Beth Sukha-Barker - Yoga for Hope

When you first meet Beth Sukha-Barker, you can’t help but notice an enormous wave of enthusiasm that comes right at you. It makes you wonder if maybe Ghandi is standing directly behind you and he’s the reason she’s so excited, but meet her a second time and you realize this is just how she is. She lives her life with genuine enthusiasm for everyone she encounters.

Beth has spent the majority of her life looking after people. Not everyone has the capacity or patience for that role in life, but in Beth’s case, it is simply who she is. When she graduated from high school she entered the nursing program at Conestoga College. After graduating in 1976, she spent nearly 15 years working at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener.

Like many in the health care field, Beth knew there was more to solving health-related issues than what Western medicine offered. Her curiosity led her to yoga and she began her practice at home in the 1970’s through a daily television program.  She soon recognized the massive health gains yoga offered. Western medicine rarely spoke of things such as mental calmness, stress reduction and deeper breathing as ways to improve our health. As her love of yoga deepened, Beth decided to become a certified yoga instructor and studied at the Kripalu Centre for Yoga and Health in Lennox, MA in 1998. 

Back in Waterloo and eager to begin teaching, she found herself teaching two classes per week at HopeSpring Cancer Support Centre in downtown Waterloo, Ontario.  (http://www.hopespring.ca)  HopeSpring’s name says it all. It is truly a local gem of resources, inspiration and knowledge for those living with cancer in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. HopeSpring provides much needed relief all the while relying on the community’s generosity to fund their programs, since they receive no government assistance or help from the Canadian Cancer Society. 

It was during her weekly yoga class at Hopespring where Beth met a young man named J.R. Despite having recurring brain cancer, JR was, in Beth’s own words, “a ray of sunshine.”

J.R. was defiantly optimistic, despite a worrying prognosis. He returned week after week to Beth’s class and the more they got to know one another, they realized they had common ground in running, a sport they were both passionate about. Running got J.R. through some tough cancer-related battles. He could leave the world of treatment and medications at home when he headed outside for a run. 

With their friendship cemented, J.R. and Beth decided to enter the 1999 Waterloo Classic, a popular local 10 km road race held every year in June. It was after this race that they started talking about how they could take the format of a road race and apply it to yoga, starting a “Yogathon” of sorts.  Back then, there was nothing like their idea in the K-W community and while the concept seemed like a good one, it didn’t happen right away. Three years later, in 2002, JR passed away. His conversations with Beth, however, would soon gain ground and provide a fitting legacy for J.R.

It was September 2004 when, as Beth tells it, she had one too many cups of coffee and that extra caffeine provided the catalyst she needed to pick up the phone and start rallying local yoga instructors, telling them of her idea: a day of yoga with each hour led by a different instructor showcasing a different style of yoga.

Every instructor Beth called that day signed on to the idea with enthusiasm. Five months later, in February 2005, the first Yoga for Hope took place in downtown Waterloo. Everyone gathered together waiting to see what the day would bring. In keeping with the practice itself, Yoga for Hope offers a flexible schedule. Some devotees sign on for the entire day wanting to take part in all eight classes and some people prefer to only to attend one or two classes. The first year was a success! One hundred and twenty people came out to help raise money and bond over poses. Many of the attendees at the first Yoga for Hope had never heard of HopeSpring but the idea of helping out a much needed local institution in such a relaxing and energizing way struck a chord.

And, as with all good ideas, people start to emulate you. The idea caught the attention of a few yoga instructors from neighbouring Cambridge, Ontario. Five years after the first Yoga for Hope, the event has spread to now include Cambridge. In 2012, Beth believes the next chapter of Yoga for Hope will begin in Vancouver. She remains committed to continuing to see Yoga for Hope grow.

“Yoga for Hope is a win-win event. It is teachers coming together with a common goal to promote the healing powers of the practice they believe in. Every year, it's an introduction to yoga for some new participants and a comfortable ‘old shoe’ for those who are already converts to the practice. While we as individuals have opportunities (and some obligation) to help our fellow man, this event provides the participant with a first hand experience of yoga, AND the funds raised by all of these individuals then support HopeSpring, which in turn offers the healing power of yoga to those with cancer.  It's a perfect circle. And speaking of circles, the wrap up of each Yoga for Hope event honours by name, those who are dealing with cancer and others in remembrance, in a Circle of Hope ritual.  As Starhawk said in a poem entitled ‘Community’: ‘A circle of healings, a circle of friends. Someplace where we can be free.’”

Written by Michelle Lewis
Edited by Kristine Scarrow