1/26/23 Week 2 Reflections (After watching the recording)

sorry to have missed out on class and the discussions !  in terms of the discussions -   of our roles as facilitators , how we navigate these spaces we are brinigng healing -centerred practice to .   i found it interesting from a cultural point of view how places such as jails, prisons, centers associated as being places of persons gathering who carry experiences of deep wonding and trauma (whether for youth, addition rehab, etc. ) are seen or experinced as places devoid of light, joy or lightness of being --- whereas my experince here in the philippines is that going to these places to either facilitate yoga sessions, do therapy/counseling sessions, do talks -- i have been taught that there room for joy, warmth, gratitude.  that community holds space for you and a safe container of healing.  my suday yoga teaching days at the Manila City Jail womens dorm (1102 residents) -- is a place of laughter, women gathering and sharing our stories.  we move together to music (like you Jen i find music helps ). and they like most especially when i use OPM - original pinoy music.  singing ther hearts out, moving with all their breathe.  and it is just so palpable in the air this connecting themselves and with each other.   

i feel Ram Dass's words -- "we are all just walking each other home'.

and like you Jen -- this is my happy place.  where it is y steadfast commitment to their well being and mine too.

in terms of the slide pack -- the aspect of INTEROCEPTION stood out for me.   the yoga practice isnt just about the technical and rpoprioception in order to align breath with movement (breathe leading the movement ) .  what is impoetant is the immersive somatic experience as discussed .    and from this inwards seeing we can move on to building eelationship with community as we have empathy and compassion (starting from for ourselves to reaching out to others).

in discussing ESTABLISHING PROGRAMS - the fact of YOGA being used as reward/punishment (witholdingletting them go to YOGA as punishment) that bothered me very much and that i did experience at one of jails i volunteer at.  the power play games of officers and whats worst i am helpless to intervene or "champion' the cause that it should be open to all those who wish to join .  (this then leads up to my being bothered about a great may other things and leads to my frustration and sit and have my internal dialogue with the divine and about justice).

another item in the slide deck in terms of practical applications of being facilitators hat i glommed onto - as about FACILITATOR PRESENCE and the not having a script you are forcing/insisting.  you have to see your class where they are at.  you have to " feel" what is the "need" of the moment , the day.  i have come to class prepared to do moon flow as was full moon - only to have a community saddened because in -person family visits were cancelled once again.  so instead we did a class where in we talked aout yoga and its relationship to nature , to animals. and so we mimicked animal sounds and movemnts and i taught the basics of cobra and down dog.  

the discusion on keeping things non-denominational is also important to me.  as is also respecting the fact that community i serve is largely catholic with christian and muslim represented.  so i keep away from mantras, from using namaste (i end my class with the words MAHAL KITA - i love you - having them direct to themselves as they hug themselves).  

as Krishnamacharya taught - we as teachers  start from where the student is - both in health and in their belief. so whether you teach Muslims,  Christian, etc. -  you let each show bhakti and devotion to their “Ishta devata” - personal God.

looking forward to being present in the coming class!

peace and light

baby (frances)

I missed half of class and my apologies. I was working from my phone and unfortunately it died.

When I went back and watched the part of the recording I missed, I had such a strong reaction to the immersive somatic therapy portion. I am one who always is holding stress and tension in my shoulders and neck. I at times even find myself, making myself sick from stress and never truly relaxing. I believe that being able to find this within myself and really notice when I am tense and not breathing, that really I need to bring awareness to those body parts and offer the somatic therapy practice to myself. I am very interested in learning more about this also, because when working with the prison's I come across so many men that are stressed or feeling tense due to the nature of their environment. I really believe that by bringing this practice to them, it would make a world of difference.

I also want to speak on the the facilitators presence. Having this experience throughout the week with the therapy groups we offer, I notice the comradery when our outside facilitators come in just to have conversation with the men. I see that they really look forward to each week and have so many thoughts and questions when we come back the following week. It made me stop and think about , maybe as a facilitator, we need to be in there more than just once a week. We need to make ourselves available for open, fluid, conversations that allow them to just be in the presence of their facilitator without a "schedule" per say or a heavy read.

