The fascinating story behind Paul's life changing illness and how he cured himself.Paul Sanchez is the man behind the Bring the Gym to Me Yoga Videos. In addition to yoga modeling, he's also a certified Yoga Instructor and Personal Trainer and has worked with a number of clients at Bring the Gym the Me. Paul exudes a warm and cheerful disposition and you'd never know upon meeting him that he's had so many health issues he's suffered with over the years. In this interview, he shared with me the incredible story of his self diagnosis and ultimately how he cured himself from cancer.  Tell me a little bit about yourself, your background, where did you grow up? I was born and raised in New York City, in the Upper East Side. So I’m a Manhattanite by birth. My parents are hispanic in origin. My dad is from Cuba and mother from Dominican Rebublic. What made them move here? My dad moved due to the political unrest in Cuba and my mother just wanted to move away from her family and be independent. How did you get into Yoga? What did you want to be as a kid? When I was a kid, wanted to be an astronaut and then I wanted to be a lawyer. Then when I was 19 I decided I wanted to become a doctor. Becoming a doctor made the most sense since I saw myself as moving in the direction of becoming a healer. Yoga came to me when I was in High School. I had some friends who were practicing yoga. So they would share their experiences with me. They offered a class or 2 at school and in the gym and it slowly became a larger part of my life as the years went on and I experienced it’s benefits and I studied more about the deeper aspects of healing. When I got to college, I actually started out as a Psych major and then in freshmen Psych we started learning about the body and that's when I shifted my gaze from just therapy to medicine because I loved the body and I wanted to help as many people as possible. But then, in my second half of the first semester of pre-med. The pressures didn’t work for me. It was too science based and not spirit based. In my experience, healing comes from a middle ground between science and spirituality. I stayed with it one more semester, to give it a real go, but my soul was into other things and I was getting more into spirituality. I was experiencing quite a bit of struggle. What do you mean by struggle? Well a little more about my background. I had a challenging upbringing. From nutrition, my physical habits, my environment, my thoughts, my development etc. So I was depressed at a really early age. I was suicidal at the age of 7. Wow that's really young. Yea. Nutrition had a lot to do with how my brain developed. It’s taken along time and a lot of energy work to transform. So back to Pre-med. What did you do when you realized that wasn't for you? That's when I decided to travel to India. What happened in India? Well, I discovered G-d. A life changer for sure. I went looking for healing, looking for masters, temples etc. and while I definitely crossed masters and great people along my journey, I recognized that this phenomenon of healing was within me all along. All of the questions I had were answered with love and surrender. How did that revelation happen? I’ve done a lot of work with consciousness and past life regression and getting in touch with the spiritual realm and I absolutely have had experiences of being alive in other times. When I arrived in India, I had a recollection of being a yogi in a past life and often it works that way that people need to reenact things from past lives. Did you meet a lot of other seekers there? I met several. It was a whirlwind of a trip - 2 weeks. These people were definitely instrumental in unfolding me into this line of consciousness. So what did you do after you got back to NY? When I got back to NY I was a little more grounded. I’m a lover of kids so I worked with children for a little while. That lasted for awhile but then I started thinking about my next career move. I decided that I wanted to work for myself. And I thought what better way to guide the planet than through yoga? So I decided to commit myself to a regular yoga practice. I said I was going to do it every day for 1 month. And then 1 month became 2 months etc. I realized that it was my work int eh world and I realized that I have an ability and that that is where the market is headed.  Were you practicing a certain style?
