Healing Through Yoga
By Kate Hawley, Shri Yoga
“In order to change, people need to become aware of their sensations and the way that their bodies interact with the world around them.” - Bessel Van de Kolk “Befriending the Body
Bradley REACH is an adolescent program that does just that – it reaches out beyond our local community remotely. “Remote” sometimes can also describe our relationships to the animating container for our lives – our bodies, the astonishing 30 trillion or so cells that pulse, slough, renew, and change throughout our lifetimes. Checking out of the body, going remote, may help us feel safer when we are vulnerable, threatened, confused, uncertain. But when that happens, we lose connection with the only place the body can be – in the present, the one place where change can begin.
Making Yoga and Meditation Accessible
Through Bradley’s Healing Arts Program, in partnership with Shri Yoga, Bradley REACH makes yoga and meditation accessible. The environment may not be ideal. Pets make appearances, siblings make noise, clients sit where they can – on beds (sometimes scrunched in the lower bunk), at desks and tables, and occasionally, where there’s enough space, the floor. Regardless, the opportunity is there for the receiving, for whoever chooses to take it.
A Bradley REACH team member recently told me that the Shri Outreach Yoga group helps address the need for movement in a largely sedentary virtual program. Another shared that, even though he can’t do this with us (he’s at work, you know), he still benefits from hearing the guided relaxation. Bradley REACH clients have shared that the yoga causes them:
to feel more relaxed
less anxious
that their bodies feel better
the mindful breathing helps them focus through mental busy-ness
Occasionally, someone who has been struggling to sleep will fall into a nap. That’s acceptable; sleep is healing, too.
The Healing Power of Yoga
Through the Bradley Healing Arts Program, we have the chance to introduce an ancient technology (backed by compelling research) for slowing down racing and intrusive thoughts, downshifting the nervous system from reaction to response, and exploring mindfulness in the full sense of the word – being present on purpose, without judgment, with curiosity and compassion, befriending the body.
Using a trauma-informed approach, people get to exercise choice within parameters of clear expectations: Yes, please try. If something we do doesn’t feel right for you, modify, or abstain.
Do you feel like being more vigorous or chill?
Do you want time for meditation?
Through meditation, we add to the take-away toolkit of breathwork and mindfulness, and we cultivate empathy by directing kindness and well-wishes toward ourselves and others. On a good day, this might even translate into a sense of well-being, of belonging to something greater than oneself, even for a moment. And who doesn’t want that?
Shri Yoga is a woman-owned nonprofit based in Pawtucket whose mission is to deliver skilled yoga and mindfulness programs for students of all backgrounds. (shriyoga.org) Kate Hawley is a certified yoga teacher and yoga therapist providing services through Shri’s outreach project as well as in-studio.
DISCLAIMER:
The information, including but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material contained on this website are for informational purposes only. No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
If you or your child are in crisis or experiencing mental health problems please seek the advice of a licensed clinician or call 988 or Kids Link in Rhode Island.
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