Lori Pierce was diagnosed with Scleroderma in 2002. The toll Scleroderma had on her skin, joints, tendons, etc. combined with not moving because everything hurt had done some big time damage throughout the first years of her journey with Scleroderma.

In 2010, after eight years on the Scleroderma roller-coaster and having been recently side-lined from her career, Lori took her first yoga class as a way to add some movement back into her life and to fill some space on her newly empty schedule. Her hope was to gain some independence, as well.  At the time, Lori was unable to easily touch her feet, tie her shoes, raise her arms very high, reach behind her back, get completely dressed alone, or easily get up and down from the floor. She took that first yoga class, fully expecting to not be able to do it and that “this would just be one more thing Scleroderma had taken from her. 

Luckily, her first yoga teacher wanted Lori to have the joy of yoga in her life and worked to figure out how to make it something she  could do. She was hooked! So much so that she came back for a Thursday class that wasn’t even on the schedule. She was excited for a Tuesday & Thursday class, that was really only on Tuesdays. 

Yoga saved and improved her flexibility and mobility. It keeps her body moving. Yoga is so much more than movement. It had everything in life she was looking for and everything she didn’t even know she needed. So much so that in 2014 she trained to become a yoga teacher. Not necessarily to teach, but to better her own personal practice - the seeds had been planted in that first class for Lori to learn how to adapt and modify - now she wanted to take it further. 

She wanted to learn all she could, to better herself - physically, mentally, and spiritually. Yoga is a philosophy. It's a spirituality. It's a lifestyle. Yoga has allowed her to change her health and in turn, her life. 

In 2017 Lori met Kathy Randolph of “Yoga for Scleroderma”.  Kathy and Lori teamed up and have combined Kathy’s years of experience teaching yoga to Scleroderma students and Lori’s years of experience practicing and adapting yoga for herself to make “Yoga for Scleroderma” even more accessible. … You know the rest of the story.

June 10, 2021