Body Talk: A Time To Heal

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WEARING STRETCHY BLACK PANTS TO YOGA can be anxiety-producing enough. Wearing a wig is even tougher. And Karen Soltes, director of the therapeutic yoga program at Circle Yoga (3838 Northampton St. NW, 202-686-1104), found that women with breast cancer were uneasy about attending classes even if they really wanted to start — or restart — their practice.

So, this Friday, Circle Yoga is launching "Yoga for Breast Cancer Recovery," a six-workshop series (10:30 a.m.-12 p.m.; the series runs through May 16; price depends on how many classes one attends). "We needed to find a way to make it comfortable," she says. Each session is 90 minutes, but a third of the time will be devoted to relaxation — restorative yoga and yoga nidra, a kind of meditation. "There's a lot of anxiety and tension in the body, understandably, when you have this illness," Soltes adds.

In terms of the physical practice, Soltes plans to focus on chest opening and stretching exercises to counteract the effects of radiation. And while other yoga classes may include a great deal of weight-bearing exercises with the arms, they'll be shying away from those poses to limit the risk for lymphedema.