NANCY SAUM, retired RN

Nancy found SMI during the 2012 Chalk Festival — having just retired from nursing to settle in Sarasota the year before.  “I do believe I’ve been preparing to be here for the last 15 years,” she said.

In the mid-1990s as a stressed nurse and mom, she completed an MBSR course in her community hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area, continued training to become an MBSR teacher, and then began teaching MBSR in 2000.  As a long-term yoga practitioner, Nancy has always been drawn to mindful movement practices.  In 2004 she discovered Qigong (Chinese Yoga), completed a 200-hour teacher certification and has been teaching Qigong ever since.  Now, retired from “bedside” nursing, Nancy promotes health and wellness by sharing these mindfulness practices in her new community.