Did you know that breast cancer is the most common cancer in women globally and the second most common cancer overall? Chances are you know or have met someone in your circle who has had breast cancer. These statistics underscore the importance of women taking a proactive role in managing our breast health, especially by adopting preventative measures. So what does this look like?
In this episode, I sat down with Shannon Knorr, a phenomenal woman, movement and somatic-based teacher, and breast cancer survivor to discuss her healing journey from the disease, the effects of our environment on breast health, and what we can change in our daily lives to get our bodies and souls to a healthier existence.
We hope you come away with the information you need to make the changes in your environment that will help you stay healthy and thrive.
Subscribe to HerCanvas today to get your answers to the questions that matter most to you, and ultimately, find the inspiration to live your best life.
Did you know that breast cancer is the most common cancer in women globally and the second most common cancer overall? Chances are you know or have met someone in your circle who has had breast cancer. These statistics underscore the importance of women taking a proactive role in managing our breast health, especially by adopting preventative measures. So what does this look like?
In this episode, I sat down with Shannon Knorr, a phenomenal woman, movement and somatic-based teacher, and breast cancer survivor to discuss her healing journey from the disease, the effects of our environment on breast health, and what we can change in our daily lives to get our bodies and souls to a healthier existence.
We hope you come away with the information you need to make the changes in your environment that will help you stay healthy and thrive.
Subscribe to HerCanvas today to get your answers to the questions that matter most to you, and ultimately, find the inspiration to live your best life.
Did you know that breast cancer is the most common cancer in women globally. And the second most common cancer overall, according to the American cancer society, breast cancer, death rates have been steady in women younger than 50, but have been decreasing for all the women largely because of early detection and better treatments. These statistics underscore the importance of women taking a proactive role in managing our breast health, especially by adopting preventative measures. So what does that look like? What are some things women can do to maintain their breast health? What can we do to keep ourselves healthy in an ever-changing and toxic environment that we as humans are creating on this planet?
Speaker 2:[inaudible] Hey everyone, welcome to her canvas, our podcast, where we discuss the topics that matter most to women and help us find the inspiration to live our best lives. I'm your host, Judy DECA Rodger. Today I am joined by Shannon or Shannon has been a movement and somatic based teacher for 20 years. She has a degree in dance movement therapy, and is currently completing a master's in somatic psychology. She teaches rehabilitated Pilates aligned based yoga, somatic meditation, restorative yoga, and other various somatic healing arts practices. She is a breast cancer and trauma survivor and found that her movement and meditation practices truly saved her during that time of healing. She's among the amazing group of 3.8 million breast cancer survivors in the us and 6 million across the globe. She's here today to share what she learned during high experience with a disease, her healing journey and what women can do to maintain the health and protect their bodies. Welcome to the show. Shannon. I'm so excited to have you on today.
Speaker 3:Thank you to do that. I love the introduction.
Speaker 2:Oh, you know, so it was easiest to do it now, before we start, I should probably mention to our listeners that you and I are friends and I've been dancing together for many years. Maybe you can start by telling everyone how we met and then go a little deeper into your background, how you became a movement and sematic based teacher. And when you were diagnosed with breast cancer.
