More significantly for us, Cheri was Corrina’s restorative yoga teacher.

Corrina incorporated much of Cheri’s teachings in the classes she herself taught for many years and still uses Cheri’s lessons in her own daily, private practice to this day.

The following
is Edited from
a conversation between
cheri, Corrina, & David
on february 6th, 2024

What motivated you to specialize in the work that you do?

 My whole journey with finding yoga came when I personally went through a health challenge; I was diagnosed with cancer in my 20s. I was in a yoga class when I had the sense that something was wrong. This realization took me completely out of the profession I had been in, focusing instead on healing. But I had also been sick a lot as a child, which gave me a lot of compassion for people who were sick.

 As a result, I ended up studying yoga, thinking that if that moment in the yoga class might have saved my life, I wanted to share it with more people. I studied energy healing and massage and began offering my services to people dealing with AIDS and HIV in LA in the late '80s. Having many friends from the film industry, where I worked before getting sick and switching to the healing arts, I felt drawn to help that community, especially before the advent of antiviral drugs when many were dying. I started by bringing free classes to people at the local yoga center during lunch hours, opening it to those with HIV and AIDS. Later, I worked in an AIDS hospice and saw that healing could even occur through the dying process.

As a cancer survivor, I wasn't ready just yet to work with people with cancer. However, when I moved from LA to Santa Barbara and had become a yoga therapist, I started a program at the Ridley-Tree Cancer Center, then known as the Santa Barbara Cancer Center. I introduced Therapeutic Yoga to their Wellness Department. This yoga isn't about doing down dogs or active movements but is a restful, very healing practice.

 That program started 25 years ago, and I continue to teach those classes each week. It has been a passion of mine to work with people going through cancer, witnessing the healing that integrative practices can bring to those dealing with stress, fear, and worry. Part of my aim is to create a safe environment where people can take an active role in their healing process. Yoga, guided meditation, and visualization were crucial in my healing journey. Influenced by figures like Bernie Siegel in the '80s and other imagery teachers, I've seen the power of combining mind-body practices, knowing that reducing stress can speed up wound healing and enhance immune function, among other benefits.

How did you first meet Corrina? And how did you first become involved in her healing journey?

I co-led the Integrative Yoga Therapy teacher training for many years, and then went on to develop and teach the Therapeutic Yoga Training program. I was invited to teach in Connecticut at West Hartford Yoga (WHY), where Corrina was a beloved teacher. She took the training which was a continuing education for people already in the teaching or healthcare profession. Right from the start, I noticed her beautiful, thoughtful presence and her immediate grasp of the work. Later, Corrina attended my Montana retreat, which was an opportunity to witness the warrior in her. 

The retreat was on 8000 acres of land in a beautiful spot, Blacktail Ranch in Montana. In the morning, everybody would come in, Heather Tiddens and I would lead chanting, singing Native American songs to drumming and we would meditate and do yin yoga, then a really strong two hour yoga class. We were, in part, preparing people for the deep work of a vision quest on the land, where everybody would go out and find their spot, stay overnight, with no protection, no food, nothing, 24 hours on the land with prayer flags, where they've marked their spot, their place, their boundary and, in essence, their safe and sacred space. Then after they've been on the land for 24 hours, they come right into a sweat lodge ceremony.

It was really beautiful to see her strength and I see that strength in how she's also overcome such a dire diagnosis, not only survived, but thrived, and is here to teach all of us now. I said in our last meeting, she's my teacher now. I think those things we do in life, those ways of witnessing aspects of ourselves can be powerful when you're dealing with something challenging, to also find the strength of the warrior within and know there are places within you that you'll pull from.

It's an incredible, amazing experience that requires a lot of courage to undertake such deep work. In essence, being diagnosed with cancer initiates another level of deep work, almost like a vision quest, where one must gather strength and confront what arises. Having additional supports in place, I believe, truly makes a difference. David and your mother [Claudia], your entire team of love were incredibly important and demonstrate how powerful that support can be.

