Yoga Blog post
For my blog post, I decided to expand on my previous discussion post and use a visual representation to promote the benefits of yoga for physical, mental, and spiritual wellness. As I mentioned in my earlier post “ My older brother has brain stem damage due to repeated concussions from playing sports which has slightly altered bits of his personality, making him more hot tempered for example, as well as (we believe) played a part in helping with the onset of some mental and emotional struggles he’s dealt with other the past few years. Yoga was one of the first therapies he used that helped him to feel better both physically and mentally.” When I was younger both my parents had also practiced yoga to a small extent and had tried to get my brother and I involved but as children this was difficult because we found it hard to sit still and make that mind-body connection because we couldn’t understand it. Now after COVID (which my family used as a period for fitness, mostly to burn energy so we didn’t turn our pent up energy on each other) my brother as I said, my father, and myself all have used yoga as a mindfulness practice just as much as a physical workout. This semesters readings finally made that connection for me. I never understood the why behind Yoga as a intersectional wellness activity until now. One of the pieces I did not mention in my previous post but I found enlightening is that many of the intimate actions in yoga, such as the happy baby pose, can be triggering for some individuals, the idea of mimicking of movements that occurred during their traumatic experiences causes many to freeze. It is not until individuals can learn to breathe, push through, and maintain this pose or the physical touch of an instructor that they can “let go” or feel the relief of a deep breath and begin to relax. Now while I do not have the same experiences as these individuals, I can feel this sense of relief on a smaller scale, when I can finally hold a pose or a certain muscle that has been tight all week finally relaxed through my yoga movements it is a relief and also gives me a sense of pride as I have been able to accomplish what many from the outside see as a simple task but to me it takes the discipline of both my mind and body working together to do it. I also think that yoga, or any workout routine can also assist in the treatment of trauma. As we’ve mentioned in both lecture and posts throughout the semester, people who are mentally suffering are often unable to lead goal driven lives, they are too focused on the now. So these workout routines not only require forethought and planning by the individual but also creates easily understandable goals, such as holding a pose to a certain amount of time or gaining the flexibility to even be in a certain pose at all.
Van der Kolk, Bessel . The Body Keeps the Score. Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition
Rousseau, Danielle, Lecture, Trauma and Crisis Intervention.