Speaker 3:Okay. Well that's a lot. Um, but I love, I love the segue into it. So, um, yes. I remember meeting you in dance class. I think it was East, same as class on Friday nights and we both had little lens. Um, and you know, I, yeah. I mean, you're just one of those people that you have this amazing smile and energy. So I think, you know, as soon as I met you, we were smiling and it just felt like instant connection just because you're one of those people. Um, and yeah, and I think you and I both having children and is like going to that night dance class was like a huge savior, right. It was like, Oh my gosh, I finally get to just let some tension out and stress. And it was just like so much fun and, you know, oftentimes he would even call it church or, you know, just kind of a way to prayer and praying and moving your body and just a joyful way. So that's how I remember meeting you. Yeah. And I remember that. Um, and yeah, so I've been in the movement arts space for a while. Um, I mean, it's such a long story, so I'll try to condense it. Um, but after, you know, I had a hard time, really forgot what I wanted to do with my life. So, um, for many years I just studied different things in community college. And I was studying at a lots of I'm very creative. So it was a lot of creative stuff, you know, dance and art and music and writing and just, I just didn't really know what path I wanted to take. Right. So, um, and then I kind of stumbled on dance movement therapy. I did some work with Anna Helprin at, to Melba. I did a workshop with her and I was like, Oh my God, this is like, this is it right. It was like this combination of dance and movement writing, drawing, and just this whole kind of creative process, but all about our bodies. And I had always been a very kinesthetic person. I danced as a child and I was extremely, extremely shy as a child. Um, they would probably call it selective mutism. Now I didn't speak for like two years. And yeah, so I had a lot of trauma as a child, but like I just was extremely terrified. Right. As a kid, really, I just didn't have a lot of, um, different things that I probably needed in my life. And so movement to me was always a way for me to like, connect, right. So even in my dance classes as a kid. So then, so anyway, after that, I just went to school. I started studying dance movement therapy. I got a degree in that. Um, and then afterwards, I, I just, as I only had a BA I could only really teach an institution. So I was working with populations that was really challenging for me, and I really want to work in institutions. And so, um, then I started actually teaching Pilates. So I, I found rehabilitative Pilates, and I realized that really filled this creative need for me to be able to help people move and really be embodied and to really heal these deeper layers of themselves by coming more into their body. Um, and then from there, you know, it just kept going and going. It's like, it's like this ball that keeps it rolling and it keeps collecting as it's rolling. So I just started studying more different movement modalities, lots of different dance, um, uh, younger based yoga continuum, movement, um, Gyrotonic, and just, just a lot of it just kept piling on and, um, really got into meditation and somatic meditation, which is based on the body. Um, yeah. And then now I'm actually going back to school to finish my masters in somatic psychology. So coming back to kind of where I started from, and yeah, so I'm, I'm more about now kind of a full body healing approach. Um, you know, so because Pilates and yoga offer a certain avenues to enter the body, but it's really more kind of almost a physical level. And now I'm at the point where I'm really wanting to integrate kind of emotional, spiritual kind of body mind, soul.
Speaker 2:That's amazing what a journey. Wow. Yeah. It's amazing how much you have been growing and evolving and really giving back with, with what you're doing with dance and movement. Now, can you tell us a little bit about when you were diagnosed with breast cancer and then we'll dive into our question?
Speaker 3:Sure. Um, I was diagnosed, I believe it was 2017. It was, um, I remember it was like the fall and, um, yeah, I think, you know, it was a huge shock, um, because I was already quote healthy and, you know, I was in shock, everybody that knew me was in shock because it was like, I wasn't the typical, you know, cancer person. And there's a lot of stigma around that, that I found that, you know, you really have to break through because we have these assumptions, like who gets sick and who gets diseases and who gets cancer. So, um, yeah, it took me on a huge journey to kind of learn one more about cancer. And I, I basically did that. I just read and listened to podcasts and everything as much as I could about cancer and breast cancer specifically,
Speaker 2:You know, it's interesting because you kind of already answered our first two questions, which was, you know, as a professional already in the healing arts, how was it for you when you discovered you had cancer in your body? Now? I know you said that for a lot of people, it was, you know, very surprising, but what about you?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah. I mean, I was very surprised, but it was, it basically took me on a huge, very deep healing journey. I mean, I would kind of call it like the, um, the night of the dark night of the soul. Basically I had to really go underground and kind of really uncover and dig up these very old things in me that were, you know, kind of, probably not even from me, but really inherited kind of a lot of ancestral trauma and my own trauma in my own life. Um, and it really made me look at health and just a different way, right. Because like I said, with the quote health, because yeah, I was exercising every day. I was eating really well. You know, I already didn't eat red meat and gluten and sugar, you know? And so, but you know, it took me on this whole different ideas of health because health is, there's so many layers of health, right. And so there was so many multiple layers for me to explore and unfold. So it was like having to all of a sudden look like, well, how, how am I relating to my food when I'm eating it? And I eating this healthy food and still hating my body, or am I eating this healthy because I'm still trying to fit into this, you know, white patriarchal idea of what my body should look like. Right. That's, that's still, you know, we're all born with this imprint of our society and how we have this such a twisted relationship with the body. Right. And so we live in this binary, in our culture that we're separate, we're separate from our own bodies. We're separate from each other. We're separate from the earth. We're, you know, we're separate from nature, you know, and the thing is, that's not true. We're nothing separate. And so this that's what really my journey was about was really making these connections of, you know, all of the systems in our body, our endocrine, our muscular, our nervous system. They're all speaking to each other all the time. Right. And so my journey was that of like really like, you know, yeah. I might look healthy on the surface. Right. And, but I was carrying a lot, a lot of stress. And I think I talked to you about this when we were speaking about the podcast of stress is totally normalized in our culture. Right. I was a working mom. I had my own business. And when people would say to me like, Oh, you know, you're stressed and blah, blah. It's like, you know, I was like, everybody I knew was just the way I was. I was like, I don't know anybody. Who's not stressed. Who's a working mom. Right.
