No Ordinary Yoga Teacher

Male: You're watching Everwell, Know More, Live Better. Matthew Sanford: You're deepening your experience right, by inward and outward connecting. As a yoga instructor, Matt Sanford teaches his students the standard poses. Matthew Sanford: Grab your elbows behind your back. Male: And emphasizes the connection between their bodies and minds. Matthew Sanford: And os we’re going to get that space right, that feeling and sensation os space. It feels good. Male: Not that unusual for a yoga class unless you consider that Matt is paralyzed from the chest down. Matthew Sanford: My paralyzed body didn’t stop talking to my mind, it changed its voice. And a lot of what I've done with yoga and what I do, it just integrating mind and body is learn to listen to a different voice. Male: Matt was 13 years when his world changed forever. A car accident during a family trip took the lives of his father and sister and left Matt with a broken back and neck. He was in a comma for three days. Matthew Sanford: I woke up slowly. I was very, very touch-and-go for a period time. It took me a while to figure out all that was going on. And really, even though you say, oh you're never going to walking in. that even takes—not only days, weeks but years to figure what that actually means. Male: His care givers urged him to focus on strengthening his upper body and ignore his lower body. Matthew Sanford: And I’m laying there and I'm sad, tell the doctors that I feel sensation in my whole body. And they say, oh no, no, no. and so, they told me that they were phantom feelings it was as ifs my legs were amputated. And amputee often looks into the covers and goes—whoa! You know I don’t legs. And they just told me to kind of forget about that level of sensation. Male: Seeking to feel whole again, Matt took his first yoga class at age 25. Finally, he’d found a way to reconnect with his entire body. Matthew Sanford: Even with arms over my head, you know I need to push down to my sits bones and my feet as I stretch my arms up even though I can’t lift physically. It's my birth right to be in my whole body. Male: Today, as a yoga instructor, Matt helps others who are disabled, claim that same birth right. Female: There is definitely a part of me that thought, how was yoga really going to help me. But as I began working with Matt I learned better techniques on how to breathe better and feel all the way down into my back ribs even though it's not something I'm maybe able to feel. I know, I could feel, the sensation began to change a little bit. Male: Matt also teaches those same techniques to students who are not disabled, helping them reconnect with their bodies. Christine Paul is a former gymnast and diver whose athletic past has left her with injuries. Christine Paul: To tell you the truth, I used to hate my body. Now, it's almost like I can use my body and I can use it to feel good. That’s just a 180 degree change. Matthew Sanford: If you can’t do mountain climbing anymore or do something you know, like play soccer all day long at 45 years old because you wake up the next day and you're hardly able to walk. You’ve got to find a new way to live in your whole body. Male: Now married and a father of two, Matt shares that message in an award winning book he’s written. A message he says that applies to us all. Matthew Sanford: Regardless of your age, regardless of your physical or mental condition, when you're living in your whole body in a greater, you're happier. You feel more joy. Life is easier and better. So, you need to start listening to your body.