The following text was sent to us by one of our IYT graduates Rebecca Laney. Rebecca is director of the Center for Yoga and Health in Clinton, Mississippi. The following is an excerpt from an article that was on the front page of the Health and Fitness section of the Clarion-Ledger Newspaper, in Jackson, Mississippi, Monday, July, 17^th, 2000

The modest white building that houses the Center for Yoga and Health on Clinton's U.S. 80 sits poker-faced, back from the road like a secret; but the charged air inside fairly crackles with energy.

To walk into Rebecca Laney's yoga studio is to enter an oasis of calm. Soothing music pours out of the CD player in the corner, and water gurgles, out of a seated Buddha at the door. There is an abundance of sunshine bursting through the windows. The natural wood floor of the studio is blanketed in sheets of white light.

Laney's laughs ring out across the room. Outfitted in a purple silk shirt and black leggings, she is the picture of fitness. She stands sturdy and tall, healthy to the bone. She looks every bit the part of the yoga instructor she is. "The minute I was introduced to yoga, it was just oxygen for me," says Laney, whose 47 years sit on her as gently as a silk shawl. You would never guess this woman's a warrior -besides the fact that she survived the ravages of breast cancer three times, she is also a widow with two teenage sons. That silk shawl should probably be something closer to brass-plated chain mail.

She's only been in the building for a few months - she taught yoga out of Baptist Medical Center for years - but then, she says, this building just appeared on her horizon and she couldn't ignore . " Buying the building wasn't just a leap of faith - it was full faith ahead," she says. Through Yoga she has learned the fine art of surrender which doesn’t mean giving up the fight.

"Yoga is about surrendering to the pulse of the universe," Laney says. "You accept what you are and what you have, and you learn to be happy with it. It's all we really ever have - the present - and if you can embrace it, and not feel like you're being denied, you can be blissfully happy, regardless of your lot. The healing just goes so far beyond the physical" This, then is her secret.

"People with very weak, damaged, imperfect bodies sometimes don't know that they can reclaim a large part of their fitness, " she says. "But through Yoga, they can.

For more information:

Rebecca Laney, Director • 610 HWY 80 East • Clinton, MS 39056• 601 924-7298