Show notes
Holding on to backs of chairs, we pressed our feet firmly into the floor and elongated our spines.
Yoga teachers, caregivers, and former students of Hannah Hedrick met at Wildlight Yoga Studio in Chicago’s Portage Park neighborhood on January 13 to cultivate healthy practices, focus on self-care, and support each other in the process—in other words to connect, communicate, collaborate, and propagate new ideas. Hannah’s goal for the workshop was to provide tools for caregivers and others to reduce stress in their lives. Based on the premise that many caregivers sacrifice their own health and well-being in the service of others, she emphasized that “health care begins with self-care.” While serving others enhances the immune system, caregivers must also balance those efforts with self-care practices: proper breathing, keeping well hydrated, eating well, resting, exercising, having intimacy with another person or a universal life force, and spirituality (belief in a higher consciousness).
Hannah adjusted us in half-moon pose.
Before retiring to Hawaii, Hannah, who has a PhD in comparative literature, worked full-time for 22 years in positions related to allied health professions and medical education at the American Medical Association. She retired in 2000 as director of the Division of Medical Education Products and Publications. (From 1967 to 1978, she held teaching, editing, and administrative positions at Indiana State University and Central Michigan University.) While working at the AMA, Hannah also taught yoga and tai chi chih classes at the AMA, the East Bank Club, Zen Fitness, Test Positive Aware Network, and other Chicago locations.
Hannah has worked with many communities over many decades, including people with illnesses such as COPD, diabetes, and HIV/AIDS, as well as polio survivors, teaching them yoga, tai chi chih, polarity therapy, and the traditional massage of Thailand. In the 1980s and ’90s she developed spiritual connections with people dying of AIDS, offering support to them and their friends and families. In Hawaii, Hannah worked with community programs to pass legislation benefitting people living in substandard subdivisions. More recently, she began teaching classes focusing on propagating healthy living and self-care.
We gave ourselves big hugs to move our spine and twisted side to side, swinging our arms, “slapping ourselves silly.”
At the January workshop, Hannah led participants in movements that emphasized correct posture—grounding our feet firmly on the floor and distributing our weight as symmetrically as possible. While sitting on chairs, we pressed our feet against the floor with our shoulders back and our sitting bones pressing into the seat. We aligned our hips, upper chest, and tops of our heads with chins lifted. From there, we elongated our bodies further to create space between our bottom ribs and our hips and lengthened the back of our necks. Throughout the practices, we were encouraged to pay attention to our breath, thoughts, and feelings. Toward the end, we paired off to do spine and neck massage.
Between exercises, we introduced ourselves to the group and shared stories about recent changes in our lives. Topics of the poignant personal stories included one participant’s move back to a neighborhood on the South Side after living for many decades on the North Side; another’s loss of several longtime friends; a recent retirement; job loss shortly after celebrating a 25-year work anniversary; the toll of work diminishment resulting from the COVID pandemic; being a targeted parent (a circumstance in which one parent manipulates a child to develop an irrational dislike or fear of the other parent); and the process of sobriety.
Hannah demonstrates a neck massage, pressing her soft forearms into the neck of a participant.
We discussed how the changes attendees recounted had opened up new opportunities for them. The targeted parent had written an article on that subject that is now being expanded into a book. Another participant, Argenis Vegas, has published a book titled Trust What Is (see side bar), which is about how suffering can be one of the greatest catalysts for transformation. We should recognize that unfortunate circumstances can work on our behalf, he said. “When you run into difficulty, it is that difficulty that will lead you to the next step. Every circumstance is working toward your next step.”
Hannah, who has been in service to others since her college days when she participated in civil rights sit-ins, encouraged us to create safe communities, maintain healthy lifestyles, form our own self-help groups, and promote resources and events to help others choose healthier behaviors. “Get people with life-threatening conditions involved in your self-care/peer support programs,” she said. “They are part of the solution.”
She emphasized learning “to help people in ways they need help, not in the way you think they need help.” In addition, she said: “In the giving is the receiving; in the receiving is the giving. The more you give, the more you receive.”
The workshop was inspiring on many levels, from moving our bodies in ways that expanded our spines and opened our hearts to sharing our very personal stories. All of the participants felt uplifted by the experience and left with positive feelings and a deep sense of compassion for others.
Hannah will return to Chicago to lead another workshop on Friday evening, May 1, and Saturday, May 2. Details are not yet finalized. For more information, call 773.989.6767.
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Trust What Is
By Argenis Vegas
In Trust What Is, Argenis Vegas invites readers into a way of meeting life that does not rely on control, resistance, or constant striving. Rather than urging change at all costs, he explores what happens when we stop fighting reality and learn to respond from stillness, attention, and trust. The book does not advocate passivity, but a different kind of engagement—one rooted in presence rather than fear.