Yes, Kundalini yoga. How did you discover that? It was doing a lot of self study. I got really into Barbara Brennan. I’m a huge fan of hers. I love her work. I discovered her when studying psychology. She answered so many questions. She bridged the gap between science and spirituality like no one had. I was working with an energy healer who had graduated from her school. Did the yoga help with depression? Absolutely. That’s what made me commit to it professionally. So did you do a teacher training? I did some research. Everyone said that you need to commit to having a regular yoga practice for a year so I did. And then it took a little while longer to do do the research and the funds but then in 2010, I was registered in YogaWorks Teacher Training. What made you decide on YogaWorks? They had me sold in their first conversation. Barbara Brennen would She would often alignment and energetics. I felt a resonance with the word alignment. I was also studying Abraham Hicks who talks a lot about alignment. So when I asked the women in charge about the school and she said “We base our teachings off of the Principles of Alignment” I got chills and I knew that was where I needed to go. I loved the focus on the neutral spine and the health of the vertebral column. And did you start teaching right away? Yes, I started practice teaching with anyone who would let me. Within a few short months I had already been applying for a grant to become a certified personal trainer. I completed that in March 2011 right before I moved to Colorado. Did it with WITS. Why did you move to Colorado? I had a lot of health issues. I was hospitalized when I was 5 for back infection in my lymph nodes. When I was 14 for a tumor removal surgery. I ignored it. I started to take a little bit better care of myself when I was 17 eat a little better. But while doing my teacher training, I was under more stress, I started getting liver pain and back pain and shoulder pain and was getting all this feedback from my body that something wasn’t right and I didn’t know what it was. And all the stretching from the yoga wasn’t helping I started seeing a acupuncturist who said my blood was acidic and I started to learn about what that meant and around that time by “coincidence” I met someone who was on an alkaline diet so I started to learn about what that means. So I moved to colorado in search of health and was there for almost 2 years. teaching yoga doing the personal training etc. Did your health improve while you were there? Yes. Also had to do with my diet and the emotions that are associated with it. I started figuring out why I had so many health issues since I was a little kid. I was addicted to sugar and I now realized why sugar is so bad. It's basically nutritionally void. It’s clear that my brain couldn’t function at a very young age so these things dramatically impact your experience. But then eventually you came back to New York. So why did that happen? Well, the original plan was to go to California but I didn’t have any connections there so Colorado was meant to be temporary. I attempted to go to San Fransisco for a bit and while it was a good fit culturally, it wasn't he best fit geographically because it was still very cold. My acupuncturist had told me that my body overheats and then shuts down and then gets cold. So it was health concern that my body needs the warmth. So I decided to leave San Fransisco and go back to NY and work on my business. Before I did I took a vacation to rest and recuperate so went to Florida and spent time with my mom for most of the year it was there that I discovered the culmination of all these years and discovered that it was cancer. Wow. So tell me about that. The story is unbelievable for most because of the manner in which it arose. I had suspected for awhile that that was what it was and I tried a couple of different cancer cures and they helped but I didn’t do it properly so it was in the back of my mind. I came across a natural cancer cure called Cancer Detox based on Coconut Oil where you take one spoon of coconut oil every hour with something anti inflammatory like lemon juice, cayenne pepper, turmeric or raw garlic drink water throughout the day. I learned more about why sugar was a problem but was hard because as a former/struggling sugar addict was hard to cut it out and there were underlying emotional components which were coming to surface throughout the process. Otto Warburg who was a nobel prize winner in 1931 proved that the prime cause of cancer is the replacement of the respiration of oxygen in normal body cells by a fermentation of sugar. So basically cancer thrives in an acidic/low PH low oxygen environment which can be caused by sugar. When the body is starved of sugar and offered a different energy course, such as coconut oil, the cancer cells come back to life. I tried it, and that's where the story gets a bit interesting and out there for some. How so? What happened? Did you go to a doctor and get officially diagnosed? It was a self diagnosis. I put all the pieces together. In addition to everything that had happened to me, I had also had a tumor removed at age 14. It was identified as benign. But what a lot of people don't realize is that even benign tumors predate cancerous ones. So it’s a sign that cancer is cominng. I had never drank water growing up only soda. I started drinking water whiten i was 17. It was was hard to get used to at first. But I made an effort, and while living in Colorado i had started wanting to get into good water got filter for water to remove fluoride. I was drinking a lot of this water and noticed that the pain was starting to ease in my lymphatic system. My lymph nodes had gotten it started to open up for the first time in 21 years. It had been hardened for 2 decades and then it healed. The water made it open up a little bit. So flash backwards for a bit - I had seen an energy healer from many years. We were working on emotional stuff and she said she has full spectrum of psychic abilities. That basically means higher sense perception. Any human being can develop it if you are sensitive enough, you can perceive things across all sense. So she said that she could taste cancer. I had never heard anyone said this before. There's this thing called psychic transference. Where someone shares something with you immediately you can sense it and know what they are talking about. So I tasted what she tasted. It tasted like death and decay. The worst food you’ve ever tasted. Worse than putrid chemically rotten. Now, years later, I was doing this cancer cleanse before lunchtime, and I woke up and was laying in bed in excruciating pain. like shards of glass moving through my lymphatic system. It was the most nauseating and disgusting experience of my