Mr. Divabetic talks with international yoga teacher and author Rachel Zinman, living with LADA diabetes, on Divabetic’s popular podcast on Thursday, January 19, 2023, at 6 PM, EST.
Rachel shares how she overcame the years of frustration and confusion associated with a misdiagnosis.
There have been many bumps in the road on Rachel’s journey with LADA diabetes (latent autoimmune diabetes in adults) related to her initial misdiagnosis. She was initially misdiagnosis with type 2 diabetes. Although many of her symptoms were similar to type 2 diabetes, she has another condition that may be more closely related to type 1 diabetes called latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA).
It’s not uncommon for someone with LADA to be initially misdiagnosed. Unfortunately, the years spent treating the wrong condition without success can take a toll on your mind, body, and spirit. She shares how yoga and meditation helped her to overcome years of frustration and confusion.
Rachel shares a guided meditation, “Compassion Meditation,” focusing on self-love and compassion to help you live well with diabetes. Rachel’s meditation references Tara, a female deity in both Hinduism and Buddhism. Tara personifies compassion and offers salvation from suffering. She is thought to have been born of empathy for the suffering world and is regularly invoked for protection, guidance, and deliverance from difficult situations.
In Hinduism, she is the second of the ten Mahavidyas, avatars of the great Mother Goddess Mahadevi.
In Buddhism, Tara is a savior deity who liberates souls from suffering. According to origin tales, she emerged from the tear of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara who cried when looking upon the suffering world. She is therefore associated primarily with compassion but can take on many forms to help and protect her devotees.
In her book, Yoga for Diabetes: How to Manage your Health with Yoga and Ayurveda, Rachel Zinman shares her journey and the hard-won wisdom gained from her own experience of yoga and diabetes.
“If you are at all open or curious to learn about an ancient holistic way of healing and supporting the body, this book is for you. Zinman is clearly an expert and looks so glowingly healthy at 50 years old, one may wonder just how much benefit we too can get from incorporating some yoga into our lives.”—Diabetes Daily