Meet Leuna: A Cherished Nourish Member

When Leuna Chanse first found Nourish Therapeutic Yoga, she was living with severe ME/CFS and needed something she could actually do lying down.

She shared in her Google review that she was immediately impressed to find a fully supine class that honoured her limits. From there, having:

• Clear, accessible modifications for all levels

• Practices she could follow from bed or recliner

• And a gentle, no-pressure approach

…helped her gradually move from severe to moderate, and begin exploring more movement when her body allowed.

Over time, she’s also gathered a toolkit of nervous system–soothing practices she uses every day — and, just as importantly, she’s found people.

“Shannon is knowledgeable and excellent at mentioning modifications that can be made for any level of participant. This has been super useful to me as I have improved to moderate and become able to move more. Now I am at a point where I can use the available video library to add more yoga sessions on my own time. Through the classes I have also learned a plethora of ways to calm my nervous system that I use on a daily basis.The most important thing, however, is the people I’ve met. Shannon has created a welcoming, accepting, and supportive environment and a community of beautiful souls has emerged. I look forward not only to our movement portion of classes each week, but also our community chat as well. The friends I’ve made in the Nourish community definitely make life with ME/CFS more enjoyable.”
— Leuna

Below, she generously shares two poems — one haunting and tender, one darkly funny — that capture so much of the emotional landscape of chronic illness.

Poem 1: Haunting House

by Leuna Chanse

This body longs to leap up, speak out

To chase demons that possess

This body longs to stroll shorelines

Communing with spirits in the sky

This body longs to plunge into rivers

Stroking away internal plagues

This body longs to dance, fly free

Singing of ghostly remembrance

This body longs to soar down mountains 

Closer to what powers us  

This body longs to sprint into forests 

To absorb wisdom from before

This body longs to shed chains 

Reality tethered, tortured

But this body remains seated

In this house I haunt

So many in the Nourish community will recognize themselves here:

• The longing to move through water, mountains, forests

• The sense that your body is “tethered, tortured,” even when your spirit is still strong

• The reality of being seated, reclined, or bed-bound, while your inner world is vibrant, alive, and hungry for more life

At Nourish, we can’t magically unlock the doors of that haunted house — but we can offer small, kind ways to move, rest, breathe, and feel a little less alone inside it.

Poem 2: Hey, have you tried…?

A darkly humorous look at “treatment bingo”
by Leuna Chanse

If you live with chronic illness, chances are you’ve heard this question more times than you can count:

“Hey, have you tried…?”

What follows might be anything from a legitimate treatment option to something wildly off the mark. In this poem, Leuna captures the overwhelming, often absurd list of suggestions so many of you receive — from well-meaning loved ones, doctors, strangers on the internet, and sometimes even ourselves.

Hey, have you tried…?

anti depressants - viral suppressants
physical therapy - asking your clergy
slippery elm tea - red light therapy
wearing sunglasses - shots in our asses
brain training - lymphatic draining
losing weight - asleep at eight
learning pacing - negative thought erasing
epsom salt soaks - IVIG pokes
B12 injections - avoiding infections
patches of nicotine - eating low histamine
positive thinking - snake oil drinking
electrolytes - compression tights
hydroxychloroquine - doing some journaling
LDN - napping again
CBD - THC
Xolair shot - avoiding hot
Seated showers - rest for hours
Loop ear plugs - stimulant duds
Ketamine nasal spray - gabapentin throughout the day
Lithium concentrate - magnesium glycinate
hormone replacement - hazard abatement
low dose abilify - salt consumption amplified
theanine - creatine
grounding sheets - self-help reads
paleo diet - trying to deny it
ice baths for stimulating - calm down by meditating
exercise as you know - just completely letting go
doing yoga every day - believing a cure is on the way

It’s funny because it’s true… and also not funny at all.

This poem holds the exhaustion of endlessly “trying things”, the pressure to fix yourself, and the hope that something might help, all at once. Many of us have been through that cycle of:

• “Maybe this is the thing that will change everything,”

• followed by, “Why didn’t it work for me?”

• and then, “Do I have it in me to try again?”

In the Nourish space, we try to honour that whole reality. We welcome the science, the treatments, the tools — and we also make room for the grief, the humour, the “I cannot try one more thing today,” and the profound courage it takes just to keep going.

Why We’re Sharing This

We’re sharing Leuna’s words because:

• Stories and art help us feel less alone.

• Poems can say what prose sometimes can’t.

• And seeing yourself reflected in someone else’s experience can be deeply validating.

If you’re reading this from bed, a recliner, the couch, or a quiet room, please know:

• Your longing to move more than your body allows makes sense.

• Your exhaustion from trying “all the things” makes sense.

• You are not failing. You are navigating life inside a very complex, very human, very haunted-feeling house.

And you don’t have to navigate it alone.

A Note of Gratitude

Thank you, Leuna, for sharing your review, your experience, and your beautiful words with the Nourish community — and for allowing us to feature them here. We are so grateful you’re part of this space.

If you’d like to read more member stories, explore truly accessible classes, or find a community that understands the haunted-house feeling of chronic illness, you’re always welcome to join us at Nourish.

❤️ Shannon