AY:      What is Self Care Reform?

DMP:  Self Care Reform is an effort to shift the focus of healing, health and treatment back to the individual.

AY:     Why do you call it Self Care Reform?

DMP: With so much current emphasis on Health Care Reform in the hands of insurance companies and Washington legislators, I feel Self Care Reform is something that can be done right now. Health Care Reform may take 60 votes in the Senate but Self Care Reform can take 60 seconds in the individual. Meaning that every minute of our lives is an opportunity for Self Care Reform.

AY:     What makes Self Care Reform different than other yoga classes? Please feel free to expand.

DMP: My weekly yoga classes consist of movement and poses that provide restorative relaxation, spinal alignment and spiritual opening. I present my classes as "Self Care Reform: Yoga by Prescription," where students share their individual mental, emotional, physical or spiritual "prescriptions" prior to starting class. I have this done in an effort to have students consciously take part in their own healing and betterment. Practiced in the Raja and Hatha Yoga traditions, my classes have particular emphasis on breath work and mindfulness throughout the movement and poses. At the conclusion all of my weekly yoga classes, I share various selected readings of meditation and inspiration. Lastly, I take my students through an exercise I call “movement with mantra,” where I have us all recite three words of Self Care. Examples are inform, empower, heal; or surrender, trust, allow. Each class is a new set of self affirming words. My classes required NO prior yoga experience. ALL skill levels are welcome.

AY:    What makes Self Care Reform different than other yoga classes? Please feel free to expand. Why should the community participate?

DMP: I would like the community to be a part of the 'Self Care Reform Movement' with my yoga classes. Here they'll learn better self care practices, through meditation, yoga and affirmative words. In my yoga classes one will learn to:
Inform their Body.
Empower their Mind.
Heal their Spirit.

AY:    What is it like having classes in Joyce Gordon Gallery?

DMP: I chose Joyce Gordon Gallery as a venue for one of my three weekly yoga classes for two reasons. Firstly, we share a similar philosophy in the practice of art and yoga. The aim of the Joyce Gordon Gallery is to “respect the creative pursuits of the individual and seeks to make such work accessible to a broad audience.” The intention of my yoga class is to “respect the self care pursuits of the individual and seeks to make such practice accessible to a broad audience.” Secondly, as a fine art photographer myself who has previously shown at Joyce Gordon Gallery, I see a place of artistic expression to be a healing venue for individual transformation.

AY:    Do you see Self Care Reform as transformative? Why? And for whom?

DMP: I believe that as communities more fully embrace Self Care Reform and become more informed of their own health, they not only will become more empowered, but they will ultimately become more healthy. As a member of the Oakland Center for Spiritual Living, which focuses on “individual transformation and collective growth,” I see the evolution of my “Self Care Reform Movement” to provide the same benefit to all persons and communities willing to make positive changes in their lives.