Speaker 2:And then sometimes it's even, you know, almost championed. It's like, you know, I don't work this many hours. Or when people say things like, Oh, work-life balance. And I'm like, what is that? You know, that's trying to have work. Life balance is stress in itself. Yes. As a mom, you know, even for most people, you really cannot like have that. You have to make sacrifices and you almost have to like constantly prioritize. There's no such thing I believe with work-life balance and stress huge. And people are like, well, you know, I work 60 hours or 70 hours is almost like, Oh, should we be applauding that? And then if you're a mom, you're like, Oh my gosh, maybe I'm not
Speaker 3:As a mom. Never ends really. So, I mean, I think for me, I was one of those people that I D I didn't like asking for help. And I just, I just grew up like, learning that you had to, you had to just push through, you know, it's like, whatever, you know, you just keep doing it, keep going. And, um, and a lot of this stuff is learned. Right. I just kind of, uh, you know, I, that's what, I mean, we learn these imprints in our bodies, right. From our culture or family, but like, you know, a lot of it, I feel like it was, I had to unlearn. It was a lot of unlearning I had to do, because honestly we can find that balance, like, in my opinion, because it's going to look different for everybody. But if I didn't find that balance, I wouldn't be here. So for me, it was a life or death situation. I had an aggressive breast cancer. Right. So it was like, they all they kept talking to me about was my death. Right. Like my probability of death. So I was of course, scared, like I have to change something. And what this means is like, what you're referencing Judy, that is like, I had to take cut things out of my life. Right. Like kind of the detoxification I talk about a lot is like detox. I had to first figure out my detox pathways in my own body. But then again, I was speaking all the different systems, looking at the detox in my life. Right. Like maybe like for me, I don't really go on social media that much I post, but I can't really scroll because for me, it just is toxic for me a little bit. And I just, I had to really think about, like, if I'm spending 20 minutes a day doing this, I could be doing this 20 minutes doing something else. Right. And if there's so many things like that, you just have to become so much more discernible about how, what, what do you, what do you value? Like what is, what is of value to you? What matters to you? And like, when I was in the healing process, like, that's, it became apparent, like everything that I needed to change. Right. It was like, okay, I need to really clear this out. I need to figure this out. Um, just so much like kind of shadow work. There was so many layers of like, kind of going through what I needed to do.
Speaker 2:And that is such a great point. And so key, you know, being able to say, what do I need to get rid of, um, to just, to make myself feel better and be healthy and really focus on the things that are benefiting to me and my body. You know, you mentioned about social media, which takes up a lot of our time and which can be a huge source of stress. You know, one of the things that I, uh, you know, in my field, in my profession, I need to know, uh, about social media. You know, I need to know about, you know, the current trends and what's happening out there because I'm a marketer. So I pick and choose what I'm going to be interested in or what I'm going to pay attention to. And it's been really helpful. Um, I, I completely agree with you and, you know, I wanted to say, so you kind of touched and went into our next question, which, which is what were some of the changes you made in your life at this crossroad? And it's really great to hear, you know, that you started to prioritize and say, Hey, uh, I don't need this in my life. I need this in my life. What are the other things that you have done?
