Chelsey Moss stands in her studio, Big Buddha Yoga, on Monday, Aug. 9, in front of art by local artist Lori LaBissoniere O’Neil. O’Neil’s art is currently for sale at Big Buddha Yoga.
Chelsey Moss stands in her studio, Big Buddha Yoga, on Monday, Aug. 9, in front of art by local artist Lori LaBissoniere O’Neil. O’Neil’s art is currently for sale at Big Buddha Yoga.
Alana Lackner photo
When Chelsey Moss was diagnosed with breast cancer 10 years ago, it came as a shock. She was in her early 30s and healthy. Out of nowhere, her life was thrown into turmoil and she had to find some way to stay afloat. Her doctor had an idea: Yoga.
Moss decided to try it, on her doctor’s recommendation, but it definitely wasn’t love at first sight.
“I got in and I did not like my first class at all. I hated it,” Moss said. “I wasn’t gonna go back, and I kind of forced myself to try it again.”
Now, she’s extremely glad she did, she said. She found an instructor she resonated with and began to understand the practice. As she learned the breath work and the postures, she fell in love. Yoga became part of her routine.
“From there, I just practiced almost every day,” Moss said. “I would find myself just in the studio all day long. And it was very healing, very therapeutic. I really needed that time to reflect, and it really supported my overall healing and wellness. Drastically, because I think without that, it could’ve been a totally different story.”
She needed the reprieve desperately, she said. It was a whirlwind of surgeries and doctor’s appointments. There were always things to fear, things to dread, but having a place to get away from that made all of the difference.
“You feel like you get hit by a ton of bricks,” Moss said. “There’s so much coming at you and your family to take care of and it’s a lot. So yoga definitely gave me that space and time to breathe again, to heal, and to nurture my body and mind.”
Moss has now been in remission for nearly 10 years, and she credits some of that to her practice of yoga.
“I think that’s one thing that yoga really cultivates in people is just that inner connection and knowing your body, understanding your body and supporting your body,” Moss said.
Her story doesn’t stop there, though. On the contrary, that’s just the beginning.
Moss continued to study yoga, learning more and more about the practice, specifically focusing on a branch of yoga known as Tantra yoga. She went to Thailand to get her 500-hour certification to teach, and has been teaching since.
But she’s not just teaching anymore. As of July 3, Moss’s new studio, Big Buddha Yoga, is officially open.
There were challenges to opening during the COVID-19 pandemic, Moss said, but she was glad to face them. They installed a state-of-the-art air purification system in their venting, she said, which should eliminate around 99% of airborne and surface contaminants, including COVID.
“We took a lot of care in recognizing that the people still may have some fears coming out of COVID,” she said. “We respect people, you know, we meet people where they are, but we also really ensure that we’re taking all the appropriate measures to make sure that our studio is clean.”
Moss hopes that the studio can help people recover emotionally from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“COVID really shed light on a lot of our stuff internally or externally,” Moss said. “And so I really felt passionate about shifting that focus back into health, back into wellness, and creating a space that’s conducive to do that. And sometimes, you know, when we’re left to isolate for so long, like we did, you know, it’s kind of traumatic ... so to really reinvest back into our wellness as a community was really really important.”
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