While opening a business, and teaching yoga classes, Paula Plichta, co-owner of Rainy Lake Zen Life, started a women’s cancer support group, inspired by her own journey with cancer, and the journeys of women around her walking the same path.
Plichta uses techniques like box breathing and guided meditation to help put the minds of women dealing with all forms of cancer at ease.
According to Plichta, the opening of her business was in progress this past February, around the same time she was dealing with ovarian cancer.
“I wasn’t in the best shape, but it was great to be out doing something,” she said. “Jumping back into teaching yoga in May was a little challenging. I wasn’t as flexible as I wanted to be.”
After opening the yoga studio, several women come forward and asked Plichta about a cancer support group.
“We want to break down all those barriers and create that safe community,” she said.
The group meets for about an hour and a half on the third Wednesday of every month. The group is free of charge, but Plichta requests that participants register online at rainylakezenlife.ca, to give an approximate headcount.
“We have a light lunch, and just talk about our journeys, our struggles, and make connections with like-minded people,” she said. “We see what comes forward for everybody. It’s just that safe space where we can all unite and share the battles, the struggles, and lift each other up.”
The group is meant to support women during their cancer journey, says Plichta, but, “spouses are more than welcome to come if they’re having somebody going through cancer.”
Plichta’s cancer journey wasn’t without difficulty.
“The yoga studio was already in the works at the time of my diagnosis,” she said, “The doctor stated, ‘If we would have waited any longer, it would have been stage four bowel cancer.'”
“They got it out in time,” she said. “I didn’t do a whole heck of a lot for the rest of February and March. It was slow-moving.”
The surgery and 53 staples left her in pain, and she turned to meditation and stretching to help her through.
“I didn’t want to settle into the pain and let it take over,” says Plichta, “So, I actually incorporated a lot of my breathing techniques towards the evening to kind of relax, and make sure I was up and moving and listening to the body and stretching where I could stretch and when I could stretch.”
Plichta believes her journey with ovarian cancer helped her see the importance of launching the support group.
“We were still pushing through,” says Plichta, “but it just added to the importance of the group.”
“We’re all about wellness, we’re not just yoga, we do … wellness and nutrition, we do fitness classes, and we’re trying to bring people out and become aware of their self.”