Speaker 3:Um, well, I think it began with kind of, it's like a huge wake up call. So as soon as I found out and I heard, you know, kind of the seriousness of it, um, it was kind of like, I just felt, it was like kind of a spiritual crisis. Like I felt my spirit just immediately come into my body. Like the strongest I've ever felt. It kind of like, okay, Shannon, you gotta get the right kind of just like, you gotta really like pull through. And I mean, that's why a lot of times when I speak about it, I'm like, you know, my body was really telling me what to do. I felt like I was really being directed, you know, by something bigger than me, because that's kind of just what it felt like,
Speaker 2:Um, in tune with your body is what you mean.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I mean, I was, I mean, I feel like in 10 minutes, something to work with all the time, but it was more like I had to just make these changes and like this, like in order to beat this, you need to like, do a, B and C. Right. So I'm kind of just trying to come around to your question of, um, I just, so it was a lot of changes I had to make a first, I had to really look at the, my amount of stress, my emotional level. And I had to really kind of dissect my body and untangle all of these things, right. Looking at my health and this deeper level, looking at like this really tracing my health back to my birth and looking at what environment I was birthed into looking at the environment of my childhood and looking at how that affects my health, looking at my spirituality and what am I doing with that? Right. And just kind of really balancing out for me, the different bodies, like the physical, emotional, spiritual, the dream body, that creative, and just kind of really, I had to like start to that. To me, that's balanced, like working on how I had to know what my soul needed to thrive. Right. It's going to be totally different what yours needs. Right. And I had to really put that as a priority. And so that was the one big change. Right. And the other change was really, I had to like really cut out a lot during my time in chemo. I mean, I could barely talk to people at that time. I had, I mean, if in this type of chemo, you're just extremely sick and it took like two years after the chemo to feel even kind of more normal. So it's a lot of cutting things out. Right. Of kind of like, it's like, you really ask your car, the question, like, is this, is this gonna help me live? Right. And it's like, I, everything came to that point. Like, is this something I really want to do? Because a lot of it was like saying no to things. Right. Which I know there's a lot of that around like saying no is like saying yes to yourself and it's not like, you know, kind of in a, in a mean way, but it's like, it is learning to have boundaries for yourself. Um, that was a lot of it, a lot of about speaking truth, finding my voice, um, changing my work. Yeah. There's a lot, I mean, just kind of leaves the layers and layers.
Speaker 2:You just touched on save so many good things. It's amazing. Like when you talk, when you said untangle, I love that like, like untangle things. Cause sometimes you feel like you're like in a knot and then, and then also being able to say no. And I think as women, that's just tough. Sometimes we're always saying yes to everything and you know, it's hard to say no, but the fact that, you know, you were learning to say no is not only empowering, but it actually just makes a huge difference because you free up time, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. And the other thing that was really like, kind of took me aback, as you said that a lot of the, um, you know, people in the medical profession were focusing on death instead living, I think that is so critical, right. That they, they shift that narrative because no one wants to be told, Hey, you know, this is what this is, this is, you know, what's going to happen to you. It's so dire instead of focusing on how can we help you live? Right. It's not like, how can we help you die? It's like, seriously, the issue.