Vegas challenges the habit of wanting life to be other than it is, suggesting that much of our suffering comes from resistance to what is already happening. When difficulty arises, he encourages readers to pause, observe, and listen before acting—recognizing that sometimes the most honest response is simply to remain present. As he says in the book, “Live and act as if everything is always working on your behalf.” This trust, he suggests, is not blind optimism, but a steady confidence that emerges when we stop arguing with life.
Throughout the book, Vegas emphasizes being aware of thoughts, emotions, and feelings without becoming entangled in them. He encourages readers to allow inner experiences to arise without judgment, resistance, or identification. Over time, he writes, this attentive presence reveals the futility of mental struggle and allows the mind to settle naturally into stillness and clarity.
What gives Trust What Is its depth is that its insights are not presented as theory, but arise from lived experience. Born in Venezuela, Vegas grew up close to his mother within a challenging family environment. At an early age, he also recognized he was gay—an awareness that carried significant emotional and personal consequences, particularly within the context of having an alcoholic father and a culture where homosexuality was widely regarded as sinful and morally condemned.
Vegas emigrated alone to the United States at the age of twenty-one. In this country he earned a degree from Northeastern Illinois University and worked for several organizations, including the City Colleges of Chicago and various social service agencies.
A pivotal turning point in Vegas’s life came in 1987, when he was diagnosed with HIV—at a time when such a diagnosis often carried a grim prognosis. Facing profound uncertainty and loss, he was compelled to look deeply into contemplative and spiritual practices that are explored in this book, not as abstractions, but as a means of survival. These practices helped him navigate fear, grief, and impermanence, and ultimately supported him in not only surviving, but building a meaningful, productive, and engaged life. This lived context gives Trust What Is its quiet authority: the insights offered here were shaped in the presence of real risk, not comfort.
He has served on the Chicago Area HIV Service Planning Council and volunteered with numerous community-based organizations, including The Salvation Army, Chicago House, the AIDS Alternative Health Project, the Test Positive Aware Network, the National Catholic AIDS Network, and the AIDS Pastoral Care Network. He has represented and spoken on behalf of these organizations on many occasions, sharing both professional expertise and personal experience.
Spiritually oriented from a young age, Vegas trained at the Shambhala Meditation Center of Chicago and has participated in multiple meditation retreats. He draws inspiration from sources such as Rumi and Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, while embracing all paths that lead to greater understanding, compassion, and empathy. His approach is inclusive rather than doctrinal, reflective rather than prescriptive.
At its heart, Trust What Is is an invitation to meet life as it unfolds—uncertain, impermanent, and deeply human—while cultivating trust, presence, and inner freedom. The book does not promise an easy life, but it offers something more enduring: a way of being that may enable readers to face whatever arises with clarity, courage, and an open heart.
The post Connecting, Communicating, Collaborating and Propagating with Hannah Hedrick appeared first on Yoga Chicago.
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Celestun is a balm to find your center in these darker days of the year. Mostly instrumental, there are nine songs that clock in just over 30 minutes. Tyler Ramsey, formerly of Band of Horses, and Carl Broemel, the guitarist for My Morning Jacket, make quite a talented pair. Their playing is sublime, two souls who have explored and found their way together, explaining their journeys with two acoustic guitars. You can tell they listen deeply to one another and respond to each other’s playing with grace and patience. The title track opener, “Celestun,” is gentle and rolling, with the two taking turns on their melodic leads. “Elizabeth Brown” has more of a bluegrass feel; it’s upbeat and feels old-timey. In concert at SPACE, Tyler shared that this was the first instrumental he had ever written as a kid. “Nevermind” has a repetitive refrain that is so darn pretty. The whole record is gorgeous. This would be a nice pick for Yoga class setlists, or self-practice.
Right now I’m listening to the latest release by Chicago’s own Harmony Pavett. “Chandra Mantra” is a downtempo, seven-minute plus track in which it is easy to lose yourself. With tribal drumming, synthy-touches, and a relentless hypnotic groove, it soothes your body and mind with its sacred mantra. It’s modern and ancient all at once. The Chandra Mantra is a sacred mantra dedicated to Chandra – the Moon God. It’s said to enhance mental peace and emotional balance and inspire deeper intuition. “Om Shraam Shreem Shraum Sah Chandraya Namah.” Try it out and see if this chant fosters inner peace – it has for me! Harmony’s production partner and collaborator, Hans Christian, is a Grammy-nominated producer and musician who creates exceptionally beautiful music. He is often considered a “musician’s musician – the best of the best.” What a great pairing!
Valentine’s Day was chock full of love at Om on the Range! Beth and Terry Kiely marked their 24th anniversary with a special Chakra Flow Workshop with all proceeds benefitting the Kilbourn Park Advisory Council. $1,500 was raised toward purchasing a sugar maple tree and native garden plantings in memory of beloved Om yogini, Carrie “Scubi” Willman.