Jen- I am not able to pull up the slide deck presentation. Do you mind sending it to my email? jennie@vhvftio.org. 

I would like to be able to open it up and comment on it!

Thank you for all you do <3

When watching the slides, on presenting / facilitating TIY there is such a sense of empowerment for me. Having spent so many years in various studios as student and teacher, before I even knew what trauma informed yoga was, I knew that being told what to feel & how to make a shape (properly) or in it's 'full expression' was not feeling right. 
The level of care, respect, insight and presence required for this teaching is vast - I loved the conversation in the main break-out room - thankyou SO much to the beautiful people sharing there & your wise words & experiences.
The discussion around finding / making your way back to your own innate power when it has been stripped away from you (day after day) was so rich - thankyou.
For me the self enquiry (Svadhyaya) and reflexive pieces of TIY are so potent. Constantly checking-in with self in order to best serve others is so critical. And finding our own resources / self care practices that enable us to do this work is equally critical. 
To be able to share the rich gift of yoga and truly explore the 8 limbs - with an emphasis so much less on the 'correct' physical shapes (as we have it presented in commercialised yoga and many studio settings) is just really empowering. 
  

I had to leave an hour earlier, but i had some time to discuss with my group. It was beautiful to watch the last hour and listen to you all, thanks. 

Its super nutritious to review how i have taught classes so far and to be able to look at ir from another perspective. 
The way of arrenging the class (with all the mats facing each other) and the way we teach pranayama and specially suggest the way of counting but not counting for the students were mind blowing suggestions. It feels so obvious but never thought about it before now. 

Thanks for sharing 🙂

This session had so many great discussions! A few things that resonated with me:

The breakout group that stayed in the main session spent some time answering the question "how do we support our participants in understanding that the power is already within us?" This is something that's been on my heart as well. This is also something that I can ask myself when I forget that very fact - that I, too, hold the power within. But we sometimes forget! So this really brought me inward to reflect, how do I encourage this when I have to work at it for myself to show up whole. Really appreciated the spotlight on this! Vanessa also shared parts of her own story about being a new mother & incarcerated and dealing with the layers of that in addition to the conditions of being inside. This was really special, Vanessa, and spoke volumes to me! I admire the work you've put in to re-integrating into society after having been through so much.

I also resonated with a lot that Marlon mentioned, specifically, being in my own head A LOT. I can often be critical of myself, and always want to show up the best I can. A lot of this, as he mentioned, stems from trauma. Fear of failure, being taught not to upset people. So I always want to make sure I'm using the correct terminology, especially facilitating with my youth. I've been caught off guard with questions that I wasn't 100% sure how to answer and it would weigh on me so heavily for a good few days, lol. And just learning that it's never that serious - because this is all a practice! I enjoy that aspect of the trauma-informed lens. Thanks for a great session, friends!

I think presence is very important. It sets the tone of the whole class. If I do not have a calming presence, personal boundaries, or am not authentic then other's will not feel comfortable around me. 

I like that yoga regulates the nervous system. The idea of developing muscle memory for self soothing, impulse control, and present moment engagement calms my soul to know it can help me. 

My favorite part of the session was talking about what is on slide 3:

• Prison Yoga Project favors a Post-Lineage, Participant-Centered, and Trauma-Informed approach

"In the context of a prison or jails, where social hierarchies are explicit, fraught with power dynamics, and often traumatizing, we feel this approach is essential. A post-lineage approach makes space for a trauma-informed methodology, shifting control away from the teacher and empowering the practitioner to discover the truth of yoga as it is revealed to them through their own experience."

I really appreciate the social justice aspect of trauma-informed prison yoga, and I am so glad that Jen continues to emphasize the importance of this approach in every class.

I also enjoyed the discussion of the trauma-informed sequencing vs. the traditional hatha yoga sequencing (slides 16 and 17). The mindfulness of the need to integrate the experience and to stay safe in the transition of leaving class is so important. All of the mindfulness of these types of elements is really resonating with me.