About Second Nature 
Wellbeing for Life

Second Nature Wellbeing for Life is based in Bloomington Indiana, specializing in supportive therapies, yoga therapy, lifestyle therapy, and in-home therapy for women of all ages with long-term health challenges. 

​

Second Nature offers common-sense, sustainable alternatives to mainstream therapy, therapeutic rehabilitation, and chronic pain management. The therapies we provide may complement conventional physical and mental health therapies or be integrated into our Lifestyle Therapy programs as a therapeutic resource and means of self-care for those who wish to have a mindful, active role in their overall health and wellbeing. Rather than symptom-centric, formulaic therapy, clients receive personalized therapy and a person-centric outlook on their health, recovery and healing.

​​​​

​​​

Yoga Therapy as Lifestyle Medicine

​

The concept of yoga as a therapy is not knew; however, its currently expanding role in healthcare and as a lifestyle therapy—on a global scale—requires a bridge connecting the vast tradition of yoga with those who can benefit most but may be unaware of its scope and adaptability. We are grateful to have studied yoga therapy with Dr. Ganesh Mohan, a yoga therapist and medical doctor trained both in allopathic medicine and in Ayurveda. We are equally grateful for the ongoing mentoring from A.G. Mohan and Indra Mohan—long-time students of Krishnamacharya, and founders of the Svastha Yoga Therapy System, an international network of yoga therapists emphasizing whole-person wellbeing and yoga therapy as an individualized practice. The Sanskrit word Svastha describes a complete state of balance: being oneself or in one's natural state, and healthy in body and mind. ​

​

Today’s outlook on yoga is framed around movement… usually more being better than less. However, yoga is about stillness. It is not about standing on your head or flexibility. Instead, it is a means to quiet the mind and its incessant demands for attention, as well as the body’s all too often plaintive calls for relief from pain and general discomfort. With yoga therapy, one seeks to bring stability, ease, and calm, in both physiological terms and in overall mental and emotional wellbeing.

 

Second Nature Yoga Therapy™ takes a less is more approach. We leave aside the distractions and focus on you as an individual. How is your sleep? Do you feel well or sick after eating? Are you an early bird or evening owl? Can you walk outside, or do you feel limited due to pain, injury, or PTSD? Where has your life taken you, and where are you now? When you ask yourself about outlook on life, does your mind respond with a sense of happiness and life-satisfaction, or tension, apprehension, anxiety?

​

Regardless of your perceived abilities or inabilities, we would like you to experience the subtle and sometimes dramatic effects of yoga, both in body and sense of wellbeing, by providing not only therapy but a means of self-care which will endure for a lifetime. Although helping others takes us into various settings—clinical, palliative, residential—the core of our yoga therapy is traditional Hatha yoga, grounded in simple yet foundational principles. The most important of these are that yoga is introspective and experienced differently by each person. Its gentle yet profound effect on the body and mind is something to be observed, felt, internalized, creating awareness at all levels.

​​

​​​​​​

Supporting Women 

​​

Compassion in health care is not a mere concept—it is an inherent facet of being a practitioner, and an integral part of healing. Simply liking and trusting one's physician / surgeon / health practitioner has been shown to have exponentially positive effects on recovery and long-term outcomes. This is not surprising: compassion goes hand-in-hand with attentiveness and empathy, two attributes which have been found to be lacking in current, mainstream health care, as well as in caregiving. 

​

Mentoring and Lifestyle Therapy support women through the physical and non-physical practices of yoga therapy, emphasizing stability, self-reliance, and resilience during life-changes, health challenges, and the various roles a woman may take up during the course of a lifetime. Supporting, laughing, crying, and dying with clients for over twenty years has given us a profound appreciation for people's resilience despite the ever-changing state we live in as human beings. We are equally respectful of the potential inner depth, strength, and solidity of the human spirit.

 

Nutritional guidance and counseling for wholesome, healthful eating and lifestyle habits, informed nutrition choices in specific conditions such as Parkinson's, autism, and celiac disease, as well as support for disordered eating, may be integrated into Lifestyle Therapy and Comprehensive Therapy Programs. The relationship between food and physical and emotional wellbeing has been established by science, yet it is an age-old foundation of all traditions of medicine: Food is medicine!

​

Companionship and receiving care and compassion are not age-related. Whether one is facing a cancer diagnosis, recovering from an extended illness, or living with multiple sclerosis, we all appreciate and seek the human touch which goes beyond clinical treatment. A person is a whole, not a sum of parts: Second Nature takes a whole-person outlook on healing and wellbeing, utilizing a therapeutic approach which addresses more than ill-health and encompasses the varied aspects of life and living. 

​​​

​​

Educating & Outreach

 

Compassion. Intention. Experience. These elements are fundamental to practitioners in any healing tradition. Bringing awareness to the public, as well as healthcare providers, of the scope and potential of yoga therapy for self-care, healing, and recovery has been a priority since the founding of Second Nature. As a yoga therapist, mentor and yoga therapy education provider, we endeavor to share what we have learned over time, and with experience.

 

Through educating, speaking, and writing, we are committed to raising awareness of the need for compassion in healing and providing holistic care which is person-centered. Learn more about our outlook and perspectives on care and support, health and healing, as well as published articles and topics in yoga therapy.

​

​​​

How Can We Help?

English, Spanish, French are spoken.

​We welcome your interest, questions, concerns.

​​​