hospital. To learn more about Dr. Bali’s research and methods, please go to www.yogabliss.ca.