life. In that moment I knew, because it tasted exactly the as that moment years ago when I experienced that psychic transference with my healer. I know, it's a a bit of an unorthodox story. A lot of people don't believe people can diagnose their own cancer but there are so many stories where it stays undiagnosed and then t's too late. So was that a traumatic moment? Initially it was a relief, because everything came together. It explained my whole life. I’m very rational. I love learning about science but I also am drawn to spiritual realm and I don’t know why that can't come together. As a kid when they would show on TV kinds with leukemia, I always identified with them for some reason. Now it made sense. What's striking to me about your story is that this diagnosis came about specifically once you made the decision to heal. It came when I was ready to handle it. I don’t think I’d be able to handle it before. Once I knew what it was I was better able to deal with it but it was also a harsh reality of dealing with it. Having to confront my own inner shadows and demons in a way I had never done before. Taking charge of my eating, my emotions, my aggression that I had festered inside of me. The challenges with my family that had never been resolved. Do you feel like it’s a lifelong struggle? I don't think it need be. I think it depends on the person. For me, it’s been about letting go of my attachments and being willing to change. Forgiveness is the most important thing. Learning to process and deal with emotions. Like anger, aggression. Usually anger at ourselves. What as the anger about? Mainly I had anger towards my parents towards not being there the way that I needed. The anger towards myself that I contributed to that. I felt that I was unlovable. The painful part was realizing that you are the one who creates your own suffering. How long did it take to heal? It took about 3 years. But I think the cancer left a lot sooner or at least the majority of it. Everyone has cancer cells in their body. It’s just a matter of balance being maintained in immune system. It's 32 years of an identity being reshaped. Letting go of anger in my heart that’s the final stage. So what were the main components of your diet/healing regime. Mostly coconut oil and cutting out sugar. I would have a lot of green juices. Also, cannabis oil. Cannabis cures cancer as well. I was a recreational user for years I didn't know why it helped me with pain in my life. Then I found out oil was more effective so I started including that in my regime.I also went to Peru and worked with shamans. That was another big breakthrough but was 6 months prior to having this final cleanse. You say you cut out sugar but what about carbs? A lot of people forget that carbohydrates turn to sugar int he body. I would go through cycles and stay carb or sugar free for a week or 2 or a month if i was disciplined and then I’d go back and have what used to be my favorite foods like pizza. The more i stuck with it, I didn't crave it as much. Also, too much protein can turn to sugar. It’s essentially an alkaline diet. There's a book called the PH miracle by Robert Young. He explains the science behind it. Proteins, carbs, alcohol and caffeine are the most acidic things. Vegetable are alkaline so want to get as many as we can. Doctors and scientists will admit blood has the best function at a PH of 7.365 which is very alkaline. Is this like the ketogenic diet? Yes it’s the same thing. Dr. Mercola talks about that diet a lot and I follow a lot of his research. How did you know that you were finally cured? I no longer had that experience of the taste or the shards disgust so that was a strong signal that it was no longer present. I didn’t feel the same way. Also, I went to see a medical intuitive who does this magnetic therapy/polaris and he also said that there was no cancer in my body. So it was another affirmation that my intuition was correct and it was no longer present. What’s the plan now? Are you going to stay as strict on the diet now that you are healed? I’m committed to eating this way as a way of life however I don't want to make any hard lines. I just finished my longest stretch of 44 days of staying off of all sugar and carbs so I’ve kicked the sugar addiction. However I did make some allowances the other day and ate some ice cream and chocolate however I noticed that my body has responded to it in better than i never had. I'm thinking of doing another 40 days cleaning out my system from some residual stuff. It gets easier and easier though. Right now I’m cutting up some dandelion greens and kale. and avocado squash I love my food. my palette has changed and I want to just i want keep moving forward. Any final thoughts? The greatest spiritual lesson that I’ve come across that I’m still learning to master and my message to the world is for people to love themselves. That they are divine being and spark of the creator and a source of love if only they allow themselves that. To find out more about Paul and his yoga work, visit his website http://www.beyogafit.nyc/
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2/1/2016 23 Comments Best. Massage. Ever. I often joke with my friends that I spend 1/2 of my life hunched over a computer typing and the other 1/2 of my life upside down balancing on my head or my hands. While I like to think that this dichotomous living creates a harmonious balance, it seems my muscles don't always agree. As a certified yoga instructor, I know that I should know better than to overtrain, especially without properly warming up/cooling down and that sitting for hours on end answering emails is not exactly the ideal way to rest my muscles. Alas, as the saying goes: "The son of the shoemaker has no shoes."
So getting a deep tissue Swedish massage from Chana Sahler this past Friday was just what the doctor ordered. She used trigger point therapy to press into the areas which were especially tight and worked on lengthening my neck and opening up my shoulders. I left felling super blissed out and slept like a baby later that night. Oh and the sandalwood massage oil she used was a great bonus. What a yummy smell! Chana's training is unique in that her approach is very clinical and Western in origin. She gives the following types of massages: Swedish massage Myfascial techniques Lymphatic drainage Deep tissue Sports massage Trigger point therapy These are the benefits of massage therapy: Decreases pain Increased range of motion Stress relieving Postural corrections Decreases inflammation Promotes healing To book an appointment with Chana Sahler, contact her at: [email protected] 3476640851 |
Sarede Switzer, E-RYT, 200Owner and CEO of Bring the Gym to Me Archives
August 2017
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