Around three years ago, I had just finished my first yoga class at a women's shelter in New Hampshire. I had meticulously planned a "trauma-informed" yoga class for the women there. I used all of my knowledge and training with the TIMBo program, plus some additions that I found helpful to me in my own … Continue reading Trauma-sensitive yoga isn’t a style. It’s a skill set.
"Get down. You're going to fall." Mentally, I was somewhere far away, and hearing these words snapped me back into the present. I looked across my mother's living room, to see my three year old niece crawling on a dining chair. The look on little Cora's face with a slightly raised eyebrow said it all. She was pretty … Continue reading The Audacity to Rise Again
I don't like to talk about "issues of the day" on my little space on the internet. I write about me, because once I start writing about "you" or "them" I travel back to self-righteous indignation town. I used to be the mayor of that place, and it wasn't pretty. This will be one of my rare … Continue reading Trauma-informed yoga isn’t what you think
After my gentle yoga workshop last week, I needed to dramatically change the way I taught my yoga classes at the private school. I began class with one question. "What do you think yoga is? This isn't a quiz. You don't have to tell me what you think I want to hear. I just want … Continue reading When You Don’t Know How to Swim
During the winter, there's a lot more people poking around my apartment complex. The landlord has a team of friendly snow removing gentlemen who shovel the stairs and plow the parking lots. Although, I really appreciate the dudes who make my world much easier to traverse, they make me nervous. I can hear them plodding up the … Continue reading The Safety You Seek
I remember sitting in my first TIMBo facilitator training pouring my heart out about my past and making the declaration, "I know that this experience doesn't define me." A trainer stopped me, "But, it DID define you. You can't have that experience and it NOT shape you...and that's a good thing." My brain recognized this … Continue reading It Defined You
