THE MOVEMENT WITHIN w/Mindy Eisenberg

For years, Mindy Eisenberg has been helping individuals with MS and neuromuscular conditions rediscover movement, resilience, and connection through adaptive yoga. As the founder of Yoga Moves MS, she has built more than just a nonprofit—she has cultivated a mighty community where strength is measured not by what the body can't do, but by the possibilities that remain. With a background bridging healthcare and holistic healing, Mindy’s work is redefining what it means to move, adapt, and thrive.

ALLIÉ: Yoga is often described as a practice that extends far beyond the mat. You’ve spent years working with individuals facing mobility challenges—many of whom have felt disconnected from their own bodies due to MS. Can you share a moment when you witnessed yoga reconnect someone not just physically, but emotionally or spiritually, in a way that changed them—and maybe even changed you?

MINDY: There are so many choices when you pose a question like that. One that’s fairly recent involves a student who has been with us for about nine months. They’ve noticed a dramatic change. They had resigned themselves to their condition, believing they would reach a certain point and wouldn’t be able to do certain things. But because of their participation in our community—what we call a class, though it’s bigger than that since we view all our classes as one big community, whether online or in person—you can see the change in their motivation and attitude. And then the body follows that change. It’s been pretty dramatic.

There is so much to this mind-body connection. The attitude changed, the belief shifted, and I think the magnitude of hope just spiraled. One day, I turned around while teaching and thought, Well, he didn’t do that before. It was one of those miracles you witness.

I’ve been doing this for two decades, and yet miracles still happen. You have to keep your eyes open and your awareness sharp, but they’re there—you just have to catch them. And sometimes, the change is even more dramatic, and everybody reacts with a Wow, wait! That moment magnifies everything because people start acting like cheerleaders, clapping, and you can feel the happiness and joy from others who are genuinely happy for that person. That’s what keeps me going.

​ALLIÉ: For many with MS, movement can feel like an uphill battle against a body that no longer responds the way it once did. How do you help shift the mindset from frustration to empowerment—helping people see that adaptability is not about giving in, but about reclaiming control in a new way?

MINDY: Yeah, I mean, we provide an environment where you’re truly accepted as you are. A student might come in feeling great, or they might be in a sad mood, an angry mood, or just not feeling so great. Another might come in gleeful and happy, or silly and goofy. One might be a comedian, another might be sarcastic. It all gets mixed into the same pot, and that—right there—promotes adaptability. Everyone being different fosters that ability to adjust.

We embrace and get excited about the small things, but we don’t accept judgment. If you judge, you’re called out on it. We have certain policies that might seem silly at first—like you’re not allowed to say my bad leg or my good leg—because we believe the body responds to the way we talk about it. That mindset impacts the group as well.

So, while we promote positivity, we also acknowledge the challenge. It’s about accepting the full range of experiences—not making light of the seriousness of it, but also celebrating what may seem small but is actually significant.

​ALLIÉ: It's beautiful… I love how you speak to the fact that it's really the community that supports and facilitates.

MINDY: I always tell our teachers that we’re facilitators, not commanders. We’re not telling someone to do something in a rigid, specific way. Instead, we’re facilitating—creating an environment where they can explore adaptability, which is really creativity. It’s a creative environment.

ALLIÉ: Yoga Moves MS is about more than movement—it’s about community, resilience, and healing. When people first join your classes, they often arrive carrying invisible weight—grief, fear, isolation. How do you create a space where that weight can be shared, released, or transformed?

MINDY: Well, I think you’re opening up space, right? You’re making room for whatever comes through most powerfully. You cannot underestimate the power of community, as you know. Sometimes, I feel like all I have to do is open the door—because they’re coming for a reason. They want to connect. We just have to provide that space for them.

ALLIÉ: With your background in healthcare administration and yoga therapy, you bridge two worlds: the clinical and the holistic. What do you believe Western medicine could learn from the mind-body connection that yoga fosters—and what’s still missing in the way we approach chronic illness care today?

MINDY: The main area we need to work on is looking at the whole body, as opposed to focusing on isolated issues—like a little speck here, a little pain there—rather than considering the full dimensions inward, outward, and all around. 

