About two weeks ago I attended the graduation ceremony of a SEED (South Asian Economic Empowerment and Development) course that a non-profit, Narika (which has been very near to my heart), holds three times every year for its clients. It was amazing to witness the sheer joy that current clients/survivors of domestic violence, as well as other members of the Bay Area community, displayed during the entire event.

Why was I in attendance? I taught one yoga class to this class a few weeks prior, and wanted to support the students in their commencement of a new path in their respective lives. I’ve always believed that true healing comes from a confluence of work with the psycho-emotional body, as well as the physical body; all are so inter-related, that to focus on one component to the detriment (or lack) of the other, isn’t very holistic at all.  A few years ago I taught a laughter yoga and breathing session to the  course students, and it was met with some reluctance that eventually transformed into joy!  It was fun to make funny faces and bring a little lightness to lives that may have held much gravitas and suffering.

Fast forward a few years, and I was asked by one of the Narika’s Board members to teach yoga to the participants — I was really excited and immediately said yes.  There are certain times in your life that your soul immediately leaps to saying “yes” and this was one of them.  I prepped a basic class of pranayama (breath is so integral when working with trauma) and beginner asanas, and when I arrived, I realized that we would be practicing outside!

We went outside to the park part of the school and I asked everyone to take off their shoes if the felt comfortable doing so; some did, some didn’t — again, it is about creating a safe and contained space. We started with several breathing exercises — practicing deep diaphragmatic breathing, alternate nostril breathing, lion’s breath, and the cooling Sitali breath (this is usually a favorite to release stress).

We then proceeded to cat, cow, downward facing dog, while experimenting with modifications — this was the most diverse class I’ve ever taught wrt age (prob mid 20s to 60s) as well as ethnicity, so it was fun to intersperse some English, Hindi, and even Spanish in the instruction! A little nervous laughter peppered the class, but it was something that I’ve learned to work with when introducing something new to someone.

Normalizing and reflecting potential uncomfortability while reminding them to breath through the difficult parts is all a part of therapeutic process — it’s always fun for me to bring in some of my clinical work into classes. After some more asanas we proceeded into a mindful body scan to observe all sensations in our physical bodies.

It was a fun class that I enjoyed teaching and hopefully allowed these amazing survivors an opportunity to create their own peace. I received a lot of great positive feedback and will be working more classes into the course, per the course coordinator’s request.