Speaker 3:Well, the medical assistant, a whole nother podcast if we went under that. Cause
Speaker 2:Yeah. I mean, that just struck me as
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, no, it was very, there was many things that were wrong. I mean, in general I avoid the Western medical system. I don't even go to the doctor. Um, I, this is the first time I actually, like, I was on steroids and inhalers my whole life for really bad asthma. And I, when I got, I worked with a homeopathic doctor to get off of it in my thirties because my adrenals were completely shot. And so I actually don't really aspire to Western medicine. So all of a sudden having to be in this place of like how they look at health was disturbing. Like it was like very disturbing. I have to say like, and I don't want to go into it cause I'll just start going off a little bit.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah. I, I hear you. I mean, I, I don't know what the experience was like, because I haven't been through it before, but I can certainly empathize that. You know, having, having a system that doesn't is not really trained to offer people the support that they need is not helpful at all. Um,
Speaker 3:If they're not looking at the whole body. So really like when I was speaking about all the layers, they look, they look at the symptom, like, as we know, big farm, they want to just mask the symptom and the thing with cancer, like, like you'll, they'll even say 90% of cancers. They don't understand why. So when I was asking them, like, why do I have cancer? They would say, we don't know. And I was like, what? I mean, I was like, terrified that here are these like, you know, top oncologists tell me they don't know why I have a young person, healthy person has cancer, but they're saying there's more and more of these cases coming up, young, healthy women, like in their thirties and forties getting cancer. Um, but then when I would go to my acupuncturist or, you know, other alternative practitioners, they would explain to me kind of how, you know, cancer is looked at in the traditional Chinese medicine world. And like, and it's a lot about these layers. It's not just one thing that causes cancer. It's not like I drank water and I got cancer. It's a, it's a multiple layer thing. And you know, I think when we're talking about the environment, that's the thing, it's a, it is an environmental disease, but it also has to do with then our inner terrain, the environment of our own body has to do with our lifestyle and our eating. And it has to do with our thoughts and beliefs, our emotions. It has to do. There's a lot that goes into it. And unfortunately we're living in a more and more toxic world. Right. And that's the part that I think is scary, right. Because, and that way I don't have control so much of this environment, right. The, the world, the physical environment. So I have to really focus on the things that I can control my own environment. Right. Like if my body,
Speaker 2:Yes, yes. That that's key. And it's actually a good segue into, uh, I'm going to skip to the next question, because you were talking about the environment and how the environment impacts that it has an impact on the diseases that we see. And so, uh, the diseases and the immune disorders, which we know on the rise, so what can we do? And I think you've touched a little bit on this in terms of like, uh, focusing on the things that we have control over like our bodies. So what else can we do to keep ourselves healthy in this ever-changing and toxic environment that as humans we're creating on this planet?
Speaker 3:Well, the number one thing I would say is to really switch the narrative. So we got to get out of this binary way of thinking. That's, that's like to me, the number one way. So most of us don't even have a relationship with our bodies, right? This inner terrain of our body. Most of us don't even really realize our, our organs are like all talking to each other. And once those us don't even know where organs are, right. There's so many layers, but even just knowing your breath, like tuning into your breath and having that be kind of a signal to you, like how what's going on today? Like what needs tending to, like, what do you need to take some rest? Do you need to move? Do you need to take a dance class? I mean, there's, you need to call a friend, you know, attending to your needs right. On this very deep level. So that would be like the number one thing I would say, um, is this relationship with your body? And I think also just with lifestyle changes, like, it can be really simple. Like for me, I already ate pretty healthy, but I started to add different things. I had to really learn what my food sensitivities were because a lot of this is like, if by inflammation is gonna, you know, up your chances of any of these things. So I have to really realize what's inflaming me, right. If I don't know that I'm going to be constantly exposing myself to things that inflame me. Um, so changing your diet in that way, I had to change, like my exercise for me actually stopped doing some forms of dance because I realized my, so you have to know your constitution. I know I'm already kind of like type a, I kind of go hard and I don't probably need to be doing things that's telling me to go harder. So I actually had to do, I actually started doing like Tai Chi gone and, you know, I teach slow Pilates and yoga, but like for my exercise actually to really slow it down, like taking walks and hikes and things that fed me on a different, like, you know, multiple levels, not just physical. Um, I think, you know, for me, that's a lot of it is just, and you know, everyone's healing process is different. Um, for me it was a lot getting in touch with my creativity. Again, I think just really acknowledging what parts are we like leaving out? Like, you know, we have these pieces of ourselves that we completely neglect, right. These shadow parts. And for me, a lot of my healing was like bringing that piece back in. Right. And it's like, you know, just kind of that otherness again. And if we other ourselves, we're going to be othering other people, right. If we other ourselves, we're not going to feel that we are a part of nature, right. We're not separate from nature. And I think, you know, this is the thing this, even though we'd speak about the environment being toxic, it's, it's our, it's our relationship environment that is toxic as well. Right. So that needs to be healed. And I know this might kind of sounds, it's like, well, what do I do then?
