Mindstream – Featured Yogi – Lindsay Roselle

Happy July to all our yoga friends worldwide!

This month’s featured yogi is Lindsay Roselle from Fort Collins, Co. Lindsay used yoga as a way to heal her body after a traumatic horse accident left her severely injured. Her recovery process was an inspiration for her. She completed Yoga Medicine’s 200hr teacher training and opened her very own yoga studio, Mindstream Yoga. Lindsay is currently completing her 500hr teacher training with us and is using yoga as medicine in her community. Read Lindsay’s remarkable story below and share your own personal story with us at www.yogamedicine.com

Mindstream

My yoga practice has been a part of my life since I was a teenager, but its medicinal benefit really became clear to me after a terrible accident I had with my horse in 2010. As I was leading him back to his pen one evening, he spooked and trampled me, which severely broke the middle and ring fingers on my left hand and caused a traumatic head injury and small brain-bleed that left me in the Neuro ICU unit. Luckily the brain-bleed resolved without surgery, but the injury to my hand turned out to be more severe than I expected. As the fingers healed, the connective tissue and new scar tissue over the broken joints contracted, leaving the fingers in a bent position at the middle knuckle and me unable to bend or straighten them at all.

My yoga practice completely changed as I adjusted to not being able to support weight effectively on my left hand. I no longer felt comfortable in arm balances that required supporting weight on the hands, and even simple postures like Down Dog were a challenge. Adding to this, my entire body felt different from the trauma of the accident, and my confidence in its ability to move and support itself was low.

Rebuilding from the Ground Up

I had been a Division 1 college athlete and had a regular yoga practice for years, so needless to say I was completely humbled (and somewhat frustrated) by how the body changes as it processes injury and trauma. After months of physical therapy and modified yoga, I ended up having surgery on the fingers and began the long journey of rebuilding strength and flexibility in my fingers, hand, and arm. Shortly after my surgery in early 2011, I began my 200 Hour Teacher Training program as a way to hold myself accountable to a mindful healing process and the reintegration of yoga into my life post-surgery. As I progressed through training, my fingers began to move again, and my confidence in my body and practice slowly came back.

I was so inspired by what was happening in my body. I started to write the business plan for the studio that I went on to open in early 2012. When Mindstream Yoga, Inc opened I was incredibly excited to share the power of yoga as medicine. I have been humbled and honored to see it help transform so many people’s lives since. I attended my first 500 Hour retreat with Tiffany in September of 2012. Now, I am completing the final case studies for my 500 Hour certification in Yoga Medicine. I expect to finish this fall. The inspiration to start Mindstream is 100% a result of the transformative process of healing with yoga.

Today I can truly say that I am grateful for the accident. Not only because it inspired me to create Mindstream, but also because it led me to this amazing YM community 🙂

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