Corrina & Cheri, October 2019

When you were first diagnosed, you called me, and we discussed your prognosis. You asked me whether I thought you could survive it, and I emphasized that no one knows your power better than you do. You have to remember that there is always hope. I've witnessed people heal in what could be described as miraculous ways, and you are an example of that. So to believe and to know that there's always a potential and possibility for healing is huge. I think that's so important.

And interestingly, on the day you called, I was recording a meditation at the studio, requested by a surgeon in LA who had attended my yoga retreats. He asked if I’d do a surgery meditation for his patients to listen to before their procedures, having liked my previous meditations. We collaborated on the content, making adjustments based on his feedback, taking out certain words, but you were the first to use this meditation.

When facing a surgery, if you listen to a guided meditation which prepares you for your surgery by having you talk to your body, telling it what will happen, visualizing the surgery going well, it can affect how you fare through the experience. I created the Preparing for Surgery product to support people in their healing journey, preparing for surgery and healing afterwards with two meditations: a breathwork practice and an EFT Tapping video for stress reduction. These practices can help you to sleep better and focus on things that bring you comfort, like knowing you're in good hands, your surgeon will take care of you. Surgeries are scary, especially brain surgery. Having something to focus the mind on that is positive and supportive, such as listening to a guided meditation, or focusing on a friend that is going to be there on the other side of it, makes a huge difference.

Cheri’s recorded meditation “Preparing for Surgery” was a constant source of comfort THROUGHOUT many moments OF Corrina’s entire journey. Corrina was religious about listening to it before every surgery she underwent.

How do we begin listening to our bodies? Does yoga teach the ability to listen?

Definitely. But I do want to say sometimes it is hard to go in and listen when there's pain. It's hard to tune in when you're scared of that tumor that's there. You don't want it. You want to stay away from it. So it's also about honoring where you are. But if you can go in and connect with your breath and deepen your breath, it will start to calm your nervous system. And when you get calmer, the mind can quiet and you can turn on that internal listening, that ability to feel more deeply. 

One of my friends, a doctor who has since passed away, used to say to me, “if people would just stop and listen to their bodies throughout the day, people would be much, much healthier”. So in honor of him, I developed a meditation called “me time” where you stop in the middle of your day and you put your hand on your heart and on your belly. You go within (and it might be with your eyes open, whatever is comfortable). And you take a few deep breaths, which also helps you to relax and tune in. And then you take your focus inside and you feel inside. You notice what you're feeling, you notice your breath, you might even feel your heartbeat. And then, once you're a little relaxed and it might just take a moment (if you're in a stressful moment, it might take a few moments of breathing), you ask yourself, you ask your body, how are you? You ask it a question. 

…and you listen for however it responds because the body may respond with a sensation. It might show you something - you might have a visual, you might hear words, everybody's different. You just ask yourself and your body, how are you? That's the first step and you listen. 

 At this point in the conversation, Cheri slowed her words down and quieted.
We all closed our eyes and began listening on a much deeper, intrinsic level.
The conversation took on a new form of connection.

And sometimes you just need a few minutes of that and then you ask it, what do you need? What do you need? And sometimes, you’ll have a sense of something pretty simple like “I'm thirsty”, and maybe there's a glass of water right there and you can take a sip, but it might say “I need a week off” and you might not be able to do that right away. You might have to schedule it. Or it might say, “I'm feeling fearful. I need some calming” and I need to lay down and do whatever it is to try to meet it. 

That's the third step of the “me time” practice - to meet whatever you sensed as quickly as you can so your body feels heard. You then start to develop this relationship with your body where it says, “Oh, they listened to me, they talked to me and they listened to me”. It sounds really far out. But you will get senses and you'll get feelings. And as you follow them, they will get easier. And then it happens more in the moment of, for instance, ordering food, where you might think, “Oh, I'm going to order that”, but your body doesn't feel good at the thought of it, so you make a better choice…it comes more into the moment of awareness. And so it helps you to just navigate a little more easily. 

And it can also be described as a green, yellow, red light. I'm thinking about something and it feels like a red light. And I might explore why. And maybe it's a green light, maybe it's a yellow light. That's another kind of a listening technique. But in yoga, there are moments of stillness, especially in Therapeutic Yoga, which includes restorative yoga postures where your body's held by pillows and props. If you'd like, you can put an eye pillow or scarf over your eyes and you can lie back and just get quiet and notice your breath, or whatever shows up in that moment for you. Or, in that moment, you can listen to a guided meditation, or someone says, “feel the light flowing down from above and breathe that light into the area of your body that's healing and feel it helping and supporting your healing." Simple imagery while you’re resting can help to calm the nerves and turn off the pain. For instance, for people that have chronic pain, I might have them visualize putting their pain on a little dimmer switch and when they go into meditation, they just turn the volume of it down and their nerves respond. 

So when we're focusing our mind, the brain can be like an orchestrator for the cells of the body and for the different systems of the body, conducting, telling them what to do.

That’s so true - we hear of the ability to manifest our reality through our thoughts and how what we think is put into existence. When Corrina was finally in the clear, Claudia and I shared that we were afraid the entire time, thinking we'd lose her. Corrina laughed at us as if we were crazy and admitted she never once thought she was going to die. She didn't accept that fear or probability; it simply never entered her psyche. I think that tremendously contributed to her survival. 

That is medicine, right? Medicine for your whole being - to be positive, focused on each step and knowing where your energy needed to be. I remember seeing you in the pool doing therapy, working, getting deeper healing. You were so focused on surviving this, moving through, focusing - here you are showing others the way.

Even before facing a disease or when we're sick, the ability to go inward and listen holds immense value. Corrina, in particular, was so in tune with her body through her yoga practice that she was able to notice early on when an imbalance began to manifest. Because of her profound listening, awareness, and deep connection to her body, we were able to address the issue earlier, as opposed to waiting for something more severe and pronounced to happen, which would have forced us to take notice almost too late. And yet, still doctors didn’t believe Corrina…

[CORRINA] 

I remember going into UConn and everyone was saying, “well I don’t think it’s that big of a deal”. And I remember trying to walk in a straight line and couldn’t. 

[DAVID]

We know our bodies better than anyone else.

[CHERI]

If I remember right too, other health care practitioners didn't think it was a big deal. And that's really hard. You do have to always trust your instincts. I hear it all the time with young women with breast cancer. They say, “I just know something's wrong”. And the doctors say, “you're young, no problem” and then, sure enough, they get diagnosed. So I think that it’s really important throughout your treatment and throughout your journey to keep listening and keep checking in. 

And feel the healing as it's happening too and celebrate it. Celebrate being able to ride your bike again or all the things that you've been able to to come back to. There are things too that change when we go through any treatment - people lose parts of their body, people lose certain abilities, but it doesn't mean that you can't have an incredible life. Keep on bringing those things that really support you and are feeling good to you in and asking for help, asking for what works. Having your support system in place is really key. All of those things make a huge difference in addition to whatever else you're doing and love is so healing and seeing you guys get married was just.. wow…how powerful that is - your love and your support.

We're Incredibly grateful for you, Cheri. It goes without saying how grateful Corrina is for you in her life, but even moreso, you were Corrina’s restorative teacher and the two of us actually met when I started attending her restorative classes. I was going through an incredibly stressful time in my life, in this new town where I knew no one. It was very foreign to me and I sought out some place of relative familiarity which was the yoga studio and Corrina’s restorative practice. I kept coming back to it because it was such a healing experience for me.  I fell in love with Corrina through it . So, I'm incredibly grateful for you as a teacher, which then made Corrina a teacher, and ultimately brought us together.

[LAUGHTER]

That just is the cream on top right! Oh, I love hearing that. And you two are just incredible together; I'm so glad you found each other on this big blue planet and yes - many, many more years of joy ahead. 

Thank you for inviting me to be a part of this. And thank you for being an inspiration to me and for teaching me through all that you've been through. Look at you - you're amazing. I love you. And I'm so happy to see you both tonight. Thank you for having me here. 

You can find all of Cheri’s resources here: https://linktr.ee/chericlampett