Speaker 2:No. I mean, I think it's, it's really powerful, but, and what you are talking about, I think is really not that hard to do, because it just requires a, and I don't want to minimize it or anything like that. But what I'm hearing is that it requires a certain level of, self-awareness not just of yourself and your own body, but of your environment. Right. And what you are bringing to the table, what you're contributing to the environment and how you're impacting the environment, and then also being aware of your body and what you're putting in your body and what your body is saying to you. I think all of those things, or rather, I believe all of those are things that we're all capable of.
Speaker 3:Right? I mean, you think about as children, we know the environment that a child grows up in, right? The nature nurture thing, but the environment has a huge impact. That's going to shape that child's behavior and how that child expresses itself as well. You can say the same thing with disease, right. That you could say the symptom is cancer, but cancer is not the problem. The problem is the terrain and the environment that we're, which we are living in. So you can even start to look at some of the environments of your relationships. Right. And this is a thing of like, really, I, I had to really like, just like, again, that boundary of like, is this really good for me? Right. This, this relationship, maybe I'm, maybe I've grown and maybe I've moved on from this person, you know? And just, it just, and not in a mean way, but it's like, you know, we're constantly growing, we're constantly adapting and evolving and it's like, sometimes some of our relationships are not. Um, yeah. So I think it's like treating the terrain really is like more than trying to treat this symptom. Right.
Speaker 2:So important. And you know, like what you said about being able to like give up, even some of the things that you love, um, like the ability for you to say, okay, I can't do this dance anymore. Knowing how much you love dance, but I'm not going to do it because it's not good for me. Or it's not benefiting my body or even giving up a relationship. I remember hearing somewhere, I think, think it was Oprah. I'm not sure, uh, saying that sometimes it's okay to realize that you can love someone from afar. So in order to protect yourself and to protect your heart, sometimes you have to sever relationships with even people who are in your family. But that doesn't mean you don't love them. You just love them from afar. And I thought that was so powerful,
Speaker 3:Right? Yes. I mean, I agree with that. It's just the shifting and changing. Right. We have to allow ourselves to change and shift and transform, you know, that's like the way of life.
Speaker 2:I agree. And it's a way of evolution. And like you said, that how we grow, Oh my gosh, this has been awesome. Shannon. You're amazing. We could go on forever and ever. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your powerful story and experience, um, as a breast cancer survivor and just as a human, um, yeah. It was extremely helpful and inspiring to me and I'm sure to a listeners and you know, I hope to see you on the dance floor in person.
Speaker 3:Yes. I don't know me too.
Speaker 2:Um, and um, Oh, before we go, I wanted to ask if our listeners want to learn more, how can they get in touch with you?
Speaker 3:Um, they can go to my website is and body Pilates, studio.com. So it's three words put all together. E M B O D Y Pilates studio. Um, that's also my email address and body potty studio@gmail.com and yeah, so it feel free to reach out and that I respond to emails. Um, I'm also on Instagram at embody polities yoga.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. I love your ID for sure. Videos.
Speaker 3:You're always so positive.
Speaker 2:I know we do. It's not easy though. There's sometimes I don't want to be positive, but you know, I think the old,
Speaker 3:The balance. So again, like, you don't want to be positive all the time either, because then it's like, you're one of those people like stay positive. It's like, sometimes you gotta be negative too, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I don't want to be, I want to have a little pity party. So anyway. Oh my gosh. This was great. Thank you again, Shannon. I have to have you back on for another topic.
Speaker 3:Of course. I'm happy to. Okay. Thanks. All right, bye.
Speaker 1:Whether it's relationships, food work or the activities. We love our environment, both internal and external has an impact on our health accepting that we're, multi-layered focusing on the things we can control, eliminating the things we do not need to live and balancing our physical, emotional, and spiritual needs are the, to a healthier existence that feeds our soul and our body. Every day. Before you go about your day, ask yourself, what does my soul need is five and then prioritize what you need to do to feed it. That's all for our show today. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, and Pandora want to continue this conversation connect with our Facebook community at gap news women also head on over to our blog app, use.com to discover more resources on how to live a healthier lifestyle. Oh, and one more thing before we go, Shannon has changed her website to body root and soul.com and her Instagram handle to body route. And so until next time, stay safe and find the inspiration to live your best life.
Speaker 4:[inaudible].