Yoga, on the other hand, takes a holistic approach, looking at the body from foot to head or crown to foot. We examine everything—inside, outside, and across different layers. Yoga even incorporates the philosophy of different layers, starting with the breath body and the physical body, then moving inward to what they call the bliss body. The perspective is that the body is multi-dimensional, but due to the structure of our medical and healthcare systems, we don’t always have the liberty to approach it that way. The holistic approach often works side by side with conventional medicine.

I feel like—maybe because of the world I’m in—it’s becoming more accepted, but there are still limitations, especially with the insurance industry. Caregivers must respond to electronic medical records, comply with insurance protocols, and follow procedures that are approved for coverage. That creates a very different model, as the holistic approach isn’t incentivized the same way—it’s about looking at the whole body. ​That’s what we’re trying to do. For example, I think physical therapy is a highly complementary modality to yoga therapy. Say someone goes in with a shoulder injury—the yoga therapist will examine the whole body, while a physical therapist, for the most part (though I don’t want to completely generalize), will focus primarily on the injured shoulder or the area that underwent surgery.

When we consider all these layers, people tend to feel more whole. When designing a class, we look at not just the physical aspect but also the social and emotional layers. And from there, it expands outward to connection with others.

​ALLIÉ: Right. Well, so having heard what you just shared, which is so spot on, I would like to propose that we change the spelling of ‘holistic’ to ‘wholistic’, regarding seeing and treating the whole person, not just a part of the person.

MINDY: Yes—treat this like it’s a person, not a condition.

The other big philosophical difference is that we empower people to help themselves. If you go to the doctor, they’re likely to give you a pill or a procedure, and you’re there in a very passive role. But when you come to our community, we hope you’ll take on a more active role at some point. You might not right away—sometimes people come in questioning what this is all about—but hopefully, within a very short period of time, members start to feel empowered to help themselves. And that is so important because it opens up their minds, their hearts, and their possibilities.

ALLIÉ: As you're sharing that, I'm thinking there's space for all things, right? When it comes to patient care, it doesn't have to be this or that. It can be both, right?

MINDY: You're just finding that balance. I'm not against going to a doctor when I have a condition that requires that. I’m not going to get better by meditating. You need that care. I believe they can be side by side. They complement each other. You need both.

ALLIÉ: Agreed. One more question for you, Mindy… You’ve dedicated your life to this work, but personal dedication often comes from personal experiences. What has this journey—of founding Yoga Moves MS, guiding so many through their healing, and being a witness to both struggle and triumph—taught you about your own resilience, and what keeps you moving forward even on the hardest days?

MINDY: So, when I entered the Yoga Moves MS community, there wasn’t a plan—at least, not one I was aware of. I think there was a divine plan, but I didn’t see it at the time. As I started meeting more and more people impacted by MS and other chronic conditions, I realized something deeper.

I had grown up as a little girl with a very sick mother who had primary progressive MS. The environment I was raised in wasn’t what you would call healthy. There was a lot going on that was far from optimal for children—or for parents. There was anger, sadness, and pain, and no clear way out. Eventually, my parents divorced, and I saw firsthand how my brother and I were impacted.

Somewhere within me, I believe I have an inner strength that I don’t even know the source of. It’s bigger than me, and I also feel that my community is bigger than me. What was incredibly powerful for me was witnessing the relationships between students and their care partners—their spouses, their partners, their families. Seeing these strong, loving bonds, I realized that truly beautiful, functioning families exist. And that realization was healing for me.

At first, I didn’t fully grasp how much I was benefiting from this community. Then, I started meeting volunteers who work with us—people whose nature is to give, who feel better when they give. Yoga Moves MS provides them with a space where they can do that. And then there are the teachers—dedicated individuals who give so much of their time. Yes, they’re paid, but not nearly what they are worth, which is platinum gold. Yet, they say, This is where I need to be.

Through all these layers—teachers, volunteers, and students—I’ve learned the beauty and the profound impact of giving. And I’ve realized that this realm of beauty does exist.

I mean, to see a student—someone similar to my mom—whose physical body is doing less and less in terms of movement, and yet they still acknowledge that today is Valentine’s Day, or that the sun is shining, or that any given day is worth celebrating… That is profound.

To receive a message from a student who I know is in pain—yet they take the time to send me a message saying, Have a beautiful day or Spread love—that humbles me. And I think, Wow.

I can’t possibly understand what it’s like to be in their body, in their situation, day in and day out. And yet, they rise above it. Or maybe they’re not even rising above—maybe they’re just being with it. They amaze me every